The tenth year
The tenth year (Planet of Exile, 1966; first German translation 1978 by Birgit Reß-Bohusch ) is a science fiction novel by the author Ursula K. Le Guin belonging to the Hainish cycle . The novel, which was first published as a "double novel" with Thomas Disch's Mankind Under the Leash , is the author's first successful attempt to develop her own recognizable environment for her stories. In fact, the planet of the plot, at least in the winter time in which the story takes place, is quite reminiscent of the planet winter in the later Hainish novel The Left Hand of Darkness , in which the planet Werel is also mentioned. The later development of Werel's culture is told in the novel City of Illusions .
action
On the planet Werel / Alterra in the Gamma Draconis system, on which one sun orbit lasts 60 earth years, people are preparing for the long winter. As part of their transhumance, led by Elder Wold, they move from the fields of summer to their fortified winter city, Tevar, which, however, has to be rebuilt after their long absence. Rolery, one of Wold's many daughters, is the only girl on the verge of becoming a woman in the Winter City camp; she was born at a time when normally nobody is born. As an outsider, left to fend for herself, she explores the permanent settlement of the foreign-born, which she may consider magicians, or at least strangers.
The ancestors of the foreign born, who also call themselves human, came to Werel in a spaceship many generations ago. But the spaceship took off again and the colony was on its own. Due to one of their rules, the "cultural barrier", they fail to introduce the indigenous people to technical and cultural products that they themselves do not know, at least as long as they have not become part of their world union. But the people of Werel haven't even developed the wheel; their morals are often strict and leave little freedom outside of accepted roles in the clan; even their music consists only of tapping stones together.
But the foreign-born have problems: They disappear, only a few children are born viable. In addition, much of the old knowledge that is still preserved in books is being lost. In any case, they adhere to the cultural ban.
In the city, Rolery meets the stranger Jakob Agat, one of her leaders, who uses his telepathic abilities to save her from danger - something that would normally not be allowed; only it was not clear to him that it was a "help", as the foreign-born call the people of Werel, a "highly intelligent way of life". There is, perhaps reluctantly, a connection between the two. Agat tells her to announce it to her father Wold.
Agat calls on Wold and reports that the people of the north are moving south as one, towards them - something that has never happened before. In order to survive, this huge mass of people will have to use and destroy everything on their way; they will steal food from both kinds of people, so they will have to fight and destroy them. He suggests joint action: Warriors from both groups should move north to divert the flow of people onto a different path.
Wold, who had once taken a stranger to one of his wives, is slowly being convinced; he employs his energetic and intelligent son Umaksuman to lead the expedition. But there are other voices within his clan. When it becomes known that Agat and Rolery have found each other, the group of xenophobes around Wold's grandson Ukwet strikes: On the eve of the joint action, they lie in wait for Agat and beat him almost to death. Before he lost consciousness, he heard the voice of Umaksuman among the attackers, which made him bitter.
Rolery, who was waiting for Agat in a hunting lodge, looks for and finds him. She takes him to the city of the foreign born, where he is treated. But when he wakes up, he learns that the war troops have not left. In Tevar tradition has triumphed, people prepare for winter and ignore the possible danger.
Agat takes Rolery, who would likely be murdered on her return to Tevar, to his wife. Although sexually free, unlike the polygamy Tevar, the foreign-born enter into permanent two-way relationships. Meanwhile, the conflict has left Tevar leaderless; Wold is too weak. Ukwet and Umaksuman settle their differences physically, with Ukwat meeting death; Umaksuman has to flee into the forest.
But soon the wave of barbarians comes from the north; Tevar falls, but the strangers try to save at least some of the humans. Here Agat meets Umaksuman. First he wants to shoot a poison arrow - the best weapon he is entitled to due to the cultural ban - but Umaksuman tells him that he got involved in the attack on Agat and was just able to prevent the pack of conservatives from emasculating him. Together they save what can be saved. Now the two groups entrench themselves together in the city of the foreign born.
The northerners besiege the city of the foreign born; it looks bad, but then the snow comes and with it the hard winter. The northerners attack again, but then have to leave, driven away by the winter. The foreign born are now realizing that the body chemistry of the younger ones has changed slightly. It will likely be possible that people from both groups will have children together. There may be a future for them. This future - being absorbed in the great stream of others - does not seem desirable to all.
Trivia
The “cultural lock” is very reminiscent of the later important “ Supreme Directive ” in the Star Trek television series , ie non-interference in the development of a planetary culture. In the television series, the term and concept were first used in 1967 in the episode The Return of the Archons . A similar concept can be found in the novel Star Maker by Olaf Stapleton , published in 1937 .
The telepathically gifted Tevar use “I hear you”, which is also used in everyday US colloquial language today, as confirmation of understanding and understanding; whether this is connected is unknown.
Web links
bibliography
- Susan M. Bernardo, Graham J. Murphy: Ursula K. Le Guin: A Critical Companion . 1st edition. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT 2006, ISBN 0-313-33225-8 .
- Harold Bloom (Ed.): Ursula K. Le Guin . 1st edition. Chelsea House, New York, NY 1986, ISBN 0-87754-659-2 .
- Mike Cadden: Ursula K. Le Guin Beyond Genre: Fiction for Children and Adults . 1st edition. Routledge, New York, NY 2005, ISBN 0-415-99527-2 .
- Ursula K. Le Guin: The Language of the Night . corrected edition. HarperCollins, 1992, ISBN 0-06-016835-8 .
- Ursula K. Le Guin: Three Hainish Novels . 1st edition. Nelson Doubleday, New York, NY 1978.
- Ursula K. Le Guin: Worlds of Exile and Illusion . 1st edition. Orb, New York, NY 1996, ISBN 0-312-86211-3 .
- Donald E. Morse, Kalman Matolcsy: The Mythic Fantasy of Robert Holdstock: Critical Essays on the Fiction . 1st edition. McFarland & Company, London 2011, ISBN 978-0-7864-4942-2 .
- Charlotte Spivack: Ursula K. Le Guin . 1st edition. Twayne Publishers, Boston, MA 1984, ISBN 0-8057-7393-2 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Andy Sawyer: The Mythic Fantasy of Robert Holdstock: Critical Essays on the Fiction. (Eds.): Donald E. Morse, Kalman Matolcsy. McFarland & Company, London 2011, p. 77.