Book 13 – The Dispossessed
I selected this book for the BBCE, and it is a re-read, although I read it quite a while ago and as it happens I did misremember significant plot points…possible an age thing.
The blog post for this book has already had several false starts. There is so much going on and so much to reflect on, that I would virtually have to retell the entire story to get any of it across. Instead, a short list of the many things that make up the book include; a presentation of a carefully designed anarchy (or non-authoritarian communism, as it is described in the book) which is facing the very beginnings of the appearance of hierarchical control and power; a flawed capitalist society that is trying to find a balance between complete capitalism and appropriate management of resources; a brilliant scientist who thinks he can bring anarchy and, from that, freedom to all of the Nine Known Worlds by giving them his Grand Unified Theory of Simultaneity, a very interesting parallel of Relativity that shows a decent knowledge of physics on the part of the author. As well, there are the settings; Annares, the dusty, harsh planet, subject to extensive droughts and sandstorms and Urras, the lush, tree-covered planet with an abundance of most things except for some rare minerals that were used up before resource management was put in place.
Ursula has much to say about the two cultures, and a large part of the book is dedicated to philosophical discussions between various characters on the advantages and weaknesses of the anarchistic way of life. She paints an extremely compelling case for the Annares way of life. It’s communism the way communism is supposed to be, and she makes it sound achievable and sustainable, and, in many ways, preferable.
I was struck by how prophetic the book seemed for having been written in 1974. Annares could easily be representative of Earth post-climate-change, and Urras might represent the world we might become if we foresee early enough the impact on our future of our pillage of limited natural resources.
All in all, a wonderfully complex book.
Rating: Buy it, if you are a scifi fan. Borrow it otherwise.