150. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

150. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

From Education Bookcast by Stanislaw Pstrokonski

October 26, 2023 · 59 min

About this episode

In this episode, Stanislaw discusses Ursula Le Guin's fantasy novel 'A Wizard of Earthsea' and its themes related to education and character growth.

Since I've now reached episode 150, I've decided to do something I've never done before - discuss a fiction book. (This episode contains spoilers.) A Wizard of Earthsea is a fantasy novel from 1968, a time when the genre was still not very well-developed. Ursula Le Guin deliberately wanted to contravene some trends she saw in the existing genre, including the main characters being fair-skinned, and war as a moral analogy. In this book, the key issues are internal to a character, a fact that becomes increasingly clear as we read further. The main character Ged (a.k.a. Sparrowhawk) goes through several educational regimes - a local witch who wants to take advantage of him; a regional wizard, Ogion, who hopes to provide him with the wisdom not to abuse his precocious powers; and a school, on the island of Roke, which teaches him all the knowledge he wants. Ged learns through bitter experience the value of Ogion's wisdom, though he spurns it as a child hungry for knowledge, power, and other people's approval. I've read this book at least four times, and in three languages - English, Polish, and Spanish. Although its relevance to education is tenuous, I wanted to take advantage of…

Topics covered

  • fiction
  • fantasy
  • education
  • character development

Keywords

  • Ursula Le Guin
  • A Wizard of Earthsea
  • Ged
  • Sparrowhawk
  • fantasy genre

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: A Wizard of Earthsea

Places: Roke

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