The Word for World Is Forest

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

På English

Publicerades 17 mars 1972 av G. P. Putnam's Sons.

OCLC-nummer:
4487461348

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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 …

19 utgåvor

recenserade Floresta é o Nome do Mundo av Ursula K. Le Guin (Ciclo Hainish, #5)

"a substância de seu mundo não era a terra, mas a floresta"

floresta é o nome do mundo tem uma estrutura caleidoscópica, múltipla como a floresta. em vez de uma narrativa exatamente coesa, o que temos são diferentes perspectivas, nenhuma delas unificadora do todo.

don davidson representa a mentalidade colonizadora em seu ápice destrutivo. é um homem arrogante, que direciona sua violência a tudo que seja vulnerável. ele por si só é um homem fraco. sua força vem de apetrechos: instrumentos mecânicos como armas de fogo e gafanhotos (os meios de transporte aéreo do livro), além de um status privilegiado nas hierarquias da colônia.

"os fracos conspiram contra os fortes, o homem forte tem de ser independente e cuidar de si" (cap. 7)

em athshe, uma terra cheia de vida, davidson vê apenas alvos: "creechies" aparentemente inofensivos que se escondem em tocas no meio da mata. árvores e demais seres, para don, são como objetos inertes, apenas aguardando para …

re read of this

I wish i owned the version with this cover! recommended this to a friend, thought i would reread to see if I liked it as much as i used to. I do. I definitely a message story and anti-colonialism is in the forefront. It's short and reads like a parable.

None

Sure, it's a Vietnam allegory (if not a perfect one). But that's the least interesting thing about it. LeGuin uses it all to talk language - what new concepts do to language, what new words do to old concepts. Once you've turned someone into "creatures" and their villages into "warrens", what can you do but turn a "police action" into "genocide"? Once you've adopted terrorism in the name of freedom, can you ever go back or is this who you are now? Unlike some of the others in the cycle, it's over in just 169 pages with no clear conclusions to be drawn; once you're that far apart, once you can no longer agree on what words mean, how do you even begin to contemplate coexistence?

Good thing this was only ever applicable in the early 70s.