BOOK REPORT: "PARADISES LOST" by URSULA K. LE GUIN

 

I THOUGHT I WOULD BRIEFLY MENTION AN ENGAGING NOVELLA I’ve just read by Sci-Fi and Fantasy writer, the late Ursula K. Le Guin. Paradises Lost, with its reference to John Milton’s epic Seventeenth Century poem, Paradise Lost, is a tale about people aboard a “generational” spaceship bound for a distant planet in another star system. The voyage will take over two centuries to complete, and there will be several generations born aboard the Discovery spaceship who will never see the new world of their destination. It’s a story told in short, episodic chapters, that focuses on two main characters, Luis and Hsing, two “fourth generation” children, as they mature into adulthood, living their lives aboard the only “world” they would ever know--Discovery, the giant ark that shelters thousands from the dark and airless void beyond its thin shell.

This 2002 novella has Le Guin continue her exploration of family dynamics, kinship and communal structures, examining both the processes that keep them relevant, and the forces that act to disrupt or even destroy them. Aboard Discovery, families are necessarily structured differently than traditional ones and there is an emphasis on community and reciprocity and sharing. For the most part, it is an egalitarian and non-hierarchical society but also one following strict protocols around procreation, for example, something that must be carefully monitored and authorized, else the supplies will run out and the ship’s environmental systems will become overloaded. Birth rates are carefully controlled, as is the balance between male and female fetuses  brought to term. This communal emphasis on child-rearing as everyone's responsibility meant there was less division between men and women in terms of work and authority aboard ship. Both sexes contributed equally to the ship's maintenance and to the health and well-being of the “generations” it contained.

They must remain harmonious and self-sufficient, for they were increasingly on their own. There would be no supply ships from Earth or much in the way of advice and instruction, as communication with the home world became more and more erratic over time. It is interesting to note that the messages they do receive from Earth are increasingly incomprehensible to those aboard the spaceship. References in shipboard encyclopedias about life on Earth, its customs and norms, became strange and often meaningless with the passing of time: What does “crash-test dummy mean?”, or  “forge ahead?”, “steeling” oneself, and so on. Words and ideas from the past were less and less comprehensible for the passengers aboard Discovery. Their world was inside their ship and all it contained; outside was a dark, blank canvas, hostile and death-dealing. Not to give too much away, but it’s amusing to note that on “Shindychew”* or “New Earth”, the settlers use the word “dog” to name the small flying insects that land on their skin, tickling them. They called them that because on Earth "dogs" were some kind of creature that followed humans around, acting friendly, just like the colourful, tiny insects (who apparently just wanted to lick the salt in human sweat) of their adopted world. On New Earth there were no such things as a "Shih Tzu" or "Mastiff".

 

Life for the “middle” generations was indeed a journey. Just as there was no “Departure” for them—that was an experience of the “0-Generation” who first left Earth—only the "6-Generation" would see the new world, with the "5-Generation" preparing them for life on a “dirt ball”, on a world with sun and sky, clouds, and wind, and all manner of living things around them. There, they would see the horizon and experience days and nights as the bright sun rose and set. But not for Luis and Hsing. Life for the Fourth Generation would always consist of walls and ceilings, aisles and cubicles, storage rooms, public squares, cafeterias and workshops, and Engineering and Navigation decks. On Discovery, no one “owned” anything; the ship provided for all. They were safe, cared-for and sheltered from the dark outside. And while such things as “EVAs” (“Extra-Vehicular-Activity”, i.e., “spacewalks”) were performed for repairs and maintenance, these were seen in subsequent generations as an “odd” or even “unseemly” activity.

And this was because a quasi-religion had begun to develop aboard ship called “The Bliss”, which taught acolytes that there was nothing beyond Discovery, that they journeyed literally in “heaven”, in perfect harmony and with a balanced and sustainable shipboard ecology. There was nothing that could improve their condition, while, on the other hand, landing on “New Earth” or returning home would be akin to a fall from grace. Interestingly, members of the cult called themselves “angels”. For them, to leave “heaven” was unthinkable.

