Short Fiction Month: The Silence of the Asonu - Ursula K. Le Guin

The Silence of the Asonu is probably not one of the best known stories by Le Guin. It wasn't nominated for any awards I'm aware of and has not been reprinted much outside Le Guin collections. The story originally appeared in Orion in 1998 under the title The Wisdom of The Asonu. All subsequent publications exchange wisdom for silence. In 2010 it was reprinted in Lightspeed where it can still be read for free.

The story describes an alien people who, as adults, are almost entirely silent. While younger Asonu talk quite a lot, older members of the species can go years without uttering a single word. This silence is fascinating to many people and the Asonu soon become the objects of intense study.

There is a lot of humour in the story, especially at the expense of people reading all sorts of things into the Asonu silence. Some see them as good listeners for instance.

Others follow their Asonu guides or hosts about, talking to them  continually, confiding their whole life stories to them, in rapture at  having at last found a listener who won’t interrupt or comment or  mention that his cousin had an even larger tumor than that. As such  people usually know little Asonu and speak mostly or entirely in their  own language, they evidently aren’t worried by the question that vexes  some visitors: Since the Asonu don’t talk, do they, in fact, listen?

Their silence makes them appear wise to some. People approach them with a religious reverence and their every word is considered a pearl of wisdom. Some go to extremes not to miss the few words that are being spoken. Under all that mocking are a couple of very serious messages though.

The human tendency to fill in the blanks if someone does not speak for themselves is one of them. Le Guin takes it one step further by mentioning an incident in which the silence of the Asonu is considered a justification for a horrible crime. Le Guin in effect points out that not having a voice, leads those that do to not take your needs, desires or feelings into account. Replace Asonu with the name of any random marginalized group and you'll see her point. Another point the story makes is just as sad really. Apparently it is very hard to accept that not everybody has the same desires. To not speak is seen as concealment, a snub, an insult, something to be cured. If we cannot accept difference within our own species this really does not bode well for any alien that might cross our path.

The Silence of the Asonu is a little gem. Both a humorous tale and a call for more empathy, it packs a lot into a short text. It must have flown under the radar the years it was first published. This is easily as good as some of Le Guin's award nominated short fiction. As far as I am concerned, this is recommended reading.

Story Details
Title: The Silence of the Asonu
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Language: English
Originally published: Orion (1998)
Read in: Lightspeed Year One, edited by John Joseph Adams (2011)
Story length: Short Story, approximately 2,500 words
Awards: None
Available online: Lightspeed

The Wind's Twelve Quarters - Ursula K. Le Guin

The Wind's Twelve Quarters is Le Guin's first collection of short fiction and was published in 1975. Quite unusual for a single author short science fiction collection, it is still in print decades after it has been first published. It is generally regarded as the strongest of her collections of short fiction. Not having read the others, I don't have an opinion on that but I did think The Wind's Twelve Quarters is a bit of a mixed bag. It contains a total of seventeen stories, presented more or less in the order they were published in and cover the period between her first publication in 1962 and 1974, by which time she had published some of her best know and most critically acclaimed novels. Le Guin chose this order so the reader could experience her growth as an author. In that respect the collection certainly succeeds. The later stories are much stronger than the earlier ones. Most of the stories have a short introduction by Le Guin about the inspiration for the story and the editorial changes compared to the original magazine publications. A fair number of stories in the collection are what Le Guin calls psychomyths.These stories are hard to pin down but they are independent of setting and often have a surreal quality to them. Le Guin herself puts it like this:

...more or less surrealistic tales, which share with fantasy the quality of taking place outside any history, outside of time, in that region of the living mind which - without invoking any consideration of immortality - seems to be without spatial or temporal limits at all.

Le Guin on psychomyths - Foreword

Most of the stories that are not tied to her novels seem to fall into this category. Quite a few of the stories are linked to her novels though. There are Earthsea stories in this collection as well as stories set in the Hainish universe and even a story tied to her novel The Dispossessed (1974). The opening story, Selmy's Necklace (1964), is essentially the prologue of Le Guin's first novel, Roccanon's World (1966). It is set in her Hainish future history and in some ways, reminded me a lot of some of Poul Anderson's Technic Civilization stories. It is seen mostly form the point of view of a member of a less technically advanced race trying to retrieve an heirloom that that was lost decades ago. She doesn't properly comprehend the consequences of her request to be allowed to visit the aliens but to the reader the tragedy that is unfolding is quite clear. A science fiction story written in language that is more often found in fantasy. This story clearly shows why Le Guin usually doesn't make too rigorous a distinction between the two.

