Abstract
This article analyses the role of vitality within Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series (1968-2001), exploring the political implications of its presentation. Vitalist philosophy rejects positivist materialism, seeking instead to understand life in terms of immanent human experience. Vitalism is particularly relevant to fantasy literature: conceptions of life and our relationship with the material naturally play a role in fantasy worldbuilding; however, life conceptions carry political implications, and vitalism finds pertinence across the political spectrum, from anarchism to fascism. Earthsea makes for a valuable subject of analysis on this point, as Le Guin openly endorses anarchism. By comparing the presentation of vitality across Le Guin’s two Earthsea trilogies, we can uncover the contradictory interplay between fascistic and more progressive conceptions of life. I argue that through this lens, we can see how the work of an overtly anarchist author can nonetheless contain parallels with more imperialist notions of life.
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