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language: English
country: USA
year: 1990
form: novel
genre(s): fantasy
series: Earthsea, #4
dates read: 11.11.13-18.11.13, 14.12.16, 17.11.23-20.12.23
Tehanu. Tehanu is, among other things, very openly Le Guin’s self-critique of the gender politics of A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan, and in particular the Gontish proverb “weak as women’s magic, wicked as women’s magic”. what, the novel asks, is women’s magic, women’s power?
I don’t love it as much as I love A Wizard of Earthsea or The Tombs of Atuan, in part because while I appreciate its critical impulse it still — in spite of Tenar’s tentative suggestion about the gendered division of magical power in Earthsea — relies on a certain essentialism, which it never quite seems able to move beyond.
in spite of this, it’s very, very good. as The Tombs of Atuan is the flip side of A Wizard of Earthsea, so Tehanu is the other side of The Farthest Shore, focalized through Tenar as she navigates the changes caused first by Cob’s actions and second by Ged and Arren-Lebannen’s. in the vein of Elizabeth Lynn’s Chronicles of Tornor, it’s exploring a moment in history when large-scale change is, perhaps, possible, but seen from the perspective not of a Significant Historical Figure (I mean, she is, but not at this moment in her life) but rather of a farmer’s widow in a rural community far from the centers of political power.
it is also, like A Wizard of Earthsea, a meditation on power, but here not on its exercise (or at least not exactly) but rather on its nature. what is power? where does it come from? what does it look like and how is it distributed? what are the relationships between power and fear and between power and gender?
the end is breathtaking but also a bit abrupt — I’m looking forward to finally reading The Other Wind, because while the end of Tehanu is very good, and there’s something kind of exquisite about the way it leaves us poised in the moment of transformation, I also very much want to know what happens next.
moods: emotional, hopeful, inspiring, reflective