The second story is April in Paris (1962) is the earliest story in the collection and Le Guin's first sale. I can't say I liked it much. I guess you could say it is a time travel story. I thought it was pretty predictable with more than a bit wish fulfilment in it. Le Guin then moves on to a story that is also a bit predictable but conceptually more interesting. The Masters (1963) deals with a man who is brought up in a very strict guild like environment where things have always been done a certain way and where deviating from this way, or trying to improve upon it, is heresy. He can't resist the lure of progress though. There is another story that is thematically related to this one in the collection. The Masters is very dark, full of despair. Stylistically probably not the strongest piece but certainly an interesting one. The Darkness Box (1963), like The Masters is a piece that can be considered a fantasy or perhaps an early psychomyth. It's a story with a sense of inevitably about it, of pointless repetition. Not a story that makes one feel happy although one of the characters sees things differently.

The Word of Unbinding and The Rule of Names (both 1964) are Le Guin's first Earthsea stories. I haven't read any of the Earthsea novels so putting them into the perspective of the whole series is going to be a bit difficult. I think they lay the groundwork for the system of magic found in the Earthsea novels. A system that appears to be quite sophisticated judging from these few pages. The stories are uncut fantasy, the only ones in this collection. I will have to read one of the Earthsea novels to be sure but I think I prefer Le Guin's science fiction. Still, Earthsea is on the to read list.  

Winter's King (1969) is another story tied to one of Le Guin's novels. It is set on the same planet as The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), a novel in the Hainish cycle that is also on my to read list. The version in this collection has been changed to fit the novel more closely and features the wintry world of Gethen. Le Guin plays with titles and particular pronouns to underline the androgyny or the inhabitants. The story itself is one of mind control and a King struggling to do what is best for the kingdom. It certainly makes me curious about the novel. Gethen seems like an intriguing place and the way gender appears to play no role in society opens up all kinds of interesting possibilities. Something that struck me about this story is how, like in Selmy's Necklace, Le Guin presents a technologically less advanced society in a science fiction story. Some readers would say there is a hint of fantasy in this story.

The Good Trip (1970) is a story that is probably contemporary. As the title suggests it is about drug use among other things. The trip makes it quite a strange story full of weird cognitive leaps and odd situations. Le Guin didn't seem to be opposed to people experimenting with LSD at the time, which was no doubt frowned upon. She does mention in the introduction that she feels that "people who expand their consciousness by living instead of taking chemicals usually come back with much more interesting reports of where they've been." Now there is a bit of wisdom for you.

Nine Lives (1969) is one of the longer pieces of the collection and is a classic science fiction story. One that explores the possibilities of a new technology, in this case cloning. Le Guin studies the bond between genetically identical individuals, who shared most of their formative years and education and have been brought up to function as a team. The idea is disturbing on many levels. These people are a product, designed to outperform ordinary humans but also to be so self sufficient that without each other, they'd be lost. In a way, it is a barrier to get ideas of their own, which of course Le Guin can't help but challenge. As with the best science fiction stories, this one contains plenty of food for thought.

The next story, Things (1970) is another psychomyth. I guess you could say it is about a man who has to take the last leap. It is beautifully written but personally I think it doesn't quite take that many words to convey the message. Le Guin creates quite an elaborate setting. One which would have been exploring in more detail, but Le Guin takes the story in another direction and much of the setting ends up being only marginally relevant to the story. This one was a miss for me. The collection continues with A Trip to the Head (also 1970). All I have to say about this, is that it went right over my head. I guess Le Guin's writing is too intelligent for me sometimes.

What follows is the story with the most beautiful title in the collection. Vaster Than Empires and More Slow (1970) is a story in the Hainish Cycle, covering the lonely journey of a ship of explorers. Given the nature space travel at relativistic speeds, they give up everything they've known to go on this journey. Something not everybody is willing to do. The crew consists of misfits, people who have nothing to loose and the occasional completely dysfunctional character. A recipe for trouble and indeed, the first planet they survey, puts them to the test. This again is pretty straight forward science fiction, with perhaps a touch of horror. Or suspense if you will. I liked it a lot but it is not outstanding.

