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| The Word for World is Forest / Ursula LeGuin NY: Tor, 2010, c1972 189 p. |
Ursula LeGuin is a reader who is probably most familiar to me via the Earthsea books - which are very much fantasy, even with some pointed commentary within them. But I was quite surprised by The Word for World is Forest, which I picked up at a thrift store and read right away.
This was much more of its time (70s) even if it is set on a different planet sometime in the future. The concerns about colonialism, toxic masculinity, misogyny and opposing world views feels very rooted in the 70s, but unfortunately is still relevant in so many ways now as well. But the vibe of the story does bring up the feeling of war and Vietnam and all those early 70s concerns.
It opens on the planet of Athshe, a forested world that Terrans have colonized with militaristic settlements, clearcutting as much as possible, having basically deforested Earth by this time. The people are pretty awful, military blowhards who have enslaved the native, peaceful Athsheans. Captain Davidson is one of the worst; the story opens with his perspective and he embodies all the worst qualities possible in a man. He's made an enemy of Selver, an Athshean whose wife was raped and murdered by Davidson much earlier. The Athsheans have a dreaming culture, and Selver dreams mass violence into existence on Athshe because of his experience - something that had never been seen there before.
Selver becomes a God to the Athsheans and leads a mass revolt, leading to the defeat of the colonizers, who are then limited to a small cleared area to wait for the next space ship to take them off the planet forever. But in the process, the Athshean culture has been irrevocably changed.
This was a shorter book, and I felt there was a lot of straightforward narrative in it, lots of clear villains and heroes. Not as imaginative as some of her other work, a little didactic at times. But I do think it reflects the time and her concerns very strongly. It's part of the Hainish Cycle, so some of the other alien races who appear on Athshe discuss the Hainish past; if you're familiar with any of the other books you'll find the connections easily. But you don't need to know anything about the Hainish Cycle to understand this one. I did find the character of Davidson quite despicable and didn't enjoy reading about him much. He was too horribly realistic and similar to some politicians today.
Lots of interesting ideas here but I'm unlikely to reread it & will pass this on to other readers soon.
I haven't read this one for years, but I agree that her early books feel very different from her later ones. I'm guessing she only was growing as a writer but was waiting for the publishing world to catch up with the idea of more nuanced story-telling too. Where do you find your used books now, without Yesterday's Things (and others)?
ReplyDeleteYes that's a good point - she really shone in her later, nuanced stories, once they were being published!
DeleteAs for used books, of course I check in the thrift stores and every now and again find something good, like this one. But most of them come from my trips out to Attic Books in London, one of the best used bookstores out there. 3 floors of fabulous choices, and the bargain basement is a favourite haunt!