(no subject)
The Eye of the Heron - Ursula K. LeGuin
179 pages
genre: sci-fi, utopian
rating: &&1/2
This earlier effort of LeGuin's (c. 1978) visits some of her familiar themes, including societal conflict, class stratification, and gender roles, but with less expert handling than some of her other works. That is unfortunate, because this book's rather elementary portrayal of "enlightenment", "empowerment", pacifism, and feminist principles mar a story that has many interesting things to say about humanity's urge to explore, to discover the unknown, and to expand "civilization" through the meeting, agreement, and joining of minds and goals - and then, ultimately, the disagreement of dissidents, and their joining their slightly different minds and goals.
Set offworld on Victoria, a former prison-colony planet, it is the tale of 2 groups of exiles from Earth - the descendants of the original prisoners; and the heirs of a later-arriving group of pacifist, communally-minded utopians, who originally embarked on their exile in part to exert a "more evolved" peaceable influence on the prisoner population. Instead of integrating over the years, the two groups occupy distinct geographic and social spheres on the small portion of the planet that is known to them. The descendants of the prisoners hold the City, and their elite enjoy lives of elegant sophistication modelled on the memories their forebears had of Earthly riches. The City bosses rule the entire colony with a heavy, paramilitary brand of law enforcement , while the communitarians live far more simply and farm the surrounding land, called Shantih or Shantytown, by decree of, and largely for the sustenance of, the City dwellers.
Things reach a flash point when labor issues spark the desire of some Shantih residents to resettle elsewhere on the planet. The City governors refuse to allow their food producers the freedom to leave, citing the danger of the unknown - there could be hostile forces in the wilderness, and a chance encounter with settlers would draw their attention to the larger colony. The Shantih residents are conscripted into various City improvement projects in order to divert their energy from exploration. When nonviolent civil disobedience and work stoppages result in the jailing of several Shantih dwellers, Luz, the teenage daughter of the City's head Boss, meets one of the pacifist prisoners. Through conversation with the prisoner, the girl is stirred into rebellion against her own imprisonment in restrictive gender and social roles.
Alarmed when she overhears a treacherous military plan to provoke violent rebellion in Shantih and thus justify a City crackdown, Luz flees to Shantih to warn the village council, and is cautiously offered refuge there. The City effort to provoke violent reaction fails, but City officers kill and injure some Shantih dwellers anyway, and ultimately Luz joins with a group of young ShantyTowners who strike out to form a new settlement, rather than remaining in Shantih and living in continued subjection to the City, when a whole planet is available to them.
2007 totals: 6 books, 1694 pages
179 pages
genre: sci-fi, utopian
rating: &&1/2
This earlier effort of LeGuin's (c. 1978) visits some of her familiar themes, including societal conflict, class stratification, and gender roles, but with less expert handling than some of her other works. That is unfortunate, because this book's rather elementary portrayal of "enlightenment", "empowerment", pacifism, and feminist principles mar a story that has many interesting things to say about humanity's urge to explore, to discover the unknown, and to expand "civilization" through the meeting, agreement, and joining of minds and goals - and then, ultimately, the disagreement of dissidents, and their joining their slightly different minds and goals.
Set offworld on Victoria, a former prison-colony planet, it is the tale of 2 groups of exiles from Earth - the descendants of the original prisoners; and the heirs of a later-arriving group of pacifist, communally-minded utopians, who originally embarked on their exile in part to exert a "more evolved" peaceable influence on the prisoner population. Instead of integrating over the years, the two groups occupy distinct geographic and social spheres on the small portion of the planet that is known to them. The descendants of the prisoners hold the City, and their elite enjoy lives of elegant sophistication modelled on the memories their forebears had of Earthly riches. The City bosses rule the entire colony with a heavy, paramilitary brand of law enforcement , while the communitarians live far more simply and farm the surrounding land, called Shantih or Shantytown, by decree of, and largely for the sustenance of, the City dwellers.
Things reach a flash point when labor issues spark the desire of some Shantih residents to resettle elsewhere on the planet. The City governors refuse to allow their food producers the freedom to leave, citing the danger of the unknown - there could be hostile forces in the wilderness, and a chance encounter with settlers would draw their attention to the larger colony. The Shantih residents are conscripted into various City improvement projects in order to divert their energy from exploration. When nonviolent civil disobedience and work stoppages result in the jailing of several Shantih dwellers, Luz, the teenage daughter of the City's head Boss, meets one of the pacifist prisoners. Through conversation with the prisoner, the girl is stirred into rebellion against her own imprisonment in restrictive gender and social roles.
Alarmed when she overhears a treacherous military plan to provoke violent rebellion in Shantih and thus justify a City crackdown, Luz flees to Shantih to warn the village council, and is cautiously offered refuge there. The City effort to provoke violent reaction fails, but City officers kill and injure some Shantih dwellers anyway, and ultimately Luz joins with a group of young ShantyTowners who strike out to form a new settlement, rather than remaining in Shantih and living in continued subjection to the City, when a whole planet is available to them.
2007 totals: 6 books, 1694 pages