I've been reading my favorite author's blog.
If you haven't read anything by Ursula K. Le Guin, you must at least read the Earthsea trilogy: A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, and The Farthest Shore.
Some have criticized the three later books, Tehanu, Tales of Earthsea, and The Other Wind, but I find that they added wonderfully to a deep, resonant, connected epic. Read all six books without pause or diversion and I think you will agree with me. (not all at once, you ninny)
anyway...
She posits in one of her blogs that Homer, of old Hellenic literature, not Mr. Simpson, was the first fantasist and it's hard not to disagree. Having read both the Iliad and the Odyssey, you can't help but smile when the gods take an active role in the narrative.
Ms. Le Guin in her blog breaks down the differences between these first two genre literary works as (my simplification here) The Record, and the Journey. Neither is better, nor worse. Both are just different forms.
And I had to pause.
I certainly didn't mean to, because I had no outward, conscience attempt to make my work so grand, but I realized I have approached my books similarly.
Simply put, without asking you to guess, The Wealdland Stories are analogous to The Iliad. It is a description of a war, a Record, with the paths of many, varied characters intersecting.
The Chronicles of the Elf Human Wars, featuring Berand, is my Odyssey, The Journey, the story of one individual above all others. Funny that Berand's story is titled 'Wars' when the whole narrative is mostly about his personal journey of self discovery, much like Odysseus'.
That's it. That's all I have to say.
Kurt
Ursula K. Le Guin's blog: click here
.
If you haven't read anything by Ursula K. Le Guin, you must at least read the Earthsea trilogy: A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, and The Farthest Shore.
Some have criticized the three later books, Tehanu, Tales of Earthsea, and The Other Wind, but I find that they added wonderfully to a deep, resonant, connected epic. Read all six books without pause or diversion and I think you will agree with me. (not all at once, you ninny)
anyway...
She posits in one of her blogs that Homer, of old Hellenic literature, not Mr. Simpson, was the first fantasist and it's hard not to disagree. Having read both the Iliad and the Odyssey, you can't help but smile when the gods take an active role in the narrative.
Ms. Le Guin in her blog breaks down the differences between these first two genre literary works as (my simplification here) The Record, and the Journey. Neither is better, nor worse. Both are just different forms.
And I had to pause.
I certainly didn't mean to, because I had no outward, conscience attempt to make my work so grand, but I realized I have approached my books similarly.
Simply put, without asking you to guess, The Wealdland Stories are analogous to The Iliad. It is a description of a war, a Record, with the paths of many, varied characters intersecting.
The Chronicles of the Elf Human Wars, featuring Berand, is my Odyssey, The Journey, the story of one individual above all others. Funny that Berand's story is titled 'Wars' when the whole narrative is mostly about his personal journey of self discovery, much like Odysseus'.
That's it. That's all I have to say.
Kurt
Ursula K. Le Guin's blog: click here
.
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