The Word for World Is Forest in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Aug 25, 2010 Carl rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasysci-fi

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. My original review is left below, since I don't have time to write a full review right now. Gave it 5 stars, though apparently even the author didn't like how much of an evil strawman the antagonist is. I liked it anyway-- probably just enjoyed hating the villain too much, I suppose. Anyway, great short novel, and an interesting take on planetary romance-- leaning more towards what I think of as anthropological sci-fi, though that is a problematic label (but actually very interesting in its prob My original review is left below, since I don't have time to write a full review right now. Gave it 5 stars, though apparently even the author didn't like how much of an evil strawman the antagonist is. I liked it anyway-- probably just enjoyed hating the villain too much, I suppose. Anyway, great short novel, and an interesting take on planetary romance-- leaning more towards what I think of as anthropological sci-fi, though that is a problematic label (but actually very interesting in its problematicness).

Really enjoying this short book so far. The shorter novels of this period (New Wave sci-fi) may sometimes feel like they don't have room to really draw out a plot like we expect to be done, but I have to admit, I wish people were writing more short stuff like this nowadays. Still a bit beyond the reach of a novella in a journal, but shorter than the 4-500 + page monsters that seem mandatory in the field now. I like long books too-- just wish we had the shorter option as well.

In many ways it feels like LeGuin is hitting us over the head with a postcolonial club in this book, but hey, it's sci-fi, and the genre has a long tradition of exaggeration and black and white conflict between the clearly good and the clearly evil. The influence of Vietnam is clear, from the military tech used to the atrocities and the construction of the natives as a not human, but human enough to villainize on the part of the main villain (ironically enough). I also just found a reference to D-day by way of justifying the genocidal war against the natives-- which I take to be a reference to the use of the patriotic narrative of WWII to justify other wars, such as Vietnam.

The culture/society of the the natives is fascinating, and LeGuin's family history in anthropology shines through. I've never run across a more intriguing attempt to portray a society living at the intersection of the "real world" and the timeless world of myth-- possibly exaggerated a bit much (this is an alien culture, after all), but clearly drawn from knowledge of the role of myth, archetypes, etc, in anthropology. I think there is a bit of Jungian influence-- more than I'd like-- but I think it's possible to read it without that. No, I don't like Jung, I admit, but maybe I just have not delved into his work enough. In any case, I hazard the term "archetypes" partly because of what seems to be a Jungian connection, but I don't think we need to be hard-core Jungian to use that term. Or perhaps we could evade the Jungian connotations with a reference to "mythic prototypes". Whatever-- I find it a fascinating and productive stretching of our perceptions of religion, gods, etc-- "anthropological" sci-fi at it's best, taking the term to = creating a new culture and investigating the problems of interacting with/understanding it (and ignoring the misuse of "anthro-"). It could be said to go too far, taking our image of the "primitive" and exaggerating it to make it ever more the exotic Other-- but I don't think that is a fair criticism, since the book is very aware of the problem of Otherness and attacks it very skillfully. In particular, the chapter I just read shows the main villain (of the oafish sort, but very despicably evil nevertheless) getting trapped by his conflicting excuses-- the natives are not human and therefore may be enslaved and treated horribly, but he rapes their women, so he must consider them human or he would be committing bestiality. Shortly thereafter he stops sleeping with them and goes on with his genocide.

There is a not-so-subtle juxtaposition of a feminist critique with this postcolonial critique. Right from the start we see that Earth men use Earth women as broodmares and whores-- they are even shipped from the home planet to placate the men working on the colonial planet. So far the connection has not been made explicit, but it is an expected comparison of the plight of two sorts of "subaltern"-- commodified/objectified women and the bestialized, castrated, monstrous Other of the native. There is actually a defined contrast between male and female roles in the native population as well, but in that situation both positions are arguably positions of power and respect-- not so with the Earth women, as portrayed so far. ...more

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Sep 16, 2013 Peter rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sciencefiction

In the running for my favorite of the Hainish books. Le Guin handles a different issue related to colonialism in each of the books and this deals with racism & conceptions of (as well as the introduction of) violence. It explores interestingly, also, the justifications that are made possible by considering another group (or race or species) "other" or in some way sub-human. It's probably the most upsetting (and least hopeful) of the series. ...more

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