Write a one paragraph summary of either the essay by Latham or Le Guin. How might you apply the insights from the essay to an analysis of the colonial mission to Athshe?
If you are reading Latham’s essay, you might focus on the concept of “ecological imperialism” or the distinction between different kinds of technology.
If you are reading Le Guin’s essay, you might focus on the relationship she establishes between the “hero” story and the story of the killer.
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There are two kinds of stories. The linear story of a hero that defeats his foes, and the “bag.” A “bag” story might not have a central conflict; it has what Le Guin describes as “bundle of medicine.” Science fiction is a very large “bag,”; you can literally put anything and everything in it. The colonial mission to Athshe is the central conflict of the book word for world is forest. This starts out setting up a hero story, that soon turns into one about so much more as the perspectives change around again and again. (It might also be why Le Guin says she didn’t very much like the book, but felt it was a necessary work in response to the Vietnam War.)
Rob Latham summarizes the concept of ecological imperialism by analyzing the works that were released in a new genre of science fiction called “New Wave”, which focuses on “eco-disaster stories” and the “critique of technocracy”. When mentioning “The Word for World is Forest”, which is one of the works that came out during the “New Wave” era, he points out that “Le Guin draws a distinction … between military-industrial technologies designed for violet purposes, whether warfare or resource extraction and communication technologies”. This insight helps us with the analysis of the colonial mission to Athshe by highlighting the fact that the Terran colonizers were using all sorts of technology to conquer Athshe by using military warfare to control the Astheans and using resource extraction technology to cut down trees. However, the colonial administration disbanded when the League of Worlds took notice thanks to the advanced communication technology of the ansible. This shows how technology can serve as a double-edged sword, for good and bad.
In his article “Biotic Invasions: Ecological Imperialism in New Wave Science Fiction”, Rob Latham discusses the evolution of science fiction writing in terms of invasion and colonization. He discusses several novels and their approach to allegorizing current world issues such as colonization, communism, eco-catastrophe, and ecological-imperialism.
In regards to the book, we read, one of the things Latham chooses to focus in on is Le Guin’s “attitude towards technoscience and it’s role in colonial conquest”(97). According to Latham, Le Guin distinguishes between two different types of technology in her novel: technologies used for warfare and technologies used for communication. Latham compares the “ansible” technology used to communicate Ecological Protocols to the modern day internet, saying “communications media, such as the Internet have facilitated the world wide dissemination of data about serious ecological problems, such as global warming”(97).
The essay written by Lathem talks about different philosophers point of view about biotics. While talking about biotics he introduces ecological imperialisms. Ecological imperialisms was something that the Europeans had discovered and this when they dissemble some ecosystem to develop new technology. Some negative aspects from this was deforestation and detestation. One of the main focus of that era was the “New Wave”. The new wave was described by Le Guin as an technologal boom but for cruel reasons.
In the text it states ” While the effect is perhaps to overly psychologize the colonial relationship, de-emphasizing cruel political- economical imperatives.” From this a lot of cruel things that come about like genocide and racism which made more war go on.
Le Guins describes “killing” story “the story the mammoth hunters told about bashing, thrusting, raping, killing, about the Hero.” it is associated with some kind of victory or triumph which refers to “hero” story and at the same time as something tragic that refers to “killer” story. I think Le Guin believes that the “killer” story has linear development of the plot by including a “hero” in a particular conflict.
In Robert Latham’s article, “Biotic Invasions: Ecological Imperialism in New Wave Science Fiction”, Latham clearly discusses the change and constant evolution of science fiction writing. Latham tries to make the connection between Ecological Imperialism and political agenda (which was at the time of the cold war). He discusses the difference between technologies and how they should be categorized between communication technology and warfare technology. Latham creates the argument that communication technology can create the beneficial for the environment as it can be the widespread communication to broadcast information such as global warming.