Ahira's Hangar

I just saw a rare copy of Neverness at my local used book store-I will send it to you if you wish... *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>

OH you don't have to do that, I'm going to check the library when I go again. If it's not there, I think I can get it used from Amazon or B&N. "And the glory of the world becomes less than it was."<i></i>

Check amazon.uk or Harper Collins it's much easier to get through England. *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>

This is such good stuff...

Quote:"Do you see, Arren, how an act is not, as young men think, like a rouck that one picks up and throws, and it hits or misses, and that's the end of it. When that rock is lifted, the earth is lighter; the hand that bears it heavier. When it is thrown, the circuits of the stars respond, and where it strikes or falls, the universe is changed. On every act the balance of the whole depends. The winds and seas, the powers of water and earth and light, all that these do, and all that the beasts and green things do, is well done, and rightly done. All these act within the Equilibrium. From the hurricane and the great whale's sounding to the fall of a dry leaf and the gnat's flight, all they do is done within the balance of the whole. But we, insofar as we have power over the world and over one another, we must learn to do what the leaf and the whale and the wind do of their own nature. We must learn to keep the balance. Having intelligence, we must not act in ignorance. Having choice, we must not act without responsibility. Who am I--though I have power to do it--to punish and reward, playing with men's destinies?"

"But then," the boy said, frowning at the stars, "is the balance to be kept by doing nothing? Surely a man must act, even not knowing all the consequences of his act, if anything is to be done at all?"

"Never fear. It is much easier for men to act than to refrain from acting. We will continue to do good and do evil...But if there were a king over us all again and he sought counsel of a mage, as in the days of old, and I were that mage, I would say to him: My Lord, do nothing because it is righteous or praiseworthy or noble to do so; do nothing because it seems good to do so; do only that which you must do and which you cannot do in any other way."

I love this. "Having choice, we must not act without responsibility." We, as people, are truly the only ones on this earth that have choice. Free will. Everything else acts on instinct. Like Ged said, the leaf falls because that is the balance of things. The storms come, because they too, balance nature, the "Equalibrium". We, on the other hand, blunder thru life making choices, and those choices lead to more choices. Act begets act...even not acting is an act.

"Do only that which you must do and which you cannot do in any other way." How profound. "And the glory of the world becomes less than it was."<i>Edited by: FurlsFire at: 11/1/03 9:35 am
</i>

My heart is filled with joy!! So glad you're enjoying the books, Fire! "Profound" indeed!! And it's straight out of the Tao Te Ching.


Are you done with The Farthest Shore yet? ____________
Highdrake's mastery of spells and sorcery was not much greater than his pupil's, but he had clear in his mind the idea of something very much greater, the wholeness of knowledge. And that made him a mage.<i></i>

I'm halfway thru it. I'm hoping to just sit and read later on tonight. And finish it!!

I'm really loving Fist! Thanks!! *********

"And the glory of the world becomes less than it was."<i></i>

No, thank YOU! It's so great to have someone joining the ranks of the fans of Earthsea.

(Are you done yet??? ) ____________
Highdrake's mastery of spells and sorcery was not much greater than his pupil's, but he had clear in his mind the idea of something very much greater, the wholeness of knowledge. And that made him a mage.<i></i>

Just finished it last night. Wow! It was fantastic! The Dragons!! Orm Embar!

Quote:As the eastern rim of the sea grew white, there came from the north flying a great bird: so high up that its wings caught the sunlight that had not shone upon the world yet and beat in strokes of gold up the air. Arren cried out, pointing. The mage looked up, startled. Then his face became fierce and exulting, and he shouted out aloud, "Nam hietha arw Ged arkvaissal"--which in the Speech of the Making is, If thou seekest Ged here find him. And like a golden plummet dropped with wings held high outstretched, vast and thundering on the air, with talons which might seize an ox as if it were a mouse, with a curl of steamy flame streaming from long nostrils, the dragon stooped like a falcon on the rocking raft.

Quote:None there but Ged to whom it spoke could understand it, for dragons speak only in the Old Speech, which is their tongue. The voice was soft and hissing, almost like a cat's when he cries out softly in rage, but huge, and there was a terrible music in it. Whoever heard that voice stopped still and listened.