The years passed and Luis grew into a gifted intellectual and scholar who began to have doubts about “The Bliss”, whose members became an increasingly large and vocal presence aboard ship. While researching in the library archives, he uncovers worrying details about the religion’s growing influence over ship’s affairs, even to affecting the mission itself. At the same time, Hsing’s husband Canaval discovers a navigational error in the ship’s computers. An encounter with the gravitational pull from a black hole several years earlier had caused Discovery to rapidly accelerate, meaning they would arrive at their destination decades ahead of schedule. The Fourth Generation would be the ones to settle New Earth. Luis and Hsing would soon stand upon a new world!

As a result of these revelations, there existed among the ship’s population a real possibility of dissent, perhaps even violence**, as different factions began to form, and cohorts of believers contested for control with those still committed to the the ship's original mission. But social norms aboard the spaceship were such that committees and study groups were formed instead of armed camps, with dialogue and compromise ultimately resolving their differences. And with little time left, the “4s”, (the fourth generation born on Discovery), readied themselves to become colonizers. One example of their preparations was getting used to wearing shoes for the first time; aboard ship, everyone walked in bare feet.

Thus, there would be no ‘Mad Max’ scenarios or Hobbesian “war of all against all”, no revolutions or mutinies on Le Guin’s ark, though she uses the possibility of violence and factionalism to create dramatic tension leading to the story’s climax. A vote was taken to decide who wanted to stay aboard Discovery and who wished to disembark on New Earth. Supplies were evenly distributed, good cheer and best wishes for a fair journey were expressed between the two groups, with over half of the ship's population continuing their blissful journey into space, while the remainder settled New Earth. It's interesting that Luis considers that both settlers and “Remainers” have made a valid choice. He once told Hsing he would be just as comfortable staying on the ship as he would becoming a settler. And given the hardships of those early years on New Earth, life aboard Discovery was in many ways a paradise of ease and comfort. It was understandable that many would want to stay. Luis also felt that each way of living had its own value,  purpose and importance for those living it; each came with its own opportunities for discovery, growth and understanding. Luis chose to live on New Earth because, in the end, he felt life as a settler would simply be more interesting. And, he adds, life aboard ship among followers of “The Bliss” might be a bit tiresome after a while.

 

There is some foreshadowing at the beginning of the new settlement when two Fifth Generation infants die and later an adult succumbs to death by blood poisoning, leaving the reader wondering whether New Earth might ultimately prove uninhabitable, even deadly, for the settlers. Both tragedy and joy accompany them as they begin their lives in the new world.

Le Guin takes the reader though the early years of the settlement in a series of short episodes, ending with a scene between the now-middle-aged Luis and Hsing, sitting beside a drainage channel the New Earthers have dug to bring water into their rice fields. Children play in the distance and it is at the end of a hard day of work. The sun is slowly setting, and Luis tells Hsing how it is at times like these he feels “bliss”. Not, he assures her, the “Bliss” experienced by those aboard Discovery who live each and every moment in a state of religious ecstasy, but rather the way he feels now, after a hard day’s work, or during moments of communion with her, or when he sees the colours of the sky at sunset and feels the warm winds softly blowing, simply to feel joy in breathing and being alive!—those fleeting moments of true bliss that come unexpectedly, and are therefore all the more welcomed and treasured. 

Thus the people of Discovery had lost two paradises: the first, their home, Earth, now only a distant memory; still it was the original Garden, the paradise now failing, embroiled in turmoil, war, and ecological disaster. The second was the ship Discovery, their other home, the only paradise they knew in all the time they had journeyed through the blackness of space. Will this third home they have found prove to be a paradise for them, one they learn to cherish and preserve? Only time will tell.   

 

Le Guin began her novella with an epigraph—a quote from Theodore Roethke’s poem, “The Waking”. The last line reads: “I learn by going where I have to go.” Wherever those travellers in space have gone, they have learned by their journeying. Wherever we go in life, so too will we learn by our going where it is we need to go.

 

Cheers, Jake.

 

 

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* ”Shindychew” is the phonetic spelling for the Chinese “Hsin Ti Chun” or “New Earth”. Most of those aboard Discovery appear to be of Asian descent.

 

** There had been instances of violence aboard Discovery during its long flight, of suicides and murders, and there were passengers afflicted with various psychological ailments, but those instances were rare, with the entire ship’s company focused on maintaining social harmony and keeping the peace.

 

 

 

Le Guin, Ursula, K. "Paradises Lost" in The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas of Ursula K. Le Guin. Saga Press. Simon & Schuster, Inc. N.Y., N.Y., 2016.