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Ursula LeGuin puts the publishers in their place
(lemmy.world)
Not really a meme, I know, but I thought this was amazing and worth sharing and I didn't know where else to share it on Lemmy.
Ursula LeGuin was an incredible person and, although she did live a long life, her death was still a huge loss.
As someone who grew up at the height of the potter craze, and was well and truly entrenched in it (stood in line for the books, read them through without sleeping, went to events, et cetera) I can honestly say that the first earthsea book is legitimately better than the potter books. I'll never be able to hate the HP books, despite despising JKR, but a wizard of earthsea is just much better written. It's so freaking good, and tells it's story in such a charming and completely unique way.
I have re-read all of the books and short stories a couple of times. They're really good. The BBC did a radio dramatization of the books a few years ago. It was pretty abridged, but still worth hearing.
Mainly though, I just wanted to point out how Rowling very clearly used LeGuin as a source for her books (along with the Worst Witch books, the first of which came out when she was exactly the right age to have read them).
Haven't heard of the worst witch, I don't think, unless that's the one that also uses a magical platform at kings cross
If you're British, I can't explain that. If you aren't, it's big in the UK (or at least used to be?) not only a whole book series, but a movie and a TV series.
The movie stars a very young Fairuza Balk and was big enough to get Diana Rigg and Tim Curry in it.
So not exactly Harry Potter, but still well-known. And certainly known well enough for Rowling to not have only heard of them, but very likely at least read the first one because she was 9 years old when it came out, which is pretty much the perfect age for that book.
No, sadly I live in the US :(