The Word for World is Forest
Encyclopedia
The Word for World Is Forest is a science fiction
novel
by Ursula K. Le Guin
, published in 1976 and based on her 1972 novella which was nominated for a Nebula Award
.
It is part of Le Guin's Hainish Cycle.
. Terran greed spirals around native innocence and wisdom, turning the ancient society upside down.
Humans have learned interstellar travel from the people of Hain
(the origin-planet of all humanoid races, including the Athsheans, despite their appearance). The various planets have been expanding independently, but during the novel it is learned that the 'League of All Worlds' has been formed. News arrives via an ansible
, a new discovery. Previously they had been cut off, 27 light-years from Earth, meaning a 54-year delay in question and response.
Athshe's plants and animals are similar to those of Earth, placed there by the Hainish people in their first wave of colonisation that also settled Earth. The Cetian visitor also states categorically that the native humans "came from the same, original, Hainist stock". It is not explained why they are green-furred and only one meter tall. Other distinctive humans such as the Gethenians are said to have been produced by genetic manipulation by the ancient Hainish colonisers.
The events of the novel occur after The Dispossessed
, where both the ansible and the League of Worlds are unrealised dreams. Also well before Planet of Exile
, where human settlers have learned to coexist. A date in the 24th century has been suggested.
Colonists from Earth take over a planet that the locals call Athshe, which means "forest," rather than "dirt," like their home planet. They follow the 19th century model of colonization: cutting down trees, planting farms, building mines, and enslaving indigenous peoples. The natives are ill equipped to comprehend this, since they're a subsistent people who rely on the forests, and have no cultural precedent for tyranny, slavery, or war. The invaders take the land of these tiny forest people without any resistance.
Earth has suffered some environmental disasters and people in North America have known starvation. The military culture has some familiar aspects, but there have been cultural shifts. Both drug-use and homosexuality are acceptable, even in the military. Some Terrans feel a rivalry with the other humanoid cultures, especially the Cetians. Former national rivalries have faded, with North Americans, Vietnamese and Indians working together harmoniously. (The book was written during the Vietnam War
, of which Le Guin was an outspoken opponent; the depiction of Americans and Vietnamese as cooperation in the conquest and subjugation of a forest-dwelling people could hardly be accidental.)
The innocent, ingrained obedience of the Athsheans and the fact that they never seem to sleep makes them seem to be ideal slaves, practicing what in humans is called polyphasic sleep
. One of the worst slave-masters is Captain Davidson (who is not the leader of the Terrans, a common misconception), who regularly beats the "creechies", as he calls the Athsheans. But the fact is that they take a few dreamless catnaps spread throughout the day and go into a state of lucid dreaming
at will, and quite often. They also see the "dream-time" as a world just as real as the "world-time" and hate hallucinogens which the humans use, because they have no control over the dreams generated by the "poisons". Most of the "yumens" make no effort to understand this and drive them harder when they catch the Athsheans "daydreaming." Deprived of REM sleep, the slaves' mental and physical health deteriorates. The only human who begins to understand this is the colony's anthropologist, Raj Lyubov, who saves several slaves from grisly deaths at Davidson's hands. When a tiny native woman is raped by Davidson and dies of her wounds, her husband, Selver, begins to dream of war.
No one has dreamed of war before, but Selver is able to share his dream and sing his plans with the rest of his people. He organises a raid on a logging camp, killing more than 200 humans and humbling Davidson. To his people, he has becomes a sha'ab, a word that means both "translator" and "god".
Meantime, a starship arrives bringing an ansible intended for another nearby world, and also two non-Terrans, a Cetian and a man of Hain. Via ansible, they learn that there is now a "League of All Worlds
" and that Terran colonial policies have changed. The ansible is left at the colony so that the Terrans can be controlled by their own superiors. Instructions are issued to free the Athshean slaves and generally moderate the policies.
Outraged by all this, and suspecting that the "ansible" is a fraud or controlled by Cetians, Davidson secretly organises a raid and mass slaughter of a nearby Athshean tree-city. The Athsheans respond by staging a massive raid on "Central", the main Terran base, which they manage to overrun.
Particularly shocking is that the Athsheans intentionally kill the Terran women, reasoning that the women will otherwise establish a fast-breeding Terran colony. This is indeed the intention; the settlers plan to make a permanent home on "New Tahiti", not just to take its logs. For their part, the Athsheans have no tradition of warfare and therefore no rules, and anyway, their own women take part in the fighting.
The revolution upends the Athshean culture but succeeds in ending Terran domination. For the atrocities he has committed, Davidson is exiled to an island of bare rock, which had been a thriving forest village before his rule, to be given food and medicine but no human contact for the rest of his life. The surviving humans (not including Lyubov, who was accidentally killed in the revolt) return home on the next ship to arrive.
, was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Novella in 1973 and won the 1973 Hugo Award for Best Novella
." Le Guin has stated in her introduction to the novel that the Vietnam War
was a major influence on this work. Her original title was The Little Green Men, but Ellison (editor of Again, Dangerous Visions) changed it with Le Guin's reluctant consent.