The mage answered briefly, and again the dragon spoke, poising above him on the slight-shifting wings: even, thought Arren, like a dragonfly poised on the air.

The the mage answered one word, "Memeas", I will come; and he lifted up his staff of yew-wood. The dragon's jaws opened, and a coil of smoke escaped them in a long arabesque. The gold wings clapped like thunder, making a great wind that smelled of burning: and he wheeled and flew hugely to the north.

"And there was a terrible music in it"...I just LOVE that!!!

Quote:Both he and Ged woke late, when the sun, already a hands' breadth above the hills, broke free at last from fog and brightened the cold land. As they ate their small morning meal the dragon came, wheeling above them in the air. Fire shot from his jaws, and smoke and sparks from his red nostrils; his teeth gleamed like blades of ivory in that lurid glare. But he said nothing, though Ged hailed him, crying in his language, "Hast found him, Orm Embar?"

The dragon threw back his head and arched his body strangely, raking the wind with his razor talons. Then he set off flying fast to the west, looking back at them as he went.

Ged gripped his staff and struck it on the ground. "He cannot speak," he said. "He cannot speak! The words of the Making are taken from him, and he is left like an adder, like a tongueless worm, his wisdom dumb. Yet he can lead, and we can follow!"

Quote:But over Ged and Arren, over their heads, vast and fiery, the great body of the dragon came in one writhing leap and plunged down full-force upon the other, so that the charmed steel blade entered into the dragon's mailed breast to its full length: but the man was borne down under his weight and crushed and burnt.

Rising up again from the sand, arching his back and beating his vaned wings, Orm Embar vomited out gouts of fire and screamed. He tried to fly, but he could not fly. Malign and cold, the metal lay in his heart. He crouched, and the blood ran black and poisonous, steaming from his mouth, and the fire died in his nostrils till they became like pits of ash. He laid down his great head on the sand.

So died Orm Embar where his forefather Orm died, on the bones of Orm buried in the sand.



*********

"And the glory of the world becomes less than it was."<i></i>

Furls quoted this:
"As the eastern rim of the sea grew white, there came from the north flying a great bird: so high up that its wings caught the sunlight that had not shone upon the world yet and beat in strokes of gold up the air."

This imagery set my soul on fire!!!-THIS is the reason we read these books!!!! *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>

Oh yes, there is such a serene quality to these books. It's like reading a dream. The imagery, the soft pace, even in times of action, it's still very subdued. Ged is such a peaceful person, yet powerful. It saddens me that he has spent his power. I haven't read Tehanu yet, going to start that soon. I think my brother would have loved these books too.

Thanks again Fist, or Highdrake here

Quote:He looked again at the Master and the young wizards and the boys and the towns folk gathered on the slopes and at the foot of the Knoll. His face was quiet, and in his eyes there was something like that laughter in the eyes of Kalessin. Turning from them all, he mounted up again by the dragon's foot and shoulder, and took his seat reinless between the great peaks of the wings, on the neck of the dragon. The red wings lifted with a drumming rattle, and Kalessin the Eldest sprang into the air. Fire came from the dreagon's jaws, and smoke, and the sound of thunder and the stormwind was in the beating of its wings. It circled the hill once and flew off, north and eastward, toward that quarter of Earthsea where stands the mountain isle of Gont.

The Doorkeeper, smiling, said, "He has done with doing. He goes home."

And they watched the dragon fly between the sunlight and the sea till it was out of sight.

Go well Ged, Dragonlord and Archmage... *********

"And the glory of the world becomes less than it was."<i></i>

I just pm'd this to Fire, and figured I'd point it out to everyone else.

Le Guin turned the principles of Taoism into an incredible fantasy story. Think of her genius. She took a philosophy based on tempering desire and wu-wei (the principle of non-action/non-ado/unmotivated action) - wrote a story about it that is filled with great power and adventure, which are normally very desireful and motivated - and somehow gave us the lessons of tempering desire and wu-wei! Neat trick!! ____________
Highdrake's mastery of spells and sorcery was not much greater than his pupil's, but he had clear in his mind the idea of something very much greater, the wholeness of knowledge. And that made him a mage.<i></i>

I'm only maybe 35 pages into Tehanu and I'm already moved by it. I can't believe I never read these books before. I'm definately going to get all the others too.

