I have yet to find the air-dates for it, but one of my favorite series of fantasy books has been made into what looks like a shitty tv mini-series. Based on comments on the Imdb page, it looks like they tried to condense only the first two books into 4 hours of tv. But yeah, I really highly recommend the first book in that series especially, A Wizard of Earthsea. Just a great damn fantasy book, and a totally short satisfying read.

I also found a statement by the author, Ursula LeGuin on her website, about how she wasn’t involved or consulted in anyway about the movies [scroll down to where it says “Earthsea”]. Which probably means that they are gonna blow goats in a big way. She also has an excerpted comment from the director, which totally highlights how much he missed the point of the books altogether. Should be fun stuff. I don’t have cable anyway though, so I won’t be able to catch it. I think it’s on Sci-Fi. I’ll just have to rely on other people’s testimony about how sucky it turns out to be.

Here’s an excerpt from her website to give you a taste of what she’s all about, if you’re unfamiliar with her work:

Socrates said, “The misuse of language induces evil in the soul.” He wasn’t talking about grammar. To misuse language is to use it the way politicians and advertisers do, for profit, without taking responsibility for what the words mean. Language used as a means to get power or make money goes wrong: it lies. Language used as an end in itself, to sing a poem or tell a story, goes right, goes towards the truth.

A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.