The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin
"The Word for World Is Forest" is a science fiction novella that explores themes of colonialism, environmentalism, and cultural conflict. Set on the planet Athshe, the narrative depicts the struggle between Terran colonists, seeking resources for their desolate home, and the indigenous Athsheans, who aim to protect their forest-based way of life. Central to the conflict is Captain Don Davidson, whose harsh view of the Athsheans leads to their subjugation and enslavement, contrasting sharply with the perspective of Raj Lyubov, an anthropologist who befriends an Athshean named Selver.
The story delves into the unique abilities of the Athsheans, particularly their capacity to dream at will, which influences their culture and leads to a violent uprising against their oppressors. As the confrontation escalates, outside interventions from a broader coalition, the League of Worlds, complicate the dynamics of power and resistance. The narrative culminates in a cycle of violence and a fragile truce, highlighting the consequences of colonization and the challenges of reconciling differing worldviews. Ultimately, Selver's poignant reflection underscores the lasting impact of conflict on culture and identity, raising questions about the possibility of returning to a nonviolent existence after such trauma.
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The Word for World Is Forest
First published: 1976 (anthologized in Again, Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison, 1972)
Type of work: Novella
Type of plot: Science fiction—alien civilization
Time of work: An indefinite time in the future, after establishment of the League of Worlds
Locale: The planet Athshe
The Plot
The Word for World Is Forest concerns the struggle between colonists from Terra (Earth), who are searching for resources for their now-desert planet, and the natives of the planet Athshe, who are striving to preserve the forest ecology upon which their culture depends. The most extreme representative of the Terran point of view is Captain Don Davidson, who considers himself a “world-tamer.” He sees his task as destroying Athshe’s “primeval murk and savagery and ignorance.” Davidson is opposed by Raj Lyubov, an anthropologist who has been studying the Athshean culture and has become friends with an Athshean named Selver. Davidson and his colonists have enslaved the Athsheans and consider them to be subhuman. Under Selver’s leadership, the Athshean slaves rebel against their captors.
The Athsheans have developed the ability to dream at will. They use their dreams to order their daily experience and to anticipate the future. Selver is a dreamer who becomes a god or “translator,” one who is able to express the perceptions of his subconscious. Selver’s dreams are responsible for the introduction of murder to the previously nonviolent Athshean culture. The Athsheans come to believe that they must defend themselves and their planet against the Terrans.
The Terran/Athshean confrontation is altered by the arrival of a communication device on the planet as a result of the formation of the League of Worlds. The Terrans are ordered to free their Athshean slaves and to refrain from aggression against them. Davidson, however, secretly carries out a reprisal raid against an Athshean village, killing all the inhabitants. In response, the Athsheans attack the major Terran settlement, killing all the Terran women and imprisoning many of the men. Lyubov is accidentally killed in this attack.
The Athsheans offer a truce to the Terrans, with the condition that Terrans will be allowed to live in the areas they have cleared if they destroy their weapons. The main Terran group agrees to Selver’s terms; however, Davidson and a small group of renegades retreat to a remote logging camp. All of them except Davidson are killed when the Athsheans attack the camp. Davidson is isolated by the Athsheans; this is their treatment for insanity.
The Terrans are transported from Athshe after they promise that the planet will not be colonized again. A league commissioner from the planet Hain, Lepennon, counsels the Athsheans to return to their earlier way of life, giving up war. Selver replies, “Maybe after I die people will be as they were before I was born and before you came. But I do not think they will.”
Bibliography
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Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Views:Ursula K. Le Guin. New York: Chelsea House, 1986.
Cadden, Michael. Ursula K. Le Guin Beyond Genre: Fiction for Children and Adults. New York: Routledge, 2005.
Davis, Laurence, and Peter G. Stillman. The New Utopian Politics of Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Dispossessed.” Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2005.
Reid, Suzanne Elizabeth. Presenting Ursula K. Le Guin. New York: Twayne, 1997.
Rochelle, Warren. Communities of the Heart: The Rhetoric of Myth in the Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin. Liverpool, England: Liverpool University Press, 2001.
Spivack, Charlotte. Ursula K. Le Guin. Boston: Twayne, 1984.
Ursula K. Le Guin’s Web Site. www.ursulakleguin.com/UKL‗info.html
Wayne, Kathryn Ross. Redefining Moral Education: Life, Le Guin, and Language. San Francisco: Austin & Winfield, 1996.
White, Donna R. Dancing with Dragons: Ursula K. Le Guin and the Critics. Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 1999.