![]() Every square foot of Athshe is covered in forest, and the native inhabitants are small green-furred creatures that the colonists enslave and refer to as “creechies” (the most accurate-sounding made-up racist slur ever). It takes place a few indeterminate centuries in the future, in a logging colony and military base called “New Tahiti” on the planet of Athshe. It’s got it all: postcolonial anxiety, gender issues, the environmental angle, and what seems to be a clear-cut parable about the culture shock between indigenous peoples and white imperialism. ![]() This is a book that’s really easy to get undergraduate-thesis on. Instead, however, “the boss wanted to talk about the destruction of ecological balance and the rejection of emotional balance.” In the end, both Ursula and the boss got their way: The Word for World is Forest is a beautiful, nuanced novel about ecology and dreaming. ![]() Dement, she intended to make a story about the functions of dreaming-sleep. ![]() Le Guin wrote that writing The Word for World is Forest was “like taking dictation from a boss with ulcers.” Eager to play around with the ideas of pioneering sleep researcher Dr. ![]()
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