White is not all right

The SciFi Channel earlier this week debuted a four hour movie called Legend of Earthsea and, despite generally miserable reviews, got “big ratings.” The telefilm was derived from two classic novels by Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan, and the author herself was upset enough to post a disparaging essay titled Earthsea in Clorox. Novelists winding up furious at how Hollywood treats their work is nothing new–some authors have refused the dangled gelt while others have only accepted when a studio was willing to give them meaningful involvement in the production–but Le Guin’s essay is particularly interesting because of her focus not on how her storyline was changed but because the main characters’ skin colors were. [via Neil Gaiman’s Journal]