Swanson Speculative Fiction
December 1, 2018
[Outside Reading] [The Word for World is Forest]
In my speculative fiction class we read a novel titled The Word for World is Forest, by Ursula Le Guin. This novel tells a story of a distant world inhabited by a different species of humans, who are peaceful and non-violent in nature. Their world becomes colonized by Humans from Earth, who are depicted mostly as cruel and vicious, only interested in sex and the attainment of the new world's resources.
This is set in a future world, where Earth is completely wiped of trees (wood) and many of it's other natural resources which led to the exploration of foreign planets. This new world they discovered is covered in trees, and these other race of humans, called creachies, use the word forest for world, because in their language they are the same thing. The desire for these valued resources inspires the Earth humans to begin cutting down the trees in this new land, and begin to encroach on the native peoples land. This violent colinization leads the creachies to disregard their peaceful, non-violent nature and fight against the humans to preserve their world. In this novel, Le Guin reflects a post-modern world, where Earth is wiped of trees due to deforestation and also begin to take the resources of a different society of people.
What is Le Guin saying about the cruel nature of man, and is her book a warning against the global deforestation that is occuring in our modern world?
[Outside Reading] [The Word for World is Forest]
In my speculative fiction class we read a novel titled The Word for World is Forest, by Ursula Le Guin. This novel tells a story of a distant world inhabited by a different species of humans, who are peaceful and non-violent in nature. Their world becomes colonized by Humans from Earth, who are depicted mostly as cruel and vicious, only interested in sex and the attainment of the new world's resources.
This is set in a future world, where Earth is completely wiped of trees (wood) and many of it's other natural resources which led to the exploration of foreign planets. This new world they discovered is covered in trees, and these other race of humans, called creachies, use the word forest for world, because in their language they are the same thing. The desire for these valued resources inspires the Earth humans to begin cutting down the trees in this new land, and begin to encroach on the native peoples land. This violent colinization leads the creachies to disregard their peaceful, non-violent nature and fight against the humans to preserve their world. In this novel, Le Guin reflects a post-modern world, where Earth is wiped of trees due to deforestation and also begin to take the resources of a different society of people.
What is Le Guin saying about the cruel nature of man, and is her book a warning against the global deforestation that is occuring in our modern world?
Comments
Post a Comment