An evidently relevant touch is the presence of Vietnamese people
among the oppressor humans, presumably intended to convey the point that today's oppressed might turn into tomorrow's oppressor.
's film Full Metal Jacket
(this is an anachronism
as the movie takes place in and around 1968, while The Word For World is Forest was published in 1976).
In chapter 43 of the expanded version of Stephen King
's 1978 novel The Stand
, dialogue between the characters Nick Andros (who is characterized as an avid science fiction reader) and Tom Cullen alludes to The Word For World is Forest as they enter Woods County, Oklahoma: "'The world is the place I mean,' Tom said. 'Are we going into the world, mister?' Tom hesitated and then asked with hesitant gravity: 'Is Woods the word for world?' Slowly, Nick nodded his head."
Discussing James Cameron
's movie Avatar, SF critic Gary Westfahl
said that "the science fiction story that most closely resembles Avatar has to be Ursula K. Le Guin
's novella
The Word for World Is Forest"
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...
, published in 1976 and based on her 1972 novella which was nominated for a Nebula Award
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
.
It is part of Le Guin's Hainish Cycle.
Setting
Several centuries in the future, humans from Earth have established a logging colony and military base named "New Tahiti" on Athshe, a tree-covered planet whose small, green-furred, big-eyed inhabitants have formed a culture centered on lucid dreamingLucid dreaming
A lucid dream is a dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming. The term was coined by the Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik van Eeden . In a lucid dream, the dreamer can actively participate in and manipulate imaginary experiences in the dream environment. Lucid dreams can seem real and...
. Terran greed spirals around native innocence and wisdom, turning the ancient society upside down.
Humans have learned interstellar travel from the people of Hain
Hain (planet)
Hain is a fictional planet that plays an important background role in the science fiction novels of Ursula K. Le Guin's Hainish Cycle. It is described more closely in some later short stories. It is the oldest culture in both the League of Worlds and later the Ekumen and is about 140 Light Years...
(the origin-planet of all humanoid races, including the Athsheans, despite their appearance). The various planets have been expanding independently, but during the novel it is learned that the 'League of All Worlds' has been formed. News arrives via an ansible
Ansible
An ansible is a hypothetical machine capable of instantaneous or superluminal communication. Ansibles occur as plot devices in science fiction literature.- Origin :The word ansible was coined by Ursula K. Le Guin in her 1966 novel, Rocannon's World...
, a new discovery. Previously they had been cut off, 27 light-years from Earth, meaning a 54-year delay in question and response.
Athshe's plants and animals are similar to those of Earth, placed there by the Hainish people in their first wave of colonisation that also settled Earth. The Cetian visitor also states categorically that the native humans "came from the same, original, Hainist stock". It is not explained why they are green-furred and only one meter tall. Other distinctive humans such as the Gethenians are said to have been produced by genetic manipulation by the ancient Hainish colonisers.
The events of the novel occur after The Dispossessed
The Dispossessed
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia is a 1974 utopian science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, set in the same fictional universe as that of The Left Hand of Darkness . The book won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1974, both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1975, and received a nomination for...
, where both the ansible and the League of Worlds are unrealised dreams. Also well before Planet of Exile
Planet of Exile
Planet of Exile is a 1966 science-fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin in her Hainish Cycle. It was first published as an Ace Double following the tête-bêche format, bundled with Mankind Under the Leash by Thomas M. Disch.-Plot summary:...
, where human settlers have learned to coexist. A date in the 24th century has been suggested.
Plot summary
"The Athshean word for 'world' is the same as their word for 'forest'." Raj Lyubov, one of the novel's major characters.Colonists from Earth take over a planet that the locals call Athshe, which means "forest," rather than "dirt," like their home planet. They follow the 19th century model of colonization: cutting down trees, planting farms, building mines, and enslaving indigenous peoples. The natives are ill equipped to comprehend this, since they're a subsistent people who rely on the forests, and have no cultural precedent for tyranny, slavery, or war. The invaders take the land of these tiny forest people without any resistance.
Earth has suffered some environmental disasters and people in North America have known starvation. The military culture has some familiar aspects, but there have been cultural shifts. Both drug-use and homosexuality are acceptable, even in the military. Some Terrans feel a rivalry with the other humanoid cultures, especially the Cetians. Former national rivalries have faded, with North Americans, Vietnamese and Indians working together harmoniously. (The book was written during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, of which Le Guin was an outspoken opponent; the depiction of Americans and Vietnamese as cooperation in the conquest and subjugation of a forest-dwelling people could hardly be accidental.)
The innocent, ingrained obedience of the Athsheans and the fact that they never seem to sleep makes them seem to be ideal slaves, practicing what in humans is called polyphasic sleep
Polyphasic sleep
Polyphasic sleep, a term coined by early 20th-century psychologist J.S. Szymanski, refers to the practice of sleeping multiple times in a 24-hour period—usually more than two, in contrast to biphasic sleep or monophasic sleep . It does not imply any particular sleep schedule...
