FF Tuesday November 1

In class today, we talked about the second part in "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin. For the past two weeks, we talked about Ged's journey and his hunt for the dark shadow that seeks to kill him. One of the in class writing was what role the old couples had in the book and how they helped him out in his journey. We discussed that the old couples knows of his maturity and his sorrows that he went through. They give him a ring and also gave him more passion as a maternal and paternal figure, rather than his real parents that were not there for support. They also gave him the idea of friendship, for example Vetch and the old couples, and also helps him to renew his relations with others. Yarrow, Vetch's sister, helps Ged out and approaches Ged as a friend rather than a stranger.

The second writing was about the power of the stone that Ged encounters in the Court of Terrenon. Ged wakes up after his last encounter with the Shadow at the Court of Terrenon, where he also wakes up to a beautiful young lady who ends up being the same witch from Gont. She leads Ged to a stone that speaks and could tell Ged anything he wishes because the true master of the stone was him. In the discussion as a class, we talked about the roles of Yarrow and Serret and what they did to help out Ged in the story. Yarrow comes in later on page 156 and she helps to recover joy and happiness that was lost. Yarrow is the motherly and sisterly figure towards the end of the book. Serret, who comes in towards the middle of the book in chapter 7 page 109, helps him to recover the sorrow and heals those sorrows.

As the discussion begins for the book "A Wizard of Earthsea", we begin with a biography of Ursula K. Le Guin. She was born in Berkley, California, the "A Wizard of Earthsea" was first of the series in the fantasy world, Earthsea, and the book won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. We discussed the article "Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea: Rescuing the Damaged Child" from the website, New York Review of Science Fiction. The author of this article is Sandra J. Lindow, written in 1997, and she discusses how wizardly celibacy is a "genre tradition". In the discussion for the book, we talk about the reasoning behind the title "Earthsea", the importance of naming in the book, significance of each character, the dragon that Ged encounters and his maturity, dry land and oversea, and Ged's encounter with the shadow.

Poonamdeep Bajwa: Notes for November 1, 2011
Today’s class began with a discussion of the use of dark materials to create more worlds. It was said that eating the apple brought sin and death into the world at the same time, it also brought knowledge of good and evil into being. Satan was represented as a rebellious hero against the tyranny of God. Adam and Eve were represented as signifiers of a positive humanity against religious autocracy. There are references to Azrael and Azriel. Azrael was the angel of death and was known for separating the soul and the body. In The Golden Compass, daemons are characterized as something that identifies a person. They show the aspects of a person’s personality. Also they are considered very friendly and loyal. The Dust is considered very mysterious. We first see it when there is a tour of the college. Also through Dust, the author makes references to things such as charged particles which tend to attach to adults rather than children. This shows a shift from childhood into adulthood. Dust is represent as a positive, but seen as negative by the Magesterium. The Magesterium is skeptical about Dust and is resistant to her, but also tries to take control of her. Dust represents light, but clearly is manifested differently. It is negative in that it separates the daemons from the children. On page 163, it shows how people are suspicious about Dust and that there is a desire to know more about and control Dust. Another key character in The Golden Compass is Lyra. She is portrayed as a strong, tom-boyish female protagonist. She is independent. She does not like to do what she is told, and is very curious. She is very impatient, and adventurous and she always wants to explore. She is sometimes very over-confident and bold, but she acts through compassion instead of reasoning. She is interested in learning about Dust and also wants to save her friend Roger. The Magesterium’s is represented in negative terms, but its intentions are to do well. On pages 78-80 you can kind of see that the Magesterium is afraid of Dust, but is also trying to be in control. The oblation board is trying to separate children from their daemons so that they do not have a complete adult experience. Another character in the book is Mrs. Coulter who is first described as a kind motherly figure, but as the story moves on she changes. You can see this with her behavior with Lyra. She is considered a villain. On pages 76, 77, and 81, Mrs. Coulter tries to get Lyra to leave her bag behind which shows her greed. She also sends a mechanical beetle with Lyra which shows that she has a connection with machines. Also in The Golden Compass Lord Azriel is portrayed as someone who is very respected and looked up to and is also a very powerful figure. Gyptians are unknown at the beginning. They know secrets about Lyra that she does not even know. They serve as a foster family for Lyra. Also the Gyptians and Lyra have a common role. The bears are represented as someone who does not have daemons but they have armor in place of daemons to show their status. Iric the bear is represented as very lonely and drinks beer and eat by himself.