The Word for World Is Forest is an unusual addition to the Gollancz SF Masterworks series, yet a terrific one.
Being little more than 100 pages (and that includes a three-page Introduction by Ken MacLeod and a six page Introduction by the author herself) it was the winner of the Hugo Award in 1973 for Best Novella.
Despite its brevity, it is a masterclass in the case of the adage that sometimes ‘less is more’. Like Fritz Leiber’s equally brief Award-winning novella The Big Time (won in 1958 and reviewed HERE), Forest does not outstay its welcome. It makes its point, leaves an imaginative impression and then leaves.
The plot is thus, to quote the back of the book:
‘When the inhabitants of a peaceful world are conquered by the bloodthirsty yumens, their existence is irrevocably altered. Forced into servitude, the Athsheans find themselves at the mercy of their brutal masters.
Desperation causes the Athsheans, led by Selver, to retaliate against their captors, abandoning their strictures against violence. But in defending their lives, they have endangered the very foundations of their society. For every blow against the invaders is a blow to the humanity of the Athsheans. And once the killing starts, there is no turning back.’
It is often said that, despite what some may think, SF is less about ‘the future’ and more about being a mirror for the times in which it was written. Forest also bears this point heavily, resonant in themes and images that LeGuin has herself said were influenced by the Vietnam War. It is ‘MESSAGE SF’, very didactic and clearly designed to propose a particular viewpoint. Not everyone will agree with its point of view, which can be summarised as ‘war bad, colonization bad (for the original inhabitants), nature good’.
On reading the tale forty years or so onward, I find that the ideas and the message is still there, and still comes across pretty well. Those of you familiar with James Cameron’s film Avatar will also recognise similar themes. Forest is about the horrors of war compressed into emotionless drudgery. On a wider scale it is about the age-long process of colonisation and conquest, whilst at the same time dealing with the need to co-exist with nature and the loss of innocence, personal cultural and social. Though set in the future, there’s a lot here we should recognise.
Of the eight chapters we get initially a succession of viewpoints: Captain Don Davidson, the NAFAL commander, Selver the Athshean (aka creechie) native leader, and Raj Lyubov the human (referred to as yuman here.)
Captain Davidson is perhaps the least subtle of the main protagonists. Brutal and bullish, he thinks more about ‘testing out’ the newly arrived Colony Brides and Recreation Staff (referred to as ‘buxom beddable breasty little figures’), than about the local natives. As expected, the reader is not meant to relate in a positive way to the militaristic aspect of the plot.
By contrast, Selmer is calmer and seemingly more implacable as befitting the representative of the local nature-loving Athshean race. He finds himself reflecting and acting on the natives’ very different viewpoint of the world, dealing with much of their days through some form of lucid dreaming, rather reminiscent to me of the Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime. When forced to take action against the yumans Selmer becomes a god-like intermediary between the natives and the invading Earth people.
The bridging character between the Human military and the alien Athshean is Raj Lyubov, yuman anthropologist (naturally) who is part of the military and yet spends his time trying to understand the local lifestyle and culture. To the invading force the natives are lazy, dumb, spaced-out aliens who do not feel pain, but the chapters here about the natives show us something deeper and more appropriately cosmic. It is Lyubov who discovers that the Athsheans are not lazy but actually are more complex than even humans can imagine.
In the meantime, a starship arrives bringing an ansible (an instantaneous communication device) intended for another nearby world. Through this they learn that there is now a “League of All Worlds” and that Terran colonial policies have changed. Instructions are issued to free the Athshean slaves and generally moderate the policies.
Rather predictably, Davidson refuses to believe the new instructions, believing that they are false. His further response is to organise a raid on a nearby Athshean tree-city to show the natives who is in charge. (Avatar fans, take note.) When Davison abuses and rapes local natives, it is Lyubov who saves them, although Selmer’s wife dies as a result of injuries sustained from Davidson.
When pushed to defend their people and their world, the Athsheans react very violently. The Athsheans respond by raiding and overrunning the main Terran base.
The revolution upends the Athshean culture but succeeds in ending Terran domination. For the atrocities he has committed, Davidson is exiled to an island where he is given food and medicine but no human contact for the rest of his life. The surviving humans return home on the next ship to arrive.
The story is pretty straightforward. Related no doubt to real-world events, from Korea to Vietnam, but possibly going back to events such as the treatment of Native Americans in the US in the nineteenth century, the skill of the writer is to present this tale in as entertaining a way as possible. To do this here Le Guin gives these characters very different voices, with each word crafted to have meaning. There is no padding, no bloated scenes here. The tale does what it has to do with never a wasted word, and some of the descriptions of violence have a greater effect by being kept to a minimum.
At one level The Word for World is Forest is a straightforward tale told well. However some readers will appreciate that it is also part of a much bigger picture, being part of Ursula’s Hainish Cycle of novels, which include The Dispossessed (also in this Masterworks series) and The Left Hand of Darkness. There are hints of this wider picture throughout – we have mention of an ansible that is mentioned in other Hainish stories. It’s also mentioned that one of the reasons for the yumans being on ‘New Tahiti’ is to provide exhausted resources on Earth as part of the Human expansion at the beginning of the series. Interstellar travel for the people of Earth has been made possible by technology from Hain. Though The Word For World is Forest is just one aspect of one small part of the galaxy-spanning collection of tales, I liked the fact that it was clearly one part of a Future History.
I can’t help feeling that part of the story’s popularity at the time was that it was originally published as part of the New Wave of the 1960’s and 70’s. In fact, its original publication was in the designed-to-shock story collection edited by Harlan Ellison, Again Dangerous Visions! * Forest is perhaps a reaction to what was going on in the Vietnam War and it struck a resonant chord with readers – or at least Hugo voters. LeGuin’s anthropologist background helps highlight the cultural impact of a sudden change to a society when the invaders come.
In summary, The Word for World is Forest is a gem of a read that even now, years after its original publication has retained its powerful message over the years. It will stay with you after you have read it.
I am hoping that this is the start of something good, as UK publishers Gollancz are in the process of a big re-release of old and new work by Ursula, now 85. The Word for World is Forest makes me look forward to more of these.
*(Just to give you an idea of the flavour of the rest of the collection, if you haven’t already read it, other stories there include ‘Stoned Counsel’ by H. H. Hollis and ‘The Big Space F*ck’ by Kurt Vonnegut.)
The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K LeGuin
Published by Gollancz, April 2015. Originally published 1972.
132 pages
ISBN: 978-1473205789
Review by Mark Yon, April 2015.
