Urula Le Guin’s 1972 novel The Word for World is Forest depicts a future where Earth (Terra) can no longer grow trees. But we have found a planet Athshea with millions of trees. We are harvesting that lumber.
Chapter 1
This chapter puts us in the perspective of Colonel Davidson. Davidson is half military and half logging company executive. While he is not at the top of the colony’s hierarchy, he is quite influential.
To help with the logging and camp tasks, the Terrans have enlisted the help of a native species called the creechies. The creechies are humanoid but half our size and covered in green fur.
While the creechies have learned a little English, they are not too bright, capable of only repetitive tasks. They are somewhat disobedient and often take naps. Davidson talks about the proper way to handle them, which is similar to how we handle our domesticated animals. The Terrans give them food and shelter. By the end of Chapter 1, I put the creechies a little above the donkey in terms of animal hierarchy. Like it or not, humans have used animals to further human development.
Chapter 2
Le Guin takes us to creechy society. Another name for them is Athsheans. Athsheans live in the forests, in small towns. They use the forest for food and shelter, knowing and working with the ways of the forest. The many towns are peaceful toward each other. Each town might know its neighbors to some extent, and as distance increases, the dialects differ. Athshea is not connected by any central government, but they have mechanisms to handle conflict. Some elder males have developed skills for “dream-speak” which guides each town in its decisions.
The Athsheans in Terran care were taken as slaves. They do not want to be working in logging camps and Terran towns.
Le Guin showed me that I was still harboring prejudices. I just assumed the story told from Colonel Davidson’s perspective was accurate. It was only in Chapter 2 when I realized there was another side to the creechies. I was jumping to conclusions far too early.
If Ms. Le Guin intentions were to get some of her readers to come to this realization, she did a fantastic job.
Raj Lyubov
Lyubov is the nemesis of Davidson. Raj is also in the employment of the logging company. He is an anthropologist assigned to study the Athsheans. He befriends one slave Selver. They teach each other’s language, and Selver teaches the other slaves some English.
Lyubov takes us on a haunting personal journey. Most of us are on this journey, whether we know it or not. Lyubov seems to be the only person on the colony troubled by the Terran treatment of the Athsheans. He uses his position to better the condition of the current slaves and the other Athsheans who are likely to become slaves soon. If he pushes colony administration too hard, his influence will wane — and the slaves will be treated worse.
Lyubov knows he is part of a corrupt system. Yet he must compromise his principles to limit that corruption. Le Guin takes us through a well-constructed 300-word monologue to explain the compromise most of us with privilege have knowingly or unknowingly gone through.
Colonel Davidson
As the story deepens, we find Davidson believes Athshea is destined for Terrans — and the creechies must be eradicated. Then the entire planet can be harvested for Earth’s benefit.
Davidson can play both the short and long game in his mission. He is a constant planner. He finds loyal supporters. He manipulates people. He moves resources to his goals. And he also takes actions to force certain situations to bring out his plan.
Whether the logging company knows of Davidson’s ideology is unknown. But it’s obvious the company knows he can move lumber back to Earth. Davidson retains a powerful position in this colony. He is not easily replaced.
And this brings my beef with the science fiction genre.
The Lack of Political Imagination
Science fiction writers can cast their imagination in more ways than Earthly bound writers. New worlds, new technologies, new species, new social conventions, etc all contribute to new ways to write stories.
And yet at least 99% of these stories are framed under systems of governance similar to what is happening or already has happened on Earth. I’m talking about the various kinds of oligarchies: monarchies, dictatorships, one-party states, fascists, warlords, theocracies, and kleptocracies. In these systems, political leaders are difficult to dislodge.
Sometimes science fiction writers put their futuristic settings with multi-party democracies where politicians can be replaced with the ballot box. But Earth already has this system. It seems science fiction writers cannot move beyond what we already know on Earth, politically speaking.
The Word for World is Forest is one of the few science fiction books that goes beyond our known political ways. While we learn that the Athsheans have a much different system of governance, the book is not about their unique way. Rather it centers on the conflicts between the Terrans and Athsheans, between Davidson and Selver.
Conflict is an important aspect of successful fiction writing. Colonel Davidson, not the unique culture of the Athsheans, is what makes this story popular. Other science fiction villains — like Baron Harkonen, The Mule, and O’Brien — were necessary to bring their respective stories into popular thinking.
The sad part about this book is that the position occupied by Colonel Davidson suggests that not much has changed on Earth. Is Colonel Davidson a narcissist? A psychopath? A sociopath? There’s not enough detail in the book for me to make an amateur psychologist assessment. But I think it’s safe to assume that he is a troubled soul. He has risen to a high position in Terran society. Or perhaps better said, the Terran society on Athshea.
On Earth today, we already have many troubled souls acquiring high positions in society. They amplify their toxic attitude with their powerful positions. It seems that after all the centuries between 1972 and whatever future time this book is set in, we have not learned a damn thing about keeping troubled souls out of governance.
Some critics of my work point out that characters like Davidson are part of human nature. These characters will always seek and attain high positions to inflict their troubled nature on the rest of us. There is nothing we can do to prevent this. Maybe Le Guin believed the same. Or maybe she had a book to sell and needed an antagonist. I don’t know.
Tiered Democratic Governance (TDG)
To help explain this alternative democracy, I have written three novels of average Americans building the TDG. There really is not much conflict in these stories. The characters get along as they discuss their TDG’s early challenges. So I do not anticipate these stories to be popular. Rather, their purpose is educational: they show different angles of the TDG to its future builders. And that angle is about working together.
Confessions of a Future Politician
Circles of a Future Politician
And minimal conflict is the way the TDG will conduct its affairs. Yes, there will still be difficult societal issues in TDG governance. And there will often be heated discussion about these issues. But the elected representatives at the higher tiers will have acquired advanced skills and attitudes. They will come to their decision — and most of society will be willing to try the decision out. If the decision is not working out, it will be changed. But most decisions will work out well.
In essence, the three TDG novels, set in 1990 rural America, are science fiction. They are showing a future way of governance.
Our modern democracies matured around 1825. They were based on the understanding of psychology and sociology of that time. It is now 2025. The sciences of psychology and sociology have advanced. Yet our modern democracies have not utilized this knowledge very much. We still have too many troubled souls making big societal decisions. And their decisions make more troubled souls.
It’s time for a new way.
Published on Medium 2025
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