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1/ Ursula K. Le Guin started publishing in the 1960s when the hype for #Tolkien’s #TheLordOfTheRings was at its peak. She is also the source of one of the most famous pseudo Tolkien quotes. Let’s have a look at Le Guin’s view on Tolkien. #TolkienFriday
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ursula_Le_Guin.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ursula_Le_Guin.jpg
2/ “They were displayed on the new acquisitions rack of the university library: three handsome books, … each centered with a staring black and red Eye. … I was aware of them every time I was in the library, which was often. I was uneasily aware of them. They stared at me.” [1]
3/ Le Guin’s first impression of #LotR was one of intimidation, as she recalls in her essay “The Staring Eye” (1974). First, she walked past the books for several weeks, afraid to read them, but when she did, she finished them within three days. The spell had been cast.
4/ Tolkien became an essential part of her life, later she couldn’t remember how many times she had read the books and envied “those who, born later than I, read Tolkien as children” [2], seeing how her own children experienced Tolkien.
5/ But she also feared that an early reading of Tolkien’s work may have prevent her own turn to writing: “If I had known that one was there before me, one very much greater than myself, I wonder if I would have had the witless courage to go on.” [3]
6/ Despite her own fascination with #LotR Le Guin also expressed understanding for people who didn’t enjoy Tolkien’s works. After all there was the hype in the US, too few or too much allegory, not enough realism, no sex and this “peculiar rhythm of the book” [3].
7/ About that she wrote the essay “Rhythmic Pattern in The Lord Of The Rings” in “Meditations on Middle-earth” (2001), a book which collects essay on Tolkien by renowned Fantasy and Sci-Fi authors (read it!).
8/ “The tremendous landscape of Middle-earth … is built up by repetition, semirepetition, suggestion, foreshadowing, recollection, echo, and reversal. Through it the story goes forward at its steady, human gait. There, and back again.” [4]
9/ In the open letter “Plausibility in Fantasy” Le Guin reflects on Tolkien’s and her own story building: While Tolkien already had history and landscape planned out before the story came in “I have often mentioned events or places which I didn't yet know anything about...
10/ These were, when I wrote them, merely words — "empty" nouns. I knew that if my story took me to them, I would find out who and what they were.”
I think this is in fact not too different to when Tolkien writes “To me a name comes first and the story follows.” [5]
I think this is in fact not too different to when Tolkien writes “To me a name comes first and the story follows.” [5]
11/ Likewise, Le Guin wrote “I must find the right name or I cannot get on with the story,” she said. “I cannot write the story if the name is wrong.” [6]
12/ Something else was shared by Le Guin and Tolkien: their defense of escapism. In his essay “On Fairy-stories” Tolkien had argued that escapism was normal behaviour for humans: “Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home?”
13/ Le Guin took this up in her essay “Telling The Truth”: “Yes, [Tolkien] said, fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory.” [7] Unfortunately, readers have uncontexualized this paraphrasing by Le Guin and have turned it into a literal quote.
14/ @The_Tolkienist has written a long article about this: https://thetolkienist.com/2014/01/03/not-a-tolkien-quote-fantasy-is-escapist-and-that-is-its-glory/
15/ Others have pointed out several concrete influences by Tolkien on Le Guin’s work, very famous is the “kingsfoil” which appears in “A Wizard of Earthsea”. You can find more in https://gwydionmadawc.com/57-about-tolkien/tolkien-and-le-guin/
16/ Ursula K. Le Guin considered Tolkien as a master of his art and a life-long inspiration for her work. To say it in her own words:
“I open the book, the great wind blows, the Quest begins, I follow ...” [3]
“I open the book, the great wind blows, the Quest begins, I follow ...” [3]
17/ References:
[1] “The Language of the Night”, p. 173
[2] “The Language of the Night”, p. 174
[3] “The Language of the Night”, p. 175
[4] “Rhythmic Pattern in The Lord Of The Rings”
[5] Letter #165
[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/obituaries/ursula-k-le-guin-acclaimed-for-her-fantasy-fiction-is-dead-at-88.html
[7] “The Language of the Night”, p. 205
[1] “The Language of the Night”, p. 173
[2] “The Language of the Night”, p. 174
[3] “The Language of the Night”, p. 175
[4] “Rhythmic Pattern in The Lord Of The Rings”
[5] Letter #165
[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/obituaries/ursula-k-le-guin-acclaimed-for-her-fantasy-fiction-is-dead-at-88.html
[7] “The Language of the Night”, p. 205
Literature:
Le Guin, Ursula K. 1989. “The Language of the Night”. HarperCollins. (first published 1979)
Haber, Karen (ed.). 2001. “Meditations on Middle-earth”. St. Martin's Press.
Plausibility in Fantasy: http://www.ursulakleguinarchive.com/PlausibilityinFantasy.html
Le Guin, Ursula K. 1989. “The Language of the Night”. HarperCollins. (first published 1979)
Haber, Karen (ed.). 2001. “Meditations on Middle-earth”. St. Martin's Press.
Plausibility in Fantasy: http://www.ursulakleguinarchive.com/PlausibilityinFantasy.html
More about “The Staring Eye”
https://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2018/01/from-books-ursula-k-le-guin-on-tolkien.html
More about “Rhythmic Pattern in The Lord Of The Rings” https://kate-nepveu.livejournal.com/180011.html
https://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com/2018/01/from-books-ursula-k-le-guin-on-tolkien.html
More about “Rhythmic Pattern in The Lord Of The Rings” https://kate-nepveu.livejournal.com/180011.html