The Stars Below (1973) explores in a bit more depth, one of the themes we also encountered in The Masters. Scientific curiosity clashes with custom or religion and ends in violence. Where The Masters deals with the event itself, this story shows us the aftermath. An astronomer who's instruments were destroyed hiding in an abandoned mine from his tormentors. It is a tragedy, even when he finds something to replace his interest in the stars. A moving story. I thought it was one of the better ones in the collection.

The collection continues with another science fiction story that is unrelated to a novel. The Fields of Vision (1973) about a group of astronauts who discover a strange city, for lack of a better word, on Mars that messes with their perceptions. One of them does not survive the trip back, the other two have lasting problems with their sense of hearing and sight. Their adjustment to this situation takes very different routes. I liked how Le Guin linked our perceptions with religious experiences in this story, and how much our brain relies on what our senses tell us. Most people trust what their senses tell them without question. In this story the characters know the input they are receiving is somehow changed. The author depicts this as quite a scary experience.

The next story is a very short, to the point science fiction story in which the main character is a tree. Direction of the Road (1974) is a highlight in the collection for me, a brilliant little story about relativity. It would spoil the story to say anything about the plot but is such a strange reversal of how we think of the world works, that I just had to read this story again right after I finished it. If I had to pick a favourite, this story might well be it.

For The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (1974), Le Guin received a Hugo Award as well as a nomination for the Locus Award. It is another psychomyth, perhaps the one closest to the loose definition Le Guin put in the foreword to this collection. The story is very abstract in a way, no details on the setting, the author basically tells us to imagine our own, or characters are given. The story revolves around a scapegoat, one who is necessary to keep the rest of society happy. Once again a disturbing thought. One, as the story points out, not everybody can live with.

The final story of the collection is also one of the strongest ones. The Day Before the Revolution (1974) won a Nebula and a Locus award and was nominated for a Hugo. The story is tied to the novel The Dispossessed, a novel that I still consider to be one of the best in science fiction. It's main character is Odo, who is a historical figure in the novel, the inspiration for the anarchistic society on Anarres. She may be honoured after her death, the life of a revolutionary is not easy. The story shows us an ageing Odo, full of grief and a premonition of death. The subtitle of The Dispossessed is An Ambiguous Utopia and this story is another expression of it. Odo achieved a lot but at a high price. I love the final paragraph of this story. As far as I am concerned, it should have won that Hugo too.  

The Wind's Twelve Quarter ends on a high, that is for sure. Some of the stories in this collection are no doubt among the best Le Guin as produced. All things considered, it isn't one of those very rare collections that manage a consistently high quality though. It is a collection that shows Le Guin's style, themes and development as a writer however. With links to her most important works and some award winning stories, perhaps it is not so strange this collection has been in print for more than three decades. I would not recommend someone with an interest in Le Guin's work to start here, it is probably better to have read a few novels first, but for the real fan it is definitely a must read.

Book Details
Title: The Wind's Twelve Quarters
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Pages: 303
Year: 2004
Language: English
Format: Mass Market paperback
ISBN: 978-0-06-091434-9
First published: 1975

The Word for World is Forest - Ursula K. Le Guin

The Word for World is Forest is a novel set in Le Guin's Hainish universe, bases on the Hugo award winning novella of the same title. Chronologically it is the second of the longer pieces (there's also a whole bunch of Hainish short fiction), after The Dispossessed (1974). The series was written out of chronological order though, this novel was published two years after The Dispossessed and some ten years after the first novel in the Hainish cycle, Rocannon's World. There's also an edition of the novel that combines it with The Eye of the Heron (1978), a novel that may or may not be part of the Hainish cycle. My edition is the 2010 reprint by Tor. It is said to be reissued in the wake of the success of the film Avatar, which shares certain themes with the novel. I haven't seen Avatar so I can't really tell you anything sensible about that.

New Tahiti is a recently colonized world. It's continents are covered in lush forests, an ideal export product for timber-hungry Earth. Once the forest has been cleared there should be plenty of land available to cultivate and further settle the planet. The native sentient species, the Athsheans, have not developed technology beyond a primitive level and are considered non-violent. In true frontier spirit, they are exploited for labour and sex, mistreated and generally accepted to be just another resource the planet has to offer. Problems arise when the poorly understood forest ecology collapses in places where excessive cutting has taken place. Erosion of the cleared top soil causes many areas to turn into wastelands. Further problems arise when the Athsheans finally respond to the provocations by the settlers and turn violent. The situation is quite a mess when representatives of the newly formed League of All Words arrive with a revolutionary new device.

