Ahira's Hangar

Nice thread!! Two excellent little gems!

Difficult to complain about spoilers in a thread with the word "spoilers" in the title. Heh.

The question I had asked in the AWoE thread regarding Ged's meeting with Yevaud arises again. Obviously, Ged was not the first to think of using Yevaud's name to control him. So the question changes. It is now: why did it work for Ged, and not for Blackbeard?

My guess is that if Blackbeard had not shown surprise and fear at learning what Yevaud truly was, he would have maybe been able to act upon saying Yevaud's name. But, he did not command other than telling Yevaud to assume his true shape, and Yevaud acted more quickly.

These two short stories are not a true part of Earthsea. She was trying out some ideas she had, and wrote a couple of short stories. Try viewing The Word of Unbinding as an idea that she turned into TFS, and The Rule of Names as a fun "what if" sort of idea. I wouldn't expect anyone could learn the True Name of a being without knowing what species it is. Indeed, I don't think you can learn its True Name without knowing its true nature.

Hmm...

*slowly nodding*

OK.

I read the The Rule of Names this morning.

Feed well, Mr. Underhill. Feed well.

...'tis a terrific story...

In the Earthsea book thread, way before you made this one, I wrote,

Well, I finished both The Word of Unbinding and The Rule of Names and enjoyed them both immensely! If The Word of Unbinding is a prototype story it's fantastic elements contributed to some wonderful key parts of The Farthest Shore. As Highdrake commented on in another thread yes the roots, waters, and the very earth brought a very happy environmentalist out in me again.

Like SRD, Le Guin has a serious means to "connect" the reader with the life and magic of the very earth itself. Also like SRD, once you are in this new world a complete sense of a new reality overwhelms the readers. (not many authors in this genre have that gift, in fact not many authors period..).

The Rule of Names is short yet amazingly complex--funny, unpredictable and merciless. If you haven't read this story you must! It conjures up emotional memories of our hero Ged making his lonely voyage from island to island in Wizard... GOOD STUFF!