Week 3: Tax (2002)

In what ways does Tax (2002) suggest Earthsea may still be relevant today?

Author Meredith Tax, writes a detailed description about Le Guin’s three books, and also describes the unpredictable style she uses. Tax relates Le Guin’s ‘Earthsea’ and how it is still relevant today by pointing out two main themes that the reader is intended to ponder on: “the boundary between life and death, terror from the sky and how hard it is for male-dominant societies to listen to women.” Tax goes further to mention that “for the ruling principle of Le Guin’s world is not Tolkien’s struggle between good and evil, but equilibrium, balance.” (Tax, M. - Pg. 11)

Tax also refers to Le Guin’s work, and how it can be relevant today when concerning gender politics. She states,

“These books seem to me a true symbolic picture of where we are now, with no untainted source of male power, no mature authoritative leadership of any kind, caught midway in our evolution as social beings, still trying to struggle up out of the ooze onto the land, no longer tadpoles and not yet frogs.”

From a sociological and psychological standpoint, Tax makes a valid point about Le Guin's books. By depicting us as "not yet tadpoles, and not yet frogs," is in clear relation to our primitive evolution of gender politics. Le Guin suggests that the elements of duplicity that concern the female gender and how they are usually depicted, can also be similar in relation to the many patriarchal societies that are still alive today. (Tax, M. - Pg. 14)

Tax mentions Le Guin’s unpredictable style and scattered ideas. She also suggests how ‘Earthsea’ may still be relevant today by pointing this out in the foreword that she wrote in, ‘Tales From Earthsea.’ The Foreword is an unusual mixture of various thoughts about “commodification and why we read fantasy.” Le Guin states, “people turn to the realms of fantasy for stability, ancient truths, immutable simplicities. And the mills of capitalism provide them. Supply meets demand. Fantasy becomes commodity, an industry.” (Tax, M. - Pg. 16)

Le Guin wrote her foreword as if she spoke before her time, knowing what capitalism would do to fantasy. Transforming it into a profiteering machine seeking to capitalize on every commodity it can produce. This can be clearly noticed today when recalling on all the Disney/Pixar depictions, and their commodification of their characters and accessories.

Tax then goes on to state that “every successful writer is faced with this choice: Do you stay faithful to the inner voice or turn yourself into a marketable commodity, producing a new product of the same kind every year or two?” Tax then reminds the reader that, “There are great social and economic rewards for the commodity production of the self.” (Tax, M. - Pg. 15)

If Harry Potter is used as an example, it is noticeable that Le Guin’s suggestion of ‘commodification’ is very much relevant and alive today, and is in its full swing of production of new commodities on a continuous basis.

In the end, Tax raises many relevant issues that Le Guin writes about, and how they may relate to us today. From thematic ideas to commodity production, capitalism, like fantasy, is able to give many readers a feeling outside of reality with their "commodified products," so that “they let the wind into our imagination, and help to set us free.” (Tax, M. - Pg. 16)

Reference:

Tax, M. (Jan 28, 2002). In the Year of Harry Potter, Enter the Dragon. In The Nation.