[the_old_crowd] Re: The trouble with Harry

[Mike & Susan Gray]

Arguing with yourself is almost always a bad sign, but -

> Ged.
> 
> Though it takes a while.

However, you could argue that Ged is the protagonist only in the first
Earthsea story - where he is only in the process of becoming the most
powerful mage in Earthsea. In the latter two parts of the trilogy the story
is as much about his co-stars as about him. And in my personal favorite, the
fourth Earthsea narrative, he not only takes backseat but spends most of the
book in a daze.

But I think, in general, that you won't very often find many modern
narrative with a clear protagonist-antogonist structure in which the
protagonist clearly outclasses everyone else. That would tend to detract
from suspense and also from the reader's ability to identify with the
protagonist. Also, fantasy stories are very often *also* Bildungsromane, in
which case the protagonists can hardly start out the story on top of the
world, even if they (like Ged) eventually get there.

Baaaaaa!

Mike Gray (a.k.a. Aberforth's Goat )
_______________________

"Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, so that may not have been
bravery...." 

http://www.research-projects.unizh.ch/p8199.htm