A Wizard of Earthsea

So Liam got a book when he came to visit me: A Wizard of Earthsea. Being not much of a book reader, I honestly doubted myself if I’d ever open the book. However, my trip back to LA gave me the opportunity to do just so, and before I knew it, I had completed 3/4 of the book by the end of the journey. I’ve finished the book since then, but wanted to share a few quotes that I really liked and you’ve probably heard of in different forms.

  • What one does not know, one fears. – Lady Serret (in response to Ged’s fear of the Terrenon stone)
  • You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything. So I thought, once. So did we all. And the truth is that as a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do… – Master Summoner

There was another great quote in regards to the fact that even though you may have power, if you lack the knowledge to control it, it’s not really any power you can use. So one can be born with great power, but it is knowledge that allows one to use it.

UPDATE:
Forgot to mention that I had already seen Tales From Earthsea, a recent animation done by Studio Ghibli. This is the 1st film directed by Miyazaki Goro, son of Miyazaki Hayao. Throughout the book, I would imagine Ged/Sparrowhawk to be this old man, but in fact I believe in this book, he’s really around 20 years old. I thought the animation was pretty good, but nowhere close to his father’s work.

2 Replies to “A Wizard of Earthsea”

  1. If you enjoyed Earthsea, you may be interested in Hayao Miyazaki’s son’s Gedo Senki animation (from Studio Ghibli.) It’s one of the worse Ghibli films produced, but it does have some merits. It’s based off of the Tales of Earthsea books. If you do choose fansub, I recommend Niizk’s release since it’s complete. BiG-GuY’s release is visually clearer and better filtered, but lacks styled subs (which I could send if you needed- just drop me a line.)

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