The Word for World Is Forest
Ratings88
Average rating4.1
Always a pleasure reading Le Guin and her so accurately described class / power struggles.
Also I wonder how much “Avatar” and George Lucas Ewoks were inspired by this work.
Note: try and get the SF masterwork edition for her introduction to it.
Sensacional. Precisamente no limite entre contexto ficcional e discurso real, do jeitinho que eu gosto.
A maneira que Le Guin dá identidade a cada personagem através da narração é clara e certeira. O ponto de vista de Davidson é odioso e egocêntrico, o de Selver é sonhador e inclui a atmosfera e o ambiente ao redor. Apesar de usar a terceira pessoa, a narração assume totalmente a perspectiva do personagem que segue, gerando uma visão respeitosa e naturalizada sobre a cultura dos nativos alienígenas. Essa forma de tratamento me gerou boas reflexões sobre perspectiva, apreço e pertencimento.
A narrativa também traz um discurso sobre a dualidade pacifismo-violência que deixa questões em aberto na medida certa. A brutalidade é uma ferramenta ou uma doença trazida pelos colonizadores? Até certo ponto, ambas. A sociedade de Athshe a usou para se libertar, mas segue para sempre sob a sombra da sua possibilidade, mudada.
Pierde o stea pentru că antagonistul este exagerat de caricatural și deci nu poate fi credibil, dar în rest, deși oarecum simplistă și din perspectiva de azi complet previzibilă de la un capăt la altul (ceea ce nu era la vremea ei), este surprinzător de captivantă și eficientă în a transmite emoții și aborda teme “grele”. Totul în 125 de pagini, dar nu se simte prea scurtă, e perfect dimensionată pentru intrigă. Mi-a plăcut mai mult decât mă așteptam. Recenzie pe bloguldesefe.
What an amazing book! I am only just discovering Le Guin for the first time, and this book is so clearly influential to many other books I have read. I am going to be on a rading spree to finish all her other books.
The audible recording is very nice, I recommend it highly.
Le Guin's work ages well. Infuriating; heartbreaking; you know the whole book is a train wreck, you know you won't escape unharmed, you go in anyway because you trust Le Guin to leave you, not safe, but somehow a better person. What a heart she had.
An anti war novel with commentary on deforestation, told as a classic science fiction story. There is so much crammed in to such a short book yet it still makes for an easy read.
This book is truly a kick in the gut!
An important book to read. Is it Le Guin's angriest novel? Even if it is it is thought provoking.
Venturing out in new waters, this time science fiction. Or, I should say, old waters, as science fiction was all I read when I was twenty. Though I somehow missed LeGuin. Winner of both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards for science fiction, this book is a tragedy. The author enters the minds of both the new colonists and the original settlers of New Tahiti. The new colonists make assumptions about the original settlers who they call creechies and de-humanize them in their minds. The original settlers cannot comprehend the actions of the new colonists, their violence, their destruction of the forest. Only one colonist and one settler become friends and work together to understand the other group, but their peoples do not accept this understanding and the worlds collide.
I had difficulty reading parts of this book (I blame me, not the author) and rage read other parts. However, the themes and lessons to be learned are valuable and relevant today.
Davidson is one of the most hateable characters ever. This book is a blunt polemic, sure, but I never felt that the character writing or worldbuilding were neglected in favour of the message. They're vivid and detailed, wonderfully so for such a short page-count. It's a book with ideas to spare. Le Guin hasn't let me down yet.
They gave them the gift of killing, and received in return the gift of not-killing. A gut punch of a message. So wonderfully pragmatic and poetic presented in this novella with one of my favorite book titles ever.
The only way to beat the colonialist is through his own game, with his tools, and you will forever be fucked by it. Thoroughly disheartening to read in some ways.
Speculative fiction that's barely fiction at all, but a decent read nonetheless.