Before I got pregnant with my kiddo I had been trying intermittently to cut down on my drinking. I stocked the fridge with seltzer, drank less when I went out with friends, etc. But I was running *away* from drinking. It felt like a loss to be filled. When I got pregnant with my son - and esp. after he was born - not drinking no longer felt like a loss. I knew that continuing to drink would, for me, mean that I would enjoy our time together less. Running toward him has resulted in me having no interest in drinking since.
I agree, wonderful. For me, most of the uprooting of the bad has been *because* of time and happenstance. I am retired now. In my adult life, my spouse’s career and my own work offered frequent change of location, so if a relationship pulled me in a darker direction, and I needed to uproot it, some party was often moving away, so leaving behind that relationship wasn’t difficult. I was touched by Ged and Pechvarry, Pechvarry’s comment full of fear and reproach, how Ged “felt afresh the unease and impatience that had driven him to Pendor”. I have had that relationship with a work friend, not involving a child’s life, but leaving exactly at the time when I couldn’t save something else that was precious to her. On another note, I am very surprised at Ged ‘s physical strength, and how it’s separate from his wizard’s power. In a less-talented story teller, I’ve been disappointed when they create a character whose natural, youthful strength seems unending, after surviving near-mortal injury that required a lengthy recovery, but Le Guin is a master.
I really, really love your insight here, and it was clever to tie it into Matthew as well.
"'Nor did it much matter, he thought; he had not chosen to come here. He had been driven, and now was driven on.'"
"Ged fears that when his shadow overtakes him, it will hollow him out and make him a thing that it wields in the service of its own, dark ends. But in my reading, in Ged’s grim hopelessness, he’s already emptying himself out, anticipating surrender."
Before I got pregnant with my kiddo I had been trying intermittently to cut down on my drinking. I stocked the fridge with seltzer, drank less when I went out with friends, etc. But I was running *away* from drinking. It felt like a loss to be filled. When I got pregnant with my son - and esp. after he was born - not drinking no longer felt like a loss. I knew that continuing to drink would, for me, mean that I would enjoy our time together less. Running toward him has resulted in me having no interest in drinking since.
Oh, that's so wonderful <3
I agree, wonderful. For me, most of the uprooting of the bad has been *because* of time and happenstance. I am retired now. In my adult life, my spouse’s career and my own work offered frequent change of location, so if a relationship pulled me in a darker direction, and I needed to uproot it, some party was often moving away, so leaving behind that relationship wasn’t difficult. I was touched by Ged and Pechvarry, Pechvarry’s comment full of fear and reproach, how Ged “felt afresh the unease and impatience that had driven him to Pendor”. I have had that relationship with a work friend, not involving a child’s life, but leaving exactly at the time when I couldn’t save something else that was precious to her. On another note, I am very surprised at Ged ‘s physical strength, and how it’s separate from his wizard’s power. In a less-talented story teller, I’ve been disappointed when they create a character whose natural, youthful strength seems unending, after surviving near-mortal injury that required a lengthy recovery, but Le Guin is a master.
I really, really love your insight here, and it was clever to tie it into Matthew as well.
"'Nor did it much matter, he thought; he had not chosen to come here. He had been driven, and now was driven on.'"
"Ged fears that when his shadow overtakes him, it will hollow him out and make him a thing that it wields in the service of its own, dark ends. But in my reading, in Ged’s grim hopelessness, he’s already emptying himself out, anticipating surrender."