I didn’t know a movie could be more perfect than “Hot Fuzz”, but apparently if you add The Rock + Vin Diesel you can actually equal the awesome of Timothy Dalton.

me:  “Andy, does math really work that way?  Maybe i shouldn’t have flunked all those math classes in high school.  I guess they don’t get to this until you get to the really advanced stuff.”

Andy:  “If only Timothy Dalton could be the villain in a future ‘Fast & Furious’ movie.”

me:  [dies]

In conclusion, if Sparkymonster tells you to watch a movie, you watch that movie.

I don’t want to write too much about Tehanu before i actually get to that book in my re-reading, but i do want to mention up front that i feel very lucky to have first encountered the Earthsea trilogy in about 1989/1990 because it meant that Tehanu was published very shortly thereafter and so there was only about a year or so in between when i read the trilogy and when i read the 4th book.  I say that this makes me feel lucky because i feel that the short distance between the Trilogy and Tehanu for me made the 4th book feel as tho’ it was a natural, organic progression of the stories of Earthsea.  I am not one of those who hates Tehanu and everything else after it that Le Guin has written in the world of Earthsea.  Quite the contrary: i can’t imagine Earthsea without Tehanu.  I, in fact, absolutely loved Tehanu.

I mention this now because it’s hard for me to not keep Tehanu (and all the stories that have come after that novel) in mind as i re-read the Earthsea trilogy this time thru’.  And especially, returning to the original 3 Earthsea stories as a 40-year-old who has had decades to think about their place in the world as a woman — to re-think their gender entirely –, it’s impossible for me to not think about the genders of Earthsea, to not think about the expectations of and limitations on the women of this world.

And … Earthsea is a completely male world.  Women are typically mentioned only because of a connection they have to a man.  Any magical power a woman has is immediately put into context as being lesser/stupider than the true magic that men wield.  It really bothers me a lot.  I do keep finding myself hoping that beyond the farthest Reaches, beyond the open sea is a land on the other side of the world where women have power that’s valued, that gives them status and worth that isn’t tied to the men in their lives.  I start The Tombs of Atuan tomorrow and i can’t wait to meet Arha/Tenar again.  I’m curious how her world will strike me on this re-read.

Other thoughts on A Wizard of Earthsea:

*)  It’s interesting to me that the main character is referred to in the narrative by his true name, whereas everyone else is referred to by their use-name.  Whenever anyone calls Ged “Sparrowhawk” — or, more jarring still, “Lord Sparrowhawk” — i am momentarily thrown out of the story as i try to reconcile the use-name with the main character.

*)  I am caught between 2 sides of Ged that i can’t quite reconcile in my mind.  On the one hand, he so easily moves into the role of wizard where he simply accepts/expects that people will give him things solely because he’s a wizard and carries a staff — something i noted most keenly when he met the castaway prince and princess on the uncharted island and he simply commanded the old man to build up the fire, and then helped himself to clothes and several nights’s rest, as tho’ all this were his due.  Yet, on the other hand, the narrative makes it clear when he’s in the village in the Hands that he feels most at home amongst poor folk.  This is simply my own set of U.S. class issues pressing against the story, i know, but nevertheless they are 2 attitudes that don’t quite sync up for me.

*)  Reading this now that i’ve lived in Seattle for over a decade one thing is very clear to me:  This is a deeply Pacific Northwest story/world.  The inland sea, the wild coasts, the islands.  And, over all, my god — THE WEATHER.  Is this world ever not grey?  Is there no sun??  DOES THE RAIN NEVER END?!?!

Thanks, Magus! Pretty much the best used bookstore outside of Powell’s.  Now i just need the 1st 3.

Somehow Andy and i have misplaced our copies of the “Hitchhiker’s Guide” series.  Of all the redundant books we had after we got together, i cannot believe THIS is what we’ve misplaced¹.  Andy reports that he knows we have the hardcover of Mostly Harmless, which i think you will agree is not the least bit satisfying.

Update!  Since beginning this post we have come across my paperback copy of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.  At least this means we haven’t lost them all, but, again, this is not especially satisfying.

Anyway.  Clearly we need to re-obtain these.  I told Andy about the 1st copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy that i ever read, and he agreed that the set sounded extremely cool and we should try to track down copies of our own.  Try.  I figure this will be extremely easy, because INTERNET.  Or, it will be a very long, slow, years-long process because….

