January 2, 2007

  • Commodified fantasy takes no risks: it invents nothing, but imitates and trivialises. It proceeds by depriving old stories of their intellectual and ethical complexity, turning their truth-telling to sentimental platitude. Heroes brandish their swords, lasers, wands, as mechanically as combined harvesters, reaping profits. Profoundly disturbing moral choices are sanitized, made cute, made safe.

    Ursula K Le Guin: Tales From Earthsea, Foreword