Phooey

[pegkerr]

All right, now I'm all ticked off at Ursula K. LeGuin, for having already put all the speeches in The Farthest Shore I wanted to put in the ice palace book about the folly of trying to escape from death. Which is really stupid, because it's not like she has called dibs on the topic and has said everything that can be said on the subject.

Anyway, it's entirely my own fault for not having read the book until now.

Comments

[demarazare.livejournal.com]

I would say instead that it's your fault for reading the book now, when you wanted to write something similar for your own work. ;)

"Nothing new under the sun," as they say. You are more self-conscious of the similarities than anyone else will be, even if you point it out to them.

Unless you quote Ursula K. LeGuin directly...

[ambtiondata.livejournal.com]

I sympathize: I've experienced a similar letdown, though a comparatively mild version I'm sure as I've really never been as far along in writing a book as you are. Notice that you didn't say what I did, which was, "Wah, they've exhausted my themes so beautifully and eloquently and covered what I wanted to say a hundred times better than I ever could and then followed the logical paths of expansion and squeezed more wisdom into that chapter than I intended to put in my entire novel!"

The theme of the folly of attempting to escape from death is a damn good theme; it's familiar, and most have encountered it in their readings, but it's also, imho, far from exhausted.

Probably what happened is that LeGuin's passages resonated very strongly with a portion of your own ideas... my guess is that there are more than enough subtle differences to carry their own resonance in your story. My advice is to attempt to forget whatever she wrote and focus on perfecting your own passages. I've found that whenever I attempt to diverge from a cliche or similarity to another work even slightly what most often happens is that before I know it the differences have completely snowballed. And I don't even guess that you'll need to make an effort or change things, I suspect your own voice will come through and give you all the authority you need.

So yes, I really meant to just give hugs and encouragement o_O

*hugs*

[splagxna.livejournal.com]

i think you should write to ursual le guin and tell her this. it will at least make for interesting fan mail. >;-D

[psychic-serpent.livejournal.com]

While I'm surprised you haven't read the entire Earthsea trilogy by now (I recently read the latest addition to it, The Other Wind), I also don't think you need to worry about what she wrote about death. Frankly, I didn't even remember that that was in The Farthest Shore.

Someone also asked me whether I was thinking of LeGuin's trilogy when I had a wizard give up his power in one of my fics; I hadn't remembered that happening until the reader mentioned it. I hadn't even thought of the Earthsea trilogy for years, because although I like LeGuin while I'm reading her I must confess that I don't find her Earthsea books particularly memorable afterward. I prefer her SF to her fantasy works.

Just write what you originally wanted to write and don't worry about it. If you and LeGuin came up with the same philosophy about this it just means that great minds think alike. :D

[lizardek.livejournal.com]

I am amazed that you haven't read it until now, but I'm sure that your own thoughts about the folly of trying to escape from death will be just as readable and enlightening. :)

[shunn.livejournal.com]

Don't despair. No one has said everything there is to say on any subject. Not even Le Guin.

[aome.livejournal.com]

I agree with those who are saying you should still write what you had planned to write, and don't a) compare yourself to le Guin or b) worry about similarities. It's a frequent problem you see in fanfiction, too - people sometimes worry that everything's been done, so how can they write anything really new? The thing is, everyone puts their own flavor and spin on things, even if the base concept is the same, and thus makes it their own. And there's always something a little different or new which can be added to the concept. I'm sure that whatever you have to say will be yours - and if it fits the plot you have in mind, use it.

[jbru.livejournal.com]

The shame! How will you show your face in fandom again?