Earthsea Appendix & Update: It's Not Gonna Be a Good Video if I Don't Burst Into Tears While Making It (Patreon)

Hello my darling patrons!

I have been very very busy at work with the new video which I thought would be done sooner, and it...isn't. It's going to be a few more weeks. But I think it will be worth the wait, it's really quite epic! I won't say much about it yet, however I will say that it's about bisexuality and media, which I know a lot of you follow me for! This will be a longer video than usual; at the moment it's looking like it'll be about 40+ minutes. So hopefully even though it is a longer wait than usual, it will be so much wonderful content that you'll all forgive me for the wait!

In the meantime, should I do another livestream? I feel like I should play a different game this time or do something different since the last stream ended in such chaos with basically destroying all of time and reality itself in the small farming village. Any suggestions for a game to play? I don't have a gaming computer but my laptop can manage some decent games. Any suggestions?

Also look at Miško and Schnappi having a cuddle:

A few weeks ago, after I finished the Earthsea video, I wrote a short post which I never actually published for some reason, so I've included it below for those who liked the Earthsea video!

EARTHSEA FOLLOW UP

I cut a lot in the scripting phase of the Earthsea video. I could talk about Earthsea for hours! Instead I thought I might make a short post for you all with some things I've been eager to share!

This might turn out to be an incoherent ramble. Enjoy!

PART ONE: COVERS There are a lot of great Earthsea covers and a lot of terrible ones. Unfortunately cover artists would often whitewash Earthsea, which is enormously frustrating. So let's take a look at a couple of hilariously bad Earthsea covers:

Isn't this one hilarious? It's clearly an example of a whitewashed Earthsea, but also it attempts to portray the scene where Ged transforms into a bird...but for some reason on this cover he's managed to get himself stuck as a half-bird half-teenager! Look at those tights! I have no idea who the other boys are supposed to be, but one is so shocked while the other is just like "sigh, Ged is stuck as a half-bird again." I love it in its ridiculousness! Lucky for me, my best friend has told me he OWNS this copy from when he was a little kid and he's going to give it to me when I visit home! I am truly blessed!

And one more cover from the same series:

First check out Prince Arren's sexy legs! He doesn't miss leg day! Now look at this dragon. His face is so judgemental. He is about to say something shady. He is about to ask to speak to Ged's manager. His tiny arms could never touch his own nose. He is a man in an iguana costume. All of these things, I love.

PART TWO: THE TOLKIEN EASTER EGGS

There are a few Lord of the Rings "easter eggs" in Earthsea. For instance, in the first book Le Guin mentions the herb kingsfoil, which you may recognise as a fictional herb from The Return of the King book or The Fellowship of the Ring film!

However, during my research I found a very cool theory about the language of the Old Speech. This is the language of magic, of dragons, of the creation of the world. Everything in Earthsea has a "true name" in the Old Speech which holds power over it.

In the Old Speech, the word for rock is "tolk."

The word "inien" is the word for "sea", which as a suffix becomes shortened to "ien".

So the theory goes that the word for "Earthsea" in the Old Speech is....Tolkien!

There's no way to confirm if this was Le Guin's intention. I would be surprised if, being a huge Tolkien fan, she didn't at least make an intentional connection with the word "tolk!" But I love the idea that she might have secretly hidden away in her work that the name for the world is Tolkien!

PART THREE: RECOMMENDATIONS

Although I think A Wizard of Earthsea is a beautiful book, it is not my favourite. The first four books alternate between protagonists. The first and third are all about the lads, and the second and fourth are all about women. My favourite ones are about the women! They are tonally very different from A Wizard of Earthsea and to me feel as though they are more grounded in reality than books 1 and 3.

Though I read them all in order, I think it is possible to skip books 1 and 3 and just read books 2 and 4 (with the option to continue with books 5 and 6 if you're feeling it!). So if you are not the type for epic quests or you're more interested in seeing the lives of the women of Earthsea, go ahead and check out The Tombs of Atuan and Tehanu! I honestly think it would be a shame for anyone to miss out on these books because they were put off by A Wizard of Earthsea!

I've also been reading Le Guin's science fiction since I made that video and I've found she's actually very into sexually alternative lifestyles! Someone at the premiere recommended "Another Story or A Fisherman of the Inland Sea," a short story, which I've found is about a bisexual polyamorous society! Marvelous! Apparently a few other of her short stories are set on the same planet, but I have yet to read them.

Right, that's all I have to share for now! Let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions about my next livestream!

Now, time to get back to work! 💪