Vasishta

“Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward towards the light; but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it.” -Ursula K. LeGuin.
This quote stuck with me as I finished this book. It can be taken in so many ways: a political one, an emotional one, or any other metaphor one could gather from the meaning of freedom. But what I took it for, and what it made me realize, is that we must take our freedom. LeGuin continues her great fantasy adventure in The Tombs of Atuan. A series I started well over five years ago, and just this week decided to read the second book. I am glad I did. This book is a lot more claustrophobic, feminine, and relevant to myself currently. It explores not only themes of having power, but also powerlessness, hopelessness, and then freedom. It’s hard to write a reflection of this book without spoiling a bit, because a main goal of these little reflections are to get whoever reads this to read these books, however I shan’t spoil much. Arha, or Tenar, is trapped believing one thing: that she is the mightiest and highest authority of the Nameless Ones, but being the highest authority over what is essentially nothing can cause your worldview to crumble and die. A rebirth happens, a true and undeniable death of self and a revival from the ashes. Which in many cases we as people undergo at least once in our life, for better or for worse. As for me, a 27 year old in the heart of the empire, I had an experience like this during my time in University and then again right after I graduated. The first time was when I switched my major from Chemical Engineering to English. It was a tumultuous time to say the least. My friend broke up with me, we only dated for about two months and then broke up messily (a long story which I will spare the details here), my apartment caught fire, I failed Calculus 3, and then I switched my major all in the middle of it. This was the first rebirth of myself. I had to change. If I didn’t I would be consumed by the world as a drone to the system and be another misogynistic capitalist bot. So, I killed my old concept of self and threw away all of the things that I held true (valuing money over all else, what it meant to be a man, etc…). That was a choice I had to take. I had to choose freedom. Else, I’d be stuck down in the endless, dark Labyrinth of the empire with nothing but power over nothing. This is not unlike what our hero in The Tombs of Atuan goes through. As many tend to forget in the sea of Romantasy and capitalist slop, Fantasy reflects the emotions humans have. It isn’t about swords, violence, domination through divinity or some other male power fantasy. It is simply a physical representation of the emotions we feel everyday, throughout our lives. So read the book, be consumed by the Labyrinth and the Nameless Ones and die. Choose freedom and be reborn.