. One of the worst slave-masters is Captain Davidson (who is not the leader of the Terrans, a common misconception), who regularly beats the "creechies", as he calls the Athsheans. But the fact is that they take a few dreamless catnaps spread throughout the day and go into a state of lucid dreaming
Lucid dreaming
A lucid dream is a dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming. The term was coined by the Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik van Eeden . In a lucid dream, the dreamer can actively participate in and manipulate imaginary experiences in the dream environment. Lucid dreams can seem real and...
at will, and quite often. They also see the "dream-time" as a world just as real as the "world-time" and hate hallucinogens which the humans use, because they have no control over the dreams generated by the "poisons". Most of the "yumens" make no effort to understand this and drive them harder when they catch the Athsheans "daydreaming." Deprived of REM sleep, the slaves' mental and physical health deteriorates. The only human who begins to understand this is the colony's anthropologist, Raj Lyubov, who saves several slaves from grisly deaths at Davidson's hands. When a tiny native woman is raped by Davidson and dies of her wounds, her husband, Selver, begins to dream of war.
No one has dreamed of war before, but Selver is able to share his dream and sing his plans with the rest of his people. He organises a raid on a logging camp, killing more than 200 humans and humbling Davidson. To his people, he has becomes a sha'ab, a word that means both "translator" and "god".
Meantime, a starship arrives bringing an ansible intended for another nearby world, and also two non-Terrans, a Cetian and a man of Hain. Via ansible, they learn that there is now a "League of All Worlds
League of All Worlds
The League of All Worlds is an alliance of planets, mostly descended from colonization efforts from the planet Hain, in the fictional Hainish Cycle universe created by the science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin. In the series, it is destroyed by aliens called the Shing who have the ability to lie...
" and that Terran colonial policies have changed. The ansible is left at the colony so that the Terrans can be controlled by their own superiors. Instructions are issued to free the Athshean slaves and generally moderate the policies.
Outraged by all this, and suspecting that the "ansible" is a fraud or controlled by Cetians, Davidson secretly organises a raid and mass slaughter of a nearby Athshean tree-city. The Athsheans respond by staging a massive raid on "Central", the main Terran base, which they manage to overrun.
Particularly shocking is that the Athsheans intentionally kill the Terran women, reasoning that the women will otherwise establish a fast-breeding Terran colony. This is indeed the intention; the settlers plan to make a permanent home on "New Tahiti", not just to take its logs. For their part, the Athsheans have no tradition of warfare and therefore no rules, and anyway, their own women take part in the fighting.
The revolution upends the Athshean culture but succeeds in ending Terran domination. For the atrocities he has committed, Davidson is exiled to an island of bare rock, which had been a thriving forest village before his rule, to be given food and medicine but no human contact for the rest of his life. The surviving humans (not including Lyubov, who was accidentally killed in the revolt) return home on the next ship to arrive.
Publishing history
The novella version, originally published in Again, Dangerous VisionsAgain, Dangerous Visions
Again, Dangerous Visions is the sequel to the science fiction short story anthology Dangerous Visions, first published in 1972. It was edited by Harlan Ellison and illustrated by Ed Emshwiller....
, was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Novella in 1973 and won the 1973 Hugo Award for Best Novella
Hugo Award for Best Novella
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
." Le Guin has stated in her introduction to the novel that the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
was a major influence on this work. Her original title was The Little Green Men, but Ellison (editor of Again, Dangerous Visions) changed it with Le Guin's reluctant consent.
An evidently relevant touch is the presence of Vietnamese people
Vietnamese people
The Vietnamese people are an ethnic group originating from present-day northern Vietnam and southern China. They are the majority ethnic group of Vietnam, comprising 86% of the population as of the 1999 census, and are officially known as Kinh to distinguish them from other ethnic groups in Vietnam...
among the oppressor humans, presumably intended to convey the point that today's oppressed might turn into tomorrow's oppressor.
In popular culture
A copy of The Word For World is Forest is visible at the bedside of the character Joker in a scene set in Vietnam in Stanley KubrickStanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
's film Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is an adaptation of the 1979 novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford and stars Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Arliss Howard and Adam Baldwin. The film follows a platoon of U.S...
(this is an anachronism
Anachronism
An anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος — is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...
as the movie takes place in and around 1968, while The Word For World is Forest was published in 1976).
In chapter 43 of the expanded version of Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
's 1978 novel The Stand
The Stand
The Stand is a post-apocalyptic horror/fantasy novel by American author Stephen King. It demonstrates the scenario in his earlier short story, Night Surf...
, dialogue between the characters Nick Andros (who is characterized as an avid science fiction reader) and Tom Cullen alludes to The Word For World is Forest as they enter Woods County, Oklahoma: "'The world is the place I mean,' Tom said. 'Are we going into the world, mister?' Tom hesitated and then asked with hesitant gravity: 'Is Woods the word for world?' Slowly, Nick nodded his head."
Discussing James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
's movie Avatar, SF critic Gary Westfahl
Gary Westfahl
Gary Westfahl is a scholarly author and reviewer of science fiction. He has written reviews for the Los Angeles Times, Internet Review of Science Fiction and Locus Online. He is a professor at the University of California in Riverside....
said that "the science fiction story that most closely resembles Avatar has to be Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...
's novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
The Word for World Is Forest"