(no subject)

[skygiants]

I've been vaguely meaning to read more Ursula K. LeGuin for a while now; The Word For World Is Forest jumped to the top of my list by virtue of being available from my library as a downloadable Kindle eBook.

This is quite a depressing little book, isn't it? The plot is fairly simple:

- humans colonize a heavily wooded alien planet, including enslaving exploiting the local alien species in all the gross ways that one would expect
- to everyone's surprise, the initially-pacifist aliens eventually revolt
- the one anthropologist who has established friendly relations with the aliens is depressed
- suddenly, deus ex orders arrive from Earth dictating that everyone needs to calm the hell down and behave more ethically
- alas, gross humans continue to ruin the planned de-escalation and everything ends in bloodshed

Obviously, I find none of this implausible. It's kind of a misery to spend at least half the book trapped inside the head of the grossest human being of all -- again, I fully believe people like Davidson exist, but he's so! awful! I don't think I'll ever be rereading this one; life's too short to spend that much time in his head again.

Comments

[snickfic]

Wow, all this time I thought I had read that book, and I definitely have not read that book. I actually had been confusing it with a novella whose name I apparently do not know! So now I will have to look it up, depressing or no.

[jain]

Incidentally, the story you had it confused with may be "Vaster Than Empires and More Slow" from The Wind's Twelve Quarters. (I made that mistake myself.)

[snickfic]

You know what, I think it's actually "The Day Before the Revolution," from the same collection. IDK why I'd confuse those two titles, because they aren't really close.

[skygiants]

LeGuin completionism! I have a long, long way to go before I have caught them all, but I've definitely got the bug.

[frayadjacent]

I had the exact same thought! But I was confusing it with the novella about the teenagers.

Incidentally, the two short stories mentioned upthread were some of my favorites of hers, circa 13 years ago anyway.

Skygiants: I know you didn't ask for recs, but my favorite Le Guin includes the following short story collections: The Fisherman of the Inland Sea, The Winds Twelve Quarters, and The Birthday of the World. It's probably no coincidence that they're pretty heavy on Ecumenical Universe stories, which are my faves. Also, have you read the Earthsea stories after Tehanu? I loved those as well, although some complain about the retcon in The Other Wind.

[snickfic]

Birthday of the World is my favorite Le Guin collection. Among other things, it has Solitude, which is my single favorite Le Guin work ever. :D

[skygiants]

Recs are absolutely welcome and I appreciate them -- thank you!

I haven't read the Earthsea stories after Tehanu -- I also haven't read any of Earthsea in so long that I've been meaning to just embark on a full read-through at some point, because I read them before at an age when I really did not have any critical thinking faculties and I'm very curious what I'd think of them now. Tombs of Atuan is the only one that made a huge impression on me at that time.

[sovay]

I've been vaguely meaning to read more Ursula K. LeGuin for a while now

What Le Guin have you already read?

[skygiants]

All of Earthsea including Tehanu, very long ago; her recent YA trilogy (Gifts, Powers, Voices), fairly recently; The Dispossessed, ditto. That's it! I have much to catch up on.

[hokuton_punch]

Yeah, that's a book I read one time in 8th grade or so and decided that I loved it, but I never, ever wanted to read it again. I may change my mind at some point, but - maybe not...

[skygiants]

I mean, it says what it means to say very well! But VERY GRIMLY.

[luzula]

This is not my favorite Le Guin--I find it a teeny bit preachy (which I know she herself has said in retrospect as well). But hey, not-the-best Le Guin is still good. Looking forward to seeing you read more of her stuff!

[skygiants]

Yeah, it's quite preachy. It's not necessarily wrong about anything it's saying! But it's very, very clear that this is what it's saying and it's not doing much else.