Le Guin again manages to stuff in an awful lot of social commentary in such a short text. The novel contains a reference to the Vietnam War and some of the lessons learnt from it prevent the settlers from going on an all out offensive once the hostilities break out. One of the major characters, anthropologist Raj Lyubov, is actively seeking cooperation and a deeper understanding of Athshean culture. Not everybody is so accepting of this approach however. Captain Davidson is a man who feel that harsh measures are the only way to get the natives to be docile and productive. If that means beating, humiliating, raping or killing a few, well, that is what can be expected of life at the frontier. Or to put it in his words, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

The settlers may be internally divided, the gap between them and the natives is even wider. Although part of the treatment of the natives is due to plain cruelty, in other instances, an enormous lack of understanding between the two parties causes problems. Le Guin shows the misunderstandings but also the unwillingness to believe that the Athsheans are just as intelligent as the settlers. They are addressed in very simple, condescending English for instance, and the myth that they do not sleep, is believed long after it has been proven false. That sleep and dreaming are an important part of their culture and world view is missed by almost everyone.

Le Guin could have made it a story of the inevitable downfall of the native culture in the face of the settler's superior technology. And in a way it is, the author shows us a people with a stable, pacifistic and spiritually highly developed culture, living in harmony with their surroundings. Such a simple and, in the eyes of settlers, naive culture cannot escape being changed by the contact with the settlers. Although violence was not completely absent from their lives, the possibility has been introduced by the settles, disrupting the almost Eden-like society the Athsheans live in. An end to paradise, their lives will never be the same.

The author does give the story an interesting twist by introducing the ansible. This device is one of the things that connects the Hainish books, The Dispossessed for instance, discusses the theoretical framework for the device. It makes instant communication possible over light years of distance. Before this technology was introduced there was a time lag of 27 years between the settlers and Earth. In effect they were on their own. Any kind of response to crimes or mismanagement would have taken generations to arrive. Now, instructions can be called for immediately and accountability takes a whole new meaning. The effect of physical distance is diminished and so, the outcome of the story is not quite as tragic as one might expect at the start of the novel.

The Word for World is Forest is not considered the best of Le Guin's work. I haven't read enough of her books to say something sensible about that but I can say that I very much enjoyed reading it. As with other books by Le Guin I've read, my response was a bit delayed. It took me a few days to process what Le Guin put into this novel and the more I think about it, the more I see how complex the tale is. It's perhaps not quite as ambitious as The Dispossessed but still a fascinating read. After reading this book there is no escaping it, I'm going to have to read the Hainish Cycle in it's entirety.

Book Details
Title: The Word for World is Fores
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Publisher: Tor
Pages: 189
Year: 2010
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2464-1
First published: 1976

The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin

The Lathe of Heaven, first published in 1971, is one of Le Guin's better known novels. It was nominated for both the Nebula and Hugo awards and there have been quite a few reissues over the years. My copy is part of the Gollancz SF Masterworks series, number 44 to be precise. It is one of three works by Le Guin that are currently part of their selection. I read The Dispossessed a while ago. There's also a hardcover edition of The Left Hand of Darkness but that one appears to be out of print. The Lathe of Heaven is not part of Le Guin's Hainish cycle, as far as I can tell it is a standalone. There are two adaptations for television of this novel. I've seen neither but it's pretty hard to imagine how they could possibly live up to the standard of the book.

The mild mannered, unremarkable man George Orr has a frightening talent. Once in a while he wakes up after a particularly vivid dream and finds the world changed according to his dream. Frightened by the changes he makes to reality and his lack of control over them, Orr tries drugs to suppress the dream. Soon he is caught for exceeding his allotment and forced to undergo therapy for substance abuse. His psychiatrist is Dr. William Haber, a man specialized in dreams and well known for his research in the field. When George is sent to him, Haber is working on a machine that makes it possible to help a patient achieve the phase in which he or she dreams quicker than waiting for the natural cycle to take it's course. Haber is sceptical of George's claims but when he sees the differences George causes during a therapy session he begins to see the possibilities. Both for his personal advancement and improving the sorry state the world is in.