The 1st time i read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was in the autumn of 1989².  My friend Jeff had just returned from a high school trip to England where he’d bought a fantastic set of the 1st 4 books.  As he was showing off his set to our favorite English teacher, i mentioned i’d never read them.  Our English teacher immediately demanded that Jeff loan me his copy of “Hitchhiker’s Guide…” right then and there.  He freaked out a little bit because it was brand new — he possibly hadn’t even read that copy yet himself — and he didn’t want me to bend the spine or smudge the edges of the pages and whatnot.  Oh, honestly, talk about not understanding the Wrdnrd very well.  I take obsessively good care of books.  Nevertheless, i read the Guide, returned it straightaway (completely unmarred), and promptly went out and bought copies for myself so i didn’t have to listen to another lecture on how not to damage his books.

BUT.  I have long coveted his set of the 1st 4 books.  The cover for each was quartered and had a different design in each corner.  If you set the books down in a rectangle together, the center corners would form a larger design.  If you shifted them around, each corner in the pattern would form its own separate picture.

Oh, internet fandom, we wants them our precious.

The relevant details again:

• only the 1st 4 books in the “Hitchhiker’s Guide” series.  (As mentioned above, we’re set on Mostly Harmless.)
• U.K. editions
• paperback
• published before autumn 1989
• covers form 4 designs depending upon arrangement

A quick scan of eBay (both .com and .co.uk) and of abebooks has turned up nothing (aside from concluding that, really, it’d be everso helpful if sellers on abebooks could able to include photos).  I expect this will be one of those things where i am going to wait half a lifetime again, then stumble across them in some 2nd-hand shop on the last day of some future trip to London.

Update, post copious Google Image searching:  OMG, i think these must be the covers!

Update, post finding images of the covers:  And now Andy says he isn’t particularly taken with those covers.  Well, fuck that guy.  Now I want them.

1. I’d only be more shocked and upset if it were “The Lord of the Rings”.  And i’d be REALLY SHOCKED, since i think when we got together we had about 6 versions combined. [↩]
2. This date is known pretty exactly because i always wrote my name and the date of purchase inside all books i bought, and my copy of “Restaurant…” is dated 10/28/1989. [↩]

Chris:  Wow.  So.  I hated that.

Andy:  Yeah, i wasn’t sure you’d like it.

C:  I don’t understand why half the movie was “get everyone on the flying aircraft carrier so they can all shout at each other”.

A:  The whole thing was a bit over-long.

C:  And why did Loki allegedly want the Hulk??  That was never explained!  It’s like they just completely forgot the entire premise of the 1st half of the movie.

A:  It’s definitely a movie you don’t want to look at too closely because you’ll see the glaring plot holes.

C:  Plus i didn’t really care about most people.  I don’t like the superheroes who are super because of some kind of enhancement.  I like the superheroes who are just badass otherwise-normal humans.  I liked Coulson.

A:  Oh, yeah, everyone likes Coulson.  Coulson’s awesome.

C:  I liked Hawkeye.

A:  Ugh!  I don’t like him, but i have lots of baggage from the comics.

C:  Fair enough.  I guess, to be more accurate, i could watch Hawkeye shooting arrows all day long.  And Natasha was great, of course.

A:  Of course.

C:  But i also really liked Agent Hill.  What i would like is all the fic about Agent Hill driving all the cars.

A:  [laughs]  Okay.  Now i’m just thinking about all the people from the  comics i’d rather see in a film.

C:  Explain!

A:  I’d rather see Hercules.

C:  Ooh, okay, but only if he’s played by Hercules.

A:  Played by Herc…  Oh!  You mean Kevin Sorbo??  Okay, yeah, he could probably pull off a Marvel Hercules.

C:  I’d watch another “Avengers” if there were a She-Hulk in it.

A:  Definitely needs more She-Hulk.

C:  Everything needs more She-Hulk.  Yeah.  I just really didn’t like this movie.  I’m glad we didn’t have to pay to watch it, but i’m sorry we wasted one of our free-rental punches at Scarecrow.

A:  But now you have participated in a cultural event.

C:  I just hope i still have some friends left after i post about it.

I have read most of Michael Chabon’s fiction over the years.  (With the notable exception of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay — y’know, the one that one the frickin’ Pulitzer.  Neither Andy nor i can seem to get into it past a handful of pages.)  I’ve really enjoyed his fiction, tho’ i’m loath to draw any comparisons between Telegraph Avenue and any of his other works because, frankly, my memory about the particulars just ain’t that good.

But, inability to get into Kavalier & Clay aside, i don’t recall actively disliking any of Chabon’s previous works of fiction.  I started reading this on a road trip this weekend and really only finished it because (a) i needed something to read these past few days while trapped in bed with a head cold, and (b) i was curious to see how things turned out with Gwen.

I shall now commence my litany of complaints.  Be warned, there are spoilers here.

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