Le Guin Peeved About Earthsea Miniseries

Several readers have written in with unhappy opinions on the Legend of Earthsea miniseries just aired on the Sci-Fi channel. Ursula Le Guin has also chimed in, with a short but highly critical blurb on her website, and now this dissection on Slate.com.

Did you slashdot the nice lady's website?

[kalidasa]

I'm guessing her next blog posting will be a complaint about Slashdot.

Quityerbitchin

[Anonymous Coward]

At least it didn't have Will Smith in it!

(Name Withheld)

"McMagic"

[Overly Critical Guy]

I hereby dub the fantastic term "McMagic" to be the official description of any Hollywood attempts at fantasy. Freakin' great.

The Dangers of Adaption

[StefanJ]

Years ago, I went to a panel discussion at an SF convention about how books are adapted to film. The authors on the panel had all had their works adapted.

First up was Barry Longyear, whose novel Enemy Mine was turned into a "B" movie. He rattled off a good-natured Hollywood horror story.

Next was Gary Wolf, whose book Who Censored Roger Rabbit was turned into what I recall was a rather popular movie a few years back. He was wearing the fancy jacket provided to the cast. He got to go to the Hollywood premiere and got very rich.

When he described getting to sit with Kathleen Turner at a celebratory banquet, Longyear got up and pretended to strangle him.

Re:Okay

[WillerZ]

Here in the USA, we have these things called "books".

For real? You guys have books now?

Phil

Re:Since when

[GoofyBoy]

I had that same thing happen in my high school.

One author was invited to speak to my English class and he talked about how people will read things into his writing that he never considered and about how a reviewer once make a comparison between his story and and King Lear. He had never even read King Lear.

At that point one of the English teachers in the back, who had invited him to speak, yelled "Don't listen to him!"

Next Ursula Le Guin movie-

[Japong]

I can just picture it now, the Left Hand of Darkness: The Movie.

A romantic comedy about men and women, trying to find love together in a tropical paridise. Starring Julia Roberts as Estraven and Hugh Grant as the Envoy.

Turn your geek card in

[Anonymous Coward]

and absorb more reality tv, because it seems that in the fact that you don't know who she is, instead of doing a quick find on the web (not to point out a particular search engine) you show intellectual sloth by posting that question in the forum. And I'm posting AC because, indeed, I'm flaming you. Stupid git.

Re:Maybe I should be more familiar, but...

[grub]

shes a well known sci fi author

Is her work better than L. Ron Hubbard's?

Re:Next Ursula Le Guin movie-

[rjh]

Look, buddy, I don't wanna know what your left hand has been doing in the darkness while thinking about Julia Roberts, okay?

Authorship & Symbolism (OT)

[Embedded Geek]

When I was in high school, I wrote a humorous essay in a creative writing class. The assignment was something like 'tell a story about you doing a task in a step by step manner." I responded with a (thankfully fictional) tale of me trying to bake a cake and winding up setting the kitchen on fire.

The teacher liked it so much, she had me type it up and she put included it on the midterm as a sample work for the other students to pick apart. I was an incredibly sloppy student and typing the thing up seemed like a horrible burden, but the idea that I'd ace the test was enough to motivate me. After all, I wrote the dang thing, didn't I?

When test day rolled around, though, she asked things about "what technique is the author using to suspend disbelief?" and "which passages are used to build foreboding for the ending?" In the end I was lucky to pass the thing by the skin of my teeth.

I won't pretend to be their equals, but I have to admit I vaguely know how Tolkien and Le Guin felt.

It's Ursula LeGONE Now

[Jason Earl]

Slashdot has no business linking to "normal" sites.

Re:She compares herself to Tolkein?

[FireIron]

Does Stephen King have this problem?

King has a hilarious quote about books being made into movies being like children going off to college...you hope they do well, get good grades, and don't get gangbanged like Children of the Corn.

Re:Maybe I should be more familiar, but...

[DavidTC]

The difference between 'sci fi' and 'science fiction' is that 'sci if' annoys people like you.

So, everyone, please continue to use it.

Re:I Robot

[iapetus]

If anyone should be upset, it would be Isaac Asimov.

Yes. I'd be pretty pissed off if I were dead, too.