Quote:"His name." Tenar looked at them, and do what she would, the incredulity on the older man's face, the contempt on the other's, brought out an answering disrespect in her. "I said that name," she said. "Must I repeat it to you?"

To her consternation she saw from their expressions that in fact they had not heard the name, Ogion's true name; they had not paid attention to her.

"Oh!" she said. "This is a bad time--a time when even such a name can go unheard, can fall like a stone! Is listening not power? Listen, then: his name was Aihal. His name in death is Aihal. In the songs he will be known as Aihal of Gont. If there are songs to be made any more. He was a silent man. Now he's very silent. Maybe there will be no songs, only silence. I don't know. I'm very tired. I've lost my father and dear friend." Her voice failed; her throat closed on a sob. She turned to go. She saw on the forest path the little charm bundle Aunty Moss had made. She picked it up, knelt down by the corpse, kissed the open palm of the left hand, and laid the bundle on it. There on her knees she looked up once more at the two men. She spoke quietly.

"Will you see to it," she said, "that his grave is dug here, where he desired it?"

First the older man, then the younger man, nodded.

She got up, smoothing down her skirt, and started back across the meadow in the morning light.

oh sigh...

*********

"And the glory of the world becomes less than it was."<i></i>

And how very appropriate your sig is in the face of Ogion's passing!! ____________
Highdrake's mastery of spells and sorcery was not much greater than his pupil's, but he had clear in his mind the idea of something very much greater, the wholeness of knowledge. And that made him a mage.<i></i>

Hey, that's true That's actually from the Legend of Berek Halfhand. Amazing how all our favorite stories seem to be intwined.

I'm at the part in Tehanu now where Ged has come back to the Overfell.

Quote:"There is a king in Havnor," he said, "at the center of the world. What was foretold has been fulfilled. The Rune is healed, and the world is whole. The days of peace have come. He--"

He stopped and looked down, clenching his hands.

"He carried me from death to life. Arren of Enlad. Lebannen of the songs to be sung. He has taken his true name, Lebannen, King of Earthsea."

"Is that it, then," she asked, kneeling, watching him--"the joy, the coming into light?"

He did not answer.

A king in Havnor, she thought, and said aloud, "A king in Havnor!"

There are too many of these great moments...I wish I could quote them all! And I'm not even thru half of this book yet. *********

"And the glory of the world becomes less than it was."<i>Edited by: FurlsFire at: 11/7/03 8:42 pm
</i>

Okay, maybe my sig isn't from The Legend of Berek Halfhand. I just re-read it again and the quote itself isn't in there. Because Covenant quotes it in The One Tree after telling the story of Berek, I got it in my head that it was from The Legend itself.

It was Prothall that actually said it when they were asking permission to enter Morinmoss.



Back to Ged...

Quote:"I have no power, nothing. I gave it--spent it--all I had. To close--So that--So it's done, done with."

She tried to deny what he said, but could not.

"Like pouring out a little water", he said, "a cup of water onto the sad. In the dry land. I had to do that. But now I have nothing to drink. And what difference, what difference did it make, does it make, one cup of water in all the desert? Is the desert gone?--Ah! Listen!--It used to whisper that to me from behind the door there: Listen, listen! And I went into the dry land when I was young. And I met it there, I became it, I married my death. It gave me life. Water, the water of life. I was a fountain, a spring, flowing, giving. But the spirngs don't run, there. All I had in the end was one cup of water, and I had to pour it out on the sand, in the bed of the dry river, on the rocks in the dark. So it's gone. It's over. Done."

That took my breath away. And so did this...

Quote:"I don't know," he said in the same soft, dry voice, "why you took her, knowing that she cannot be healed. Knowing what her life must be. I suppose it's a part of this time we have lived--a dark time, an age of ruin, an ending time. You took her, I suppose, as I went to meet my enemy, because it was all you could do. And so we must live on into the new age with the spoils of our victory over evil. You with your burned child, and I with nothing at all."

Despair speaks evenly, in a quiet voice.

Profound, so very profound. I'm getting lost in these books... *********

"And the glory of the world becomes less than it was."<i>Edited by: FurlsFire at: 11/7/03 10:02 pm
</i>