Describing the future (well, back then anyway, as near as I can figure out the story is set in 2002) the novel is set in is a bit of a problem. It keeps changing on the reader. One of the constants however is an extremely rapid warming of the earth due to the greenhouse effect. When we first meet George, he lives in a world he shares with seven billion other people. Not too far from the real figure in 2002, I think we had just over six billion that year. It suffers from severe shortages. Just about all resources the collapsed ecosystem can provide go into food production and it is not enough to properly feed everybody. Le Guin was obviously not optimistic about the effects humans were having on the planet. It's always a little odd to read science fiction that features a collapse at a point we've already passed. Still, looking form a 1970 point of view, the rapid rise of dependency on automobiles, worsening of the air quality and the huge expansion of the US highway network did provide valid reasons for concern. Le Guin's timing might have been off but we might still be heading in the direction she describes.

In essence, The Lathe of Heaven is a novel of two conflicting world views. While Haber feels that the world can be drastically improved and that since he has the means to do so, it is perfectly all right to change it according to his own wishes, George feels he is being used and that it is not for him to decide what the world should look like. Haber feels the world can be perfected, turned into utopia, George would accept it as it is. I guess George's view is mostly based on the Taoistic teachings that clearly influenced the novel. The title for instance, is taken from the Tao Te Ching. It turns out the be an incorrect translation but Le Guin didn't know that at the time. Haber's stance is a bit harder to pin down, Wikipedia suggests it is a positivist position he takes. I will take their word for it.

It is easy to think of Haber as a power hungry megalomaniac, and while he does develop some dangerous traits of the course of the novel, George would be the first to tell you he isn't. He's extrovert, confident in his abilities and even more confident that he sees right though his patients. In George's case at least, he doesn't. He thinks of George as someone who lacks initiative, who can be easily persuaded to go along with whatever Haber thinks best. It's a great contrast with the George the reader gets to see. A man who is perhaps not very quick in making up his mind about things, but does have a good sense of right and wrong. He also has the backbone to do something about it despite the fact that he is forced to undergo Haber's treatment. Le Guin provides ample food for thought with these two contrasting characters and the motivations that drive them.

As the novel progresses and more changes are made to the world, it atmosphere becomes more dreamlike. Without the context it is hard to tell of George is awake or dreaming in some passages. The world becomes less desperate, more controlled but also surreal to an extend. You can't deny that some of the world's problems are taken care of, but there is also a sense of loss and wrongness about the whole situation that keeps building towards the end of the novel. It definitely makes you think twice about wanting to change the world, consequences of actions and illusions of control and, for that matter, about whether or not George actually needs treatment.

Like previous books by Le Guin I've read, I found The Lathe of Heaven a thought-provoking read. Like with The Dispossessed I needed some time to process what I'd just read. Its a short work by today's standards but a pretty intense read. One than made me wonder why on earth I hadn't read more by this author long ago. This book is rightfully considered a classic of the genre. It's forty years old by now but it aged more gracefully than many of its contemporaries. To me, it feels like a book that will continue to find new readers. In fact, I recommend you give it a try.

Book details
Title: The Lathe of Heaven
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Publisher: Gollancz
Pages: 184
Year: 2001
Language: English
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-85798-951-9
First published: 1971

The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin

My experience with the writing of Ursula K. Le Guin is limited to one short novel and a short story. I enjoyed both and since neither the novel, The Eye of the Heron, nor the short story, The Season of the Ansarac, are considered Le Guin's greatest work so looking a bit further was tempting. Le Guin is one of the very few women to have made it to Gollancz' SF Masterworks lists. Two of her books are included main list, with a third limited to the hardcover series. Her 1974 novel The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia is the first of these, number 16 in the series. Although I will no doubt read The Lathe of Heaven, some time next year,The Dispossessed was higher on the list because of the link with Nancy Kress' Beggars in Spain. Reading that novel earlier this year made me curious about Le Guin's book. I can definitely see why it made Kress think.

