The Word for World Is Forest

von Ursula K. Le Guin

Kein Titelbild — Ursula K. Le Guin: The Word for World Is Forest (1972, G. P. Putnam's Sons)

Sprache: English

Am 17. März 1972 von G. P. Putnam's Sons veröffentlicht.

OCLC-Nummer:: 4487461348

(4 Besprechungen)

The Word for World Is Forest is a science fiction novella by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, first published in the United States in 1972 as a part of the anthology Again, Dangerous Visions, and published as a separate book in 1976 by Berkley Books. It is part of Le Guin's Hainish Cycle. The story focuses on a military logging colony set up on the fictional planet of Athshe by people from Earth (referred to as "Terra"). The colonists have enslaved the completely non-aggressive native Athsheans, and treat them very harshly. Eventually, one of the natives, whose wife was raped and killed by a Terran military captain, leads a revolt against the Terrans, and succeeds in getting them to leave the planet. However, in the process their own peaceful culture is introduced to mass violence for the first time. The novel carries strongly anti-colonial and anti-militaristic overtones, driven partly by Le Guin's negative reaction to the Vietnam War. It also explores themes of sensitivity to the environment, and of connections between language and culture. It shares the theme of dreaming with Le Guin's novel The Lathe of Heaven, and the metaphor of the forest as a consciousness with the story "Vaster than Empires and More Slow". The novella won the Hugo Award in 1973, and was nominated for several other awards. It received generally positive reviews from reviewers and scholars, and was variously described as moving and hard-hitting. Several critics, however, stated that it compared unfavorably with Le Guin's other works such as The Left Hand of Darkness, due to its sometimes polemic tone and lack of complex characters.

23 Auflagen

Kelson Reads hat The Word for World is Forest von Ursula K. Le Guin besprochen

Infuriating to read...and that's the point

4 Sterne

The novella makes an odd counterpoint to Little Fuzzy: In this case the humans recognized the natives' sapience right away -- barely -- but decide to enslave them and clear-cut their world anyway.

It bounces between several viewpoints: one of the natives who has escaped from slavery, a sympathetic human scientist...and the villain, a gung-ho military type who thinks he's the best of humanity, but shows himself to be among the worst.

It's a tragedy, a train wreck, a slow-moving avalanche, and yet every time there's a chance to pause and maybe resolve the situation, Davidson chooses to escalate things instead.

While it's directly a response to America's actions in the Vietnam War, the themes of colonial exploitation, dehumanization, psyops, asymmetrical warfare and environmental degradation are still very topical.

It's not nuanced. It won't make you think about new ideas like The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed …

The novella makes an odd counterpoint to Little Fuzzy: In this case the humans recognized the natives' sapience right away -- barely -- but decide to enslave them and clear-cut their world anyway.

It's a tragedy, a train wreck, a slow-moving avalanche, and yet every time there's a chance to pause and maybe resolve the situation, Davidson chooses to escalate things instead.

It's not nuanced. It won't make you think about new ideas like The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, or The Lathe of Heaven. (The Athsheans' dream state is interesting, but not explored deeply and not the point of the story.) But it will make you angrier at the people who are still doing the exploiting.

Cross-posted from my website, where I go into a bit more detail on the Terrans' dehumanization of the Athsheans, and current events.

fetch@bookwyrm.social hat The Word for World Is Forest von Ursula K. Le Guin besprochen

The Word for World is Forest Review

5 Sterne

Another great read. It's relatively short but doesn't feel like anything is lost. The glimpses of League power and the Athshe societies felt really awe inspiring.

The whole "Hainish" universe is so cool! I love the different perspectives.

Jon Nixon hat The Word for World is Forest von Ursula K. Le Guin besprochen

Review of 'Word for World Is Forest' on 'Storygraph'

3 Sterne

I love Le Guin's writing but don't think this is up with her best. It's a very angry novella; raging against conolialism (obviously inspired by the Vietnam war). From the author's note at the beginning it sounds like it was written in a rush and that means the characters are one dimensional (especially the villain) and there isn't much structure to the story. The Athsean's dream culture is interesting though, and the final downbeat message is important.

bookafnd hat The Word for World is Forest von Ursula K. Le Guin besprochen

trees

5 Sterne

it's a fairly short and straightforward story about resistance to colonization, but embedded in it is a kind of complicated discussion about the legitimacy of violence. It seems like it was in part a commentary on the Vietnam War (which is even alluded to at one point).

Don Davidson is one of the more thoroughly unpleasant viewpoint characters I've read; fortunately he is meant to be villainous, & at any rate it's only from his point of view for about a third of the book. His motivation, worldview & actions are disturbing but accurate for a certain sort of man.