"The Word for World is Forest"

1972 Le Guin, Ursula K[roeber] (1929-2018). “The Word for World is Forest.” Again, Dangerous Visions: 46 Original Stories. Ed. Harlan [Jay] Ellison (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972), 32-117 with an “Introduction” (28-31) by Ellison and an “Afterword” (117-18) by Le Guin. Published separately New York: Berkley, 1976. Rpt. London: Gollancz, 1977, with an “Author’s Introduction" (5-10); London: Gollancz, 2014, with an “Introduction” by Ken MacLeod (1-3) and the “Author’s Introduction” (5-10), where she notes that the original title was “The Little Green Men,” which was changed by Ellison; and in Hainish Novels & Stories Volume Two. The World for Word Is Forest Stories Five Ways to Forgiveness The Telling. Ed. Brian Attebery (New York: Library of America, 2017), 1-104 with a “Note on the Text” (780), “Notes (783-84), and “Introduction to The Word for World Is Forest” from the 1977 Gollancz edition (753-57). There is a one-page Graphic Review by Ben Passmore in The New York Times Book Review (April 19, 2020): 27. The novella was discussed by Rupert Read and Zen Cho on BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking (June19, 2018). https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b6yb37. PSt

Human colonial dystopia versus indigenous eutopia. Exploitative colonization that treats the indigenous inhabitants as if they were animals, enslaving them, raping them, and destroying their way of life to ship timber back to Earth, which had been denuded of it. The indigenous inhabitants have a very complex, non-technological life deeply in tune with their planet. No government or overall authority with significant cultural difference among the communities. The women in each community, and the especially the headwoman, and the practical organizers of their communities’ activities. Some of the men were active dreamers in touch with a different reality. Female author.