Some 170 years ago a group of rebel anarchists from the planet Urras made a deal with the government they were rebelling against. In return for an end to the rebellion the movement got a one way trip to the moon, help establishing a colony and a promise to be left alone to implement their vision of what society should look like. At the opening of the story, a society without government, law, authority or personal property has formed on the moon Anarres. The moon is arid, low in resources and life on land has not evolved as far as on Urras. Survival on Anarres is a struggle and luxury of any kind is unknown. Still, people are mostly content to live by the philosophy of the leader of the rebel movement, a woman named Odo.

Despite the freedom and generally peaceful life on Anarres, human nature still has its dark side. Envy, guilt and greed are not so easily left behind. Something the physicist Shevek finds out when he tries to publish a ground-breaking theory on the nature of time. The only people who truly understand and appreciate what he is trying to do live on Urras. He will have to venture into the world of monetary economy, strange forms of government and personal possessions. A move not everybody on Anarres approves of.

I'm pretty sure that whatever I write on this book will not do it justice. I finished it on Sunday night and after sleeping on it, my mind is still reeling with the implications of what Le Guin wrote. I'm simply amazed at what she managed to put into this fairy compact novel in the way of ideas and ideologies and still manage to flesh them out enough to show both their strengths and weaknesses. Society on Anarres and Urras are radically different but Le Guin doesn't present either as right, or even better than the other. The capitalist system Shevek is exposed to, clearly has it's problems, while the anarchy on Anarres only seems workable in a place of extreme isolation.

This novel is full of different modes of governments and political theory but the very first thing that struck me about the novel is the use of language. On Anarres the people speak a constructed language designed by a computer. Their language frowns on the use of possessive pronouns (there is no such thing as personal possessions after all), so it isn't "my book" but "the book I am reading". When there is no longer a reason why the book should be in your possession you are supposed to return it or pass it on to someone who does need it. Le Guin refers to a scientific theory known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis here. This theory, oversimplified, states that language shapes thinking. By removing the possessive entirely, the programmers of this new language hoped to remove an in their eyes perverse impulse from society. I understand the theory is not as popular as it once was, but it does show up in older science fiction novels quite a lot. If I remember correctly, Frank Herbert refers to it in some of his novels and it also shows up in works of people like Jack Vance and Samuel R. Delany to name a few. Whether or not you support this theory, Le Guin does some interesting things with it in this novel.

Besides language, time is also an important element in The Dispossessed. Shevek's researches a new mathematical understanding of time, one that he hopes will lead to a technique that will make it possible to instantly communicate across the vast distances of space. He means to make the current reliance on electromagnetic means of transmitting, which are limited to the speed of light, obsolete. Shevek views time as linear and as a circle, with Le Guin including an analogy of a book. It's all there between the covers but it only makes sense if you look at it in the right order. In line with Shevek's ideas on time, the novel is written out of chronological order, with Shevek's departure being the first chapter followed by chapters set on Urras mixed with chapters describing events that lead up to his decision to leave. In effect the final pages are both the halfway point and end of the novel.

Some say science fiction is a way of looking at the present. This book certainly supports that statement. There is no parallel for the anarchistic society Le Guin describes on Anarres but events on Urras are certainly recognizable enough. The state that hosts Shevek appears to be a laissez faire capitalist state, with a number of neighbours who prefer other political and economic systems. A lot of the politics go right over Shevek's head, he's hopelessly unprepared and very naive about the political minefield he has willing walked into. For the reader, even if these events play in the background to an extend, an outline of the cold war and the smaller conflicts played out on the territory of less powerful states are clear.

I liked both the form and themes of this novel a lot but they do not make for the easiest book to read. A lot of the novel is devoted to Shevek's observations of an alien world and its economic system or his developing theory on time. The long, fairly densely written chapters do no lend themselves to reading in a few stolen moments on your lunch break or right before going to sleep. It is a pretty challenging book some may even say it is dry at certain points in the novel. For me, it was not beyond what I could handle. Many of Shevek's insights were very interesting because they provide a convincing outside view on a capitalist system. His opinions are so convincingly different that I loved every moment of this novel. As far as I am concerned The Dispossessed is an absolute must read for fans of the genre and more than worthy of the shelf full of awards it has collected.

Book Details
Title: The Dispossessed
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Publisher: Gollancz
Pages: 318
Year: 2002
Language: English
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-85798-882-6
First published: 1974

The Eye of the Heron - Ursula K. Le Guin

I'm running another older review tonight. I may actually get around to writing a second review this week, but then again, I may not. With one more full week until my vacation I've found I really, really need some time off. So instead of staring at a half-hearted attempt of a review I've dug up one of the older ones. This one was originally written in December 2008 and as usual, did need some editing.

