|
|
 |
The
Other Wind and Tales from Earthsea, books by Ursula K. Le Guin
Lord of the Rings (movie based on trilogy by R.J.J. Tolkien)
Mists of Avalon
(TV movie based on book by Marion Zimmer Bradley)
"Balancing the Budget, Stimulating the Economy", January 23, 2002 ,
Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber
I was already primed for magic by my family's
Christmas gifts to me, a lottery ticket, a rare cigar and two new books from my favorite
living author, Ursula K. Le Guin. She always starts out slow and easy like a fine
racehorse who knows the course. Nothing too flashy at first. But then, before you
know it, she puts on steam and runs the race far ahead of the others. In The Other
Wind, a humble village sorcerer, the mender Alder, stumbles onto the mystery
of the dangerous imbalance between life and death while the dragons, who were once
at one with their human counterparts in the magic of the Old Speech, are threatening
the Islands.
But soon daily reality hit. After being laid off at the glue factory, I decided to
forget my troubles for a rainy winter afternoon. So I threw a few cases of old beer
(and root beer) bottles in the back of my 1949 Chevy pickup and returned them for
my bottle refund and headed to the movies with my teen son. We had looked forward
to seeing Lord of the Rings for a long time. I knew the movie had to be simpler than
the book. I mean that's what movies do to books, right? That why J.D. Salinger will
never let them butcher his sweet, little masterpiece, Catcher in the Rye, a book I recommended
to my kids.
But Lord of the Rings? How could you go wrong
with such rich material? What a cast a characters! From Frodo and all his friends
from the Shire to Tom Bombadil and his daughter Goldberry, dear Gandalf ( how many
of us had a cat named so?), Ranger Strider, Glorifindel, Elrond, Gollum, Legolas,
et. al. Maybe my frustration with The Lord of the Rings movie is that it is almost
" right", almost satisfies like a great story should. But by the end of
the three hour movie I was saying, "Oh for cry'n out loud! Enough slaughter
already! Basta!" This is not a movie for young viewers. I was getting ready
to walk out when the film mercifully and abruptly ended. So much for great endings.
(When I saw the first Star Wars movie, it received an standing ovation from the movie
audience at the end.) Here, endless hordes of orcs got the better of my mind and
bottom. Numb as a witch's broomstick in a blizzard.
Many of the realizations are wonderful: Rivendell, the Shire, Mordor. But Tom Bombadil
and Goldbery are not there. Many events are scrambled. Evil Sauron has no mystery.
There is zero suspense to the true identity of the mysterious Ranger before we learn
Strider is Aragorn revealed in his true kingly identity (In the book the reader realizes
this is an important key to the fate of the fellowship.) In the book there is no
mortal contention at the Council of Elrond, but the movie indulges in a little cartoon
trouble to show us the dangerous, hidden lust for the ring of power that lives in
the hearts of Middle-Earthers. God forbid that we could get "it", as if
we had a character driven film!
The actor who plays Strider/Aragorn is passable, barely. He mumbles and throws away
lines. He has the punkish look of a drowned rat. But we sort of like him, just a
nice guy at the barbecue with a beer in his hand, like another character from Texas
I could mention. Frodo looks a little balmy with his staring expression of constant
amazement that does duty for many emotions but he makes it work. Gandalf is warm
and very believable. Boromir is convincing. And the orcs are numerous and endless.
Like a video game.
 |
When we left the theater, my son made a comment that hit my fragile bottle refund like a ton of bricks. "I prefer the Mists of Avalon!" he said. Why? He wasn't sure, but I have a guess or two to make. Both are rip-roaring swords and sorcery magic movies. But the Mists of Avalon has something Tolkien wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole -- sex.
Mists of Avalon is a visually lush, well-done, feminist romance based upon Arthurian legend spun from the book by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Like other authors inspired by King Arthur and his times (like Mary Steward, and Gillian whatshername, the Cambridge scholar, .... who have strong Guineveres, and other writers taken with the Arthurian tale such as T.H. White, Mark Twain, Howard Pyle, and John Steinbeck), Bradley fixes this moment of Camelot as the pivotal point in the history of the western world; she places Arthur and his extended family in the middle of the struggle between the Old Religion and the New Christianity that changes the face of Britain and Europe. She compresses about a thousand years of history to good effect. Her Guinevere is a sly, sad, silly but still human villainess. Morgaine is a sympathetic character, Vivianne the Lady of the Lake is tragic but not as nice, Merlin nice but weak...
Yet in spite of the weaknesses, how can the Mists of Avalon be more visually and emotionally satisfying than Lord of the Rings? More reflections of real human life and the tragic events that result from the uneven flow of faith and magic? Of course they tell very different stories. The main characters of the Mists of Avalon are born to magic while our hobbits are just like us, ordinary folk who get an inkling of great doings and by trying to do the right thing, are drawn into world altering events.
How can we be so mesmerized by movies' magic while right in our own backyards the great drama over the magical beanstalk of our state budget is being played out? The state legislature has played a lazy Jack of Jack and the Beanstalk. Times were getting better. More of us were working, the recovery from the Great Timber Recession finally was in gear. Then the axes called the new recession hit. Now giants (deficits) are sawing away at the budget for social services, health and education. Shame! Our Merlin, Governor John Kitzhaber, a practical wizard, is trying to get the posturing politicos in Salem to get realistic and delete the 2% kicker ( a now constitutionally mandated item that says if there is a surplus, send it back to the tax payers that fiscal year). There is no rainy day fund. No magic beer bottles awaiting a cash refund in the barn. So there are no extra monies to survive the cuts necessary to survive. Gandalf! It will take some powerful magic to persuade people to pressure their legislators to forget party politics and adopt the governor's budget. But is it possible. Like Frodo and Sam, we must have faith even when approaching the Mountain of Doom. Throw that false and terrible ring of the "kicker" into the fire before it destroys us.
As Le Guin wrote in The Other Wind, Irian, the dragon woman, quotes the old wise dragon Kalessin and says, "Greed puts out the sun."