Subscribe: RSS Podcast iTunes
wikiofthedaymasto.ai
  Buy WotD Stuff!!
Episode 1033             Episode 1035
Episode 1034

A Wizard of Earthsea
Wed, 2020-Mar-04 00:16 UTC
Length - 3:06

Direct Link

Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.

The featured article for Wednesday, 4 March 2020 is A Wizard of Earthsea.

A Wizard of Earthsea is a fantasy novel written by American author Ursula K. Le Guin and first published by the small press Parnassus in 1968. It is regarded as a classic of children's literature, and of fantasy, within which it was widely influential. The story is set in the fictional archipelago of Earthsea and centers around a young mage named Ged, born in a village on the island of Gont. He displays great power while still a boy and joins the school of wizardry, where his prickly nature drives him into conflict with one of his fellows. During a magical duel, Ged's spell goes awry and releases a shadow creature that attacks him. The novel follows his journey as he seeks to be free of the creature.

The book has often been described as a Bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story, as it explores Ged's process of learning to cope with power and come to terms with death. The novel also carries Taoist themes about a fundamental balance in the universe of Earthsea, which wizards are supposed to maintain, closely tied to the idea that language and names have power to affect the material world and alter this balance. The structure of the story is similar to that of a traditional epic, although critics have also described it as subverting this genre in many ways, such as by making the protagonist dark-skinned in contrast to more typical white-skinned heroes.

A Wizard of Earthsea received highly positive reviews, initially as a work for children and later among a general audience as well. It won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award in 1969 and was one of the final recipients of the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1979. Margaret Atwood called it one of the "wellsprings" of fantasy literature. Le Guin wrote five subsequent books that are collectively referred to as the Earthsea Cycle, together with A Wizard of Earthsea: The Tombs of Atuan (1971), The Farthest Shore (1972), Tehanu (1990), The Other Wind (2001), and Tales from Earthsea (2001). George Slusser described the series as a "work of high style and imagination", while Amanda Craig said that A Wizard of Earthsea was "the most thrilling, wise, and beautiful children's novel ever".

This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:16 UTC on Wednesday, 4 March 2020.

For the full current version of the article, see A Wizard of Earthsea on Wikipedia.

This podcast is produced by Abulsme Productions based on Wikipedia content and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

Visit wikioftheday.com for our archives, sister podcasts, and swag. Please subscribe to never miss an episode. You can also follow @WotDpod on Twitter.

Abulsme Productions produces the current events podcast Curmudgeon's Corner as well. Check it out in your podcast player of choice.

This has been Ivy. Thank you for listening to featured Wiki of the Day.

Archive
2017:MayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2018:JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2019:JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2020:JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2021:JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2022:JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2023:JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2024:JanFebMar

Most Recent Episodes


Feedback welcome at feedback@wikioftheday.com.

These podcasts are produced by Abulsme Productions based on Wikipedia content.

They are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Creative Commons License

Abulsme Productions also produces Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.

If you like that sort of thing, check it out too!


Page cached at 2024-03-29 04:12:34 UTC
Original calculation time was 2.5472 seconds

Page displayed at 2024-03-29 09:25:16 UTC
Page generated in 0.0005 seconds