Le Guin Strikes Back

[truepenny]

Ursula K. Le Guin has things to say about the SciFi Channel's Legend of Earthsea miniseries, and in particular about race.

[ETA: ide_cyan has pointed me to the first, longer version of the article, Earthsea in Clorox. I recommend it even more highly than the Slate version.]

Which I find particularly, I don't know, comforting? gratifying? Because, as Mirrorthaw and heres_luck can attest, I didn't really flip out about what SciFi was doing until I saw who they had cast as Ged.

(Le Guin also has some scathing things to say here, about the way the producers tried to appropriate her approval without having given her any kind of voice in their decision-making.)

Many things about this debacle pain me. But I'm glad Le Guin is speaking her mind. And in so doing, is speaking for those of us who love the books.

Comments

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

It looks like a slightly rewritten version of the Earthsea in Chlorox (http://trashotron.com/agony/columns/2004/12-15-04.htm) column that appeared yesterday.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this post, I'd seen what she had to say on her own website but had not yet seen the Slate commentary. I was appalled by what they did to her wonderful universe, as was my daughter who has also read and loved the books. Everyone involved in the production should be ashamed of themselves.

[libskrat]

On reading this article, my husband's reaction was "Can anyone persuade UKL to publish that list of name pronunciations?"

Linguists.

Anyway, yes. As I said somewhere else, I'd have thought the lesson from the LotR and Spider-man movies was that there is no substitute for respect for the originals. (Not canonization thereof, of course, but respect.)

But apparently not.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

He should write to her. She clearly admires the LotR movies (since she was pleased by the idea of Philippa Boyens writing the script).

[libskrat]

You know what? I'll go one better than that. I'll suggest he send her a copy of The Book. I think she'd like it.

Thanks for jogging my brain.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

That's a splendid notion!

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

Mmf. There are so many scathing comments one
could make about this production without
mentioning skin color. If the script had been
good, Ashmore would have been a perfectly
reasonable choice.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Yeah, racism is something we just tend to take for granted. It's worth pointing it out, though, just because we do tend to take it for granted.

There's no reason why the Earthsea film couldn't have been cast with some respect for the book.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Ah, I just saw this post, after I already posted the Clorox link to genreneep.

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

I too am so very, very happy that Le Guin is speaking out about this. I'm even happier that I haven't come across a single person who has anything good to say about the miniseries...