I picked up this very cheap copy of the Starscape edition (Tom Doherty’s YA imprint) of The Eye of the Heron a while ago, when I was actually looking for something else. Books have a way of ambushing you like that. Le Guin is of course one of the greats of speculative fiction but this is actually the first of her novels I have read. Starscape presents this as a book for ages 10 and above but while the story is straightforward enough, the philosophical ideas that underpin the story are quite complex. It is quite an interesting read for the more mature reader as well. Le Guin does not waste any words in telling the story, she delivers a to the point but surprisingly complex novel. If you do read it at age 10, I suggest returning to it a few years later, you’ll probably see it in a different light then.

The Eye of the Heron is set on a planet that was fairly recently colonized. Le Guin doesn’t mention a year but sometime in the 22nd century seems reasonable. Two waves of colonists have settled a small area of the planet. One group consisted of criminals from a nation that covers South-America, sent on a one way trip to dispose of them. Several decades later a new group of undesirables arrives. It consists of political activists is sent to the planet when one of earth’s governments feel threatened by their movement.

The planet they are stranded on does not appear to have any large land animals on it and the creatures that do inhabit the world are mostly harmless. A fact that saves the early colonists from dying out completely. Hunger takes quite a few nonetheless. After the second group of colonists arrives an interesting society forms. Or rather, two interesting societies. The main settlement of the planet is ruled by an aristocracy descendent from the first group of colonists and provides most of the goods for the community. The second group of colonists have taken over agriculture and live according to the principles that got them sent to the planet, blend pacifistic and anarchistic ideas. The city dwellers generally look down on the farmers and seem to think they rule the entire community. The farmers pretty much ignore that idea and work for what they consider is best for society. In general everybody seems to be getting along well enough but under the surface the situation is far from.

The main character in the book is Luz, the daughter of one of the most influential men in the city. The city aristocrats are quite protective of their daughters. Their role in society is mostly seen as mothers and housekeepers. Women are supposed to be weak, obedient and above all uninterested in running the community. Luz is none of these things. She is beyond the age where a proper girl would be married and does not intend to conform to society's standards in that respect. Under the influence of Lev, one of the most promising young men in the rural community, her ideas become even more radical. Lev is one of the driving forces behind the plan to set up a new colony. An initiative very much discouraged by the city. They have their own ideas on expansion and are ready to do violence to see them become reality. Conflict is inevitable as each party tries to further it’s cause in terms the other doesn’t recognize as such.

The conflict in this novel is a very strange one. At first glance one wonders how such a small group of people with an entire planet at their disposal can get embroiled in a conflict that has overpopulation at it’s core. They may have a planet at their disposal, it offers them little in the way of resources however. To survive people need other people. It puts a brake on the level of violence a society can tolerate. After all, if nobody is producing anything, there is nobody to steal from either. The level of dependency on others is such that exile from the community means death. When the re-emerging violent tactics of the city’s rules fail to provoke the expected response the city doesn’t quite know how to handle the situation. On the other hand it is quite clear the pacifist approach of the farmers isn’t offering all the answers either. At least not to Luz.

The choice of themes is as far as I can tell not surprising for Le Guin. She does manage to cover these complex philosophical and political ideas in a relatively short novel in such a way that the interactions between the characters we witness and the way this society works give the reader plenty of food for thought. The structure of the novel is a bit odd though. You could be forgiven for thinking both Luz and Lev are the main characters in this book. After Lev, without giving too much away, follows the example of the men that inspired his ideology, it turns out the feminist theme in the book is more important than it appeared to be. Somehow I don’t think Le Guin had that in mind when she started writing this novel.

Despite one of the characters getting away from the author this book was an interesting introduction to Le Guin’s writing for me. The Eye of the Heron is a well written story that has a lot to offer for reader's of various ages. I would say it is one of those books that you can read several times and discover something new on each reading. It seems I will have to add some more of Le Guin’s books to my ever growing to be read list. Good thing there is a copy of The Dispossessed on the to read stack.

Book Details
Title: The Eye of the Heron
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Publisher: Starscape
Pages: 179
Year: 2003
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0765-34612-5
First published: 1978