Tag Archives: Wizard of Earthsea

What To Make of a Diminished Biles

By Robin Bates | Published: August 6, 2021

For Simone Biles’s fall from Olympic heights, two Robert Frost poems and Le Guin’s Earthsea Tetralogy bring some needed perspective.

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Sports Injuries, Declining Magical Powers

By Robin Bates | Published: April 21, 2017

My tennis performance, once decent, has declined since I suffered a foot injury and underwent cataract surgery. I therefore find myself identifying with Ged In LeGuin’s “Wizard of Earthsea” and Taran in “Black Cauldron” when they suddenly find themselves stripped of magical powers.

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Hoping against Hope in the Face of Death

By Robin Bates | Published: February 25, 2015

Following philosopher Adrienne Martin, I meditate on what it means to “hope against hope” or to have “unimaginable hope.” The texts I use are “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” “Beowulf,” and “Wizard of Earthsea.”

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