Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea)

22nd December 2005

No. 7 - The Impact of Book Three

One was about "A Life of Doing vs. a Life of Being"
Another was about "Life and Death"
and the third was about "The Balance of the World"

Firstly, let's talk about "A life of doing vs. a life of being"

Book 3 is the story of a mature Ged setting out together with Prince Arren to restore the balance of the world. The night before their adventure begins in earnest, Ged says this to Arren:

"When I was young, I had to choose between the life of being and the life of doing. And I leapt at the latter like a trout to a fly. But each deed you do, each act, binds you to itself and to its consequences... ...Then very seldom do you come upon a space, a time like this... ...or wonder who, after all, you are."[1]

When I was a high school student, this scene did not arrest my attention. I simply thought "I suppose it's a sermon about the importance of stopping and thinking". However reading this scene afresh in my mid thirties, I couldn't simply skim over it.

This was because of my accumulated years, and more than anything, the fact that I was about to set foot in the animation world, the very place that I had resolved in my heart not to enter through my father's connections.

Postscript

In the rest of the world there is a three day weekend from tomorrow[2], but the Ghibli production team with a July opening date to shoot for, are working through public holidays as we push towards our goal.

Translator's Notes

[1]: The Farthest Shore, p. 31

[2]: The 23rd of December, the birthday of the current emperor, is a public holiday in Japan.