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Quiz about Ursula K LeGuins Ekumen
Quiz about Ursula K LeGuins Ekumen

Ursula K. LeGuin's Ekumen Trivia Quiz


This quiz is about LeGuin's science fiction universe, the Ekumen. Other works set elsewhere, or works whose setting is unknown or questionable, will not be included.

A multiple-choice quiz by DanaanMI. Estimated time: 6 mins.
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Author
DanaanMI
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
326,246
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
15
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
10 / 15
Plays
153
Question 1 of 15
1. The novel "The Left Hand of Darkness", set on the planet Gethen, won both the Nebula (in 1969) and the Hugo (in 1970). It was not, however, the first time LeGuin had "visited" Gethen. Which earlier short story was also set there? Hint


Question 2 of 15
2. "Four Ways to Forgiveness" (a collection of four intertwined short stories which LeGuin has dubbed a "story suite") is set on twin planets whose economy is based on slavery. What are the names of these planets? Hint


Question 3 of 15
3. You've probably seen the 2009 blockbuster movie "Avatar". Well, James Cameron must have read this obscure 1972 LeGuin novella, set on the planet Athshe, which has many similarities to the plot and themes of the film. Hint


Question 4 of 15
4. The 1974 novel "The Dispossessed" concerns a colony of people who follow an anarchic, revolutionary philosophy that puts them at odds with their planet of origin. What is this philosophy called? Hint


Question 5 of 15
5. Name this book: The planet Aka, in its efforts to bring itself into the space age, has banned its traditional culture and religion and forces its citizens to conform to a new, "modern" way of life. Sutty, an Ekumen Observer who comes from a planet that was nearly destroyed by religious upheaval, eventually learns to put aside her negative feelings towards religion generally and joins in the resistance against the repressive government. Hint


Question 6 of 15
6. The planet O appears in only three short stories, and is characterized by what unusual social practice? Hint


Question 7 of 15
7. LeGuin's works are connected by a sort of United Nations of inhabited planets, which is generally referred to as the Ekumen. However, in many earlier works, the Ekumen is called by another name. What is it? Hint


Question 8 of 15
8. LeGuin's universe does not have light-speed travel (a few stories involve attempts to develop light-speed ships) but it does have an instrument that allows information to travel instantaneously. What is this instrument called? Hint


Question 9 of 15
9. It is said at various times in many works that the peoples of all inhabited planets descend from the people of one original colonizing planet. Which planet is this? Hint


Question 10 of 15
10. In "The Left Hand of Darkness", characters frequently refer to a particular deeply ingrained social code. It is best described as a sense of honor which, among other things, prohibits them from giving advice to others under most circumstances and which allows them to save face in various crises. The word for this is: Hint


Question 11 of 15
11. In "The Telling", the story focuses on the Ekumenical Observer Sutty, who, due to her past, has great difficulty accepting the validity of the quasi-religious way of life. What planet does Sutty come from? Hint


Question 12 of 15
12. In the short story "The Matter of Seggri", published in the collection "The Birthday of the World", the planet Seggri has a very unusual gender issue, which has shaped the society. What is this issue? Hint


Question 13 of 15
13. The novella "City of Illusions" concerns a planet subjected by a frightening alien race with unusual powers. What are these aliens called? Hint


Question 14 of 15
14. In "The Dispossessed", the character Shevek takes the unprecedented step of leaving his homeworld of Anarres to visit the planet of origin, Urras. He does this because he has slowly come to the realization that his anarchist culture, though it lacks laws and government, is stagnating due to fear of innovation. Because his ideas differ from the accepted norm, he is being prevented from making new inroads in his field. What is Shevek's profession? Hint


Question 15 of 15
15. The short story "Solitude" from "The Birthday of the World" describes life on a planet that was once very technologically advanced, but on which the population has plummeted and society has since reverted to the Stone Age. What planet is this? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. The novel "The Left Hand of Darkness", set on the planet Gethen, won both the Nebula (in 1969) and the Hugo (in 1970). It was not, however, the first time LeGuin had "visited" Gethen. Which earlier short story was also set there?

Answer: Winter's King

"Winter's King" appears in the short story collection "The Wind's Twelve Quarters". "Winter" is another name for the planet Gethen, due to its extreme and very long winters. The other three titles are also stories from the collection, but which are not part of the Hainish Cycle. The most famous characteristic of the Gethenians, the fact that they are fully androgynous 26 days out of every month, is not evident in "Winter's King", though it becomes important in "The Left Hand of Darkness". Gethen is also the setting for the short story "Coming of Age in Karhide", which appears in the collection "The Birthday of the World".
2. "Four Ways to Forgiveness" (a collection of four intertwined short stories which LeGuin has dubbed a "story suite") is set on twin planets whose economy is based on slavery. What are the names of these planets?

Answer: Werel and Yeowe

Werel was the originally inhabited planet, and its twin Yeowe was colonized to be run as a giant plantation inhabited almost exclusively by slaves. There is also a planet called Werel in LeGuin's early novellas "Planet of Exile" and "City of Illusions", but this planet is later renamed Alterra and has no connection to the Werel of "Four Ways to Forgiveness". Terra refers to our own Earth, which figures occasionally. Urras and Anarres are the twin planets of "The Dispossessed".

The short story "Old Music and the Slave Women", from the collection "The Birthday of the World" is also set on Werel.
3. You've probably seen the 2009 blockbuster movie "Avatar". Well, James Cameron must have read this obscure 1972 LeGuin novella, set on the planet Athshe, which has many similarities to the plot and themes of the film.

Answer: The Word for World is Forest

Athshe (the word means "forest" in the dialect of the native inhabitants and is called New Tahiti by its Terran colonizers) is populated by small, green-furred people. The Athesheans are subjugated and forced to work for the colonizers, who have come to mine Atheshe for its valuable lumber. Although they have no tradition of war, the Athsheans quickly learn violence from the Terrans and use it to foment a rebellion.

"Planet of Exile" and "City of Illusions" are companion novellas also taking place in the Ekumen. "The Lathe of Heaven" is a non-Hainish novella set in Portland, Oregon, LeGuin's hometown.
4. The 1974 novel "The Dispossessed" concerns a colony of people who follow an anarchic, revolutionary philosophy that puts them at odds with their planet of origin. What is this philosophy called?

Answer: Odonianism

Odonianism is named after its founder, Laia Odo, who died several hundred years before the story begins (Odo does, however, appear in a short story "The Day Before the Revolution"). Pravic is the language spoken on Anarres. There are no such things as Cetianism and Anarres-anarchy, though the twin planets on which the story takes places, Anarres and Urras, are collectively known as Tau Ceti, making the inhabitants of both planet Cetians.

"The Dispossessed" also won the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards in 1974 and 1975.
5. Name this book: The planet Aka, in its efforts to bring itself into the space age, has banned its traditional culture and religion and forces its citizens to conform to a new, "modern" way of life. Sutty, an Ekumen Observer who comes from a planet that was nearly destroyed by religious upheaval, eventually learns to put aside her negative feelings towards religion generally and joins in the resistance against the repressive government.

Answer: The Telling

The Telling is also the name of the religion/philosophy/way of life indigenous to Aka.

"Four Ways to Forgiveness" concerns the slavery-based economy and lifestyle of planets Werel and Yeowe. "Planet of Exile" and "City of Illusions" are early Hainish novellas.
6. The planet O appears in only three short stories, and is characterized by what unusual social practice?

Answer: A marriage system in which four people are married to each other

This marriage system, called a sedoretu, is a prominent feature of ki'O (as people from O are known) society, as they are quite difficult to arrange successfully. The stories "A Fisherman of the Inland Sea", "Unchosen Love" and "Mountain Ways" all discuss the challenges posed by these four-person marriages.

The "almost total lack of social structure" would fairly accurately describe the planet Eleven-Soro, where society collapsed due to extreme overpopulation. The "communal living" is a feature of life on Anarres, and the economy based on slavery is a description of the twin planets Werel and Yeowe.
7. LeGuin's works are connected by a sort of United Nations of inhabited planets, which is generally referred to as the Ekumen. However, in many earlier works, the Ekumen is called by another name. What is it?

Answer: The League of All Worlds

LeGuin says in the forward to her 2002 short story collection, "The Birthday of the World", that the word Ekumen comes from the Greek word oikumene, which means "household". It is also possible that the League of All Worlds is a precursor to the Ekumen, rather than another name for it. This is never clear.
8. LeGuin's universe does not have light-speed travel (a few stories involve attempts to develop light-speed ships) but it does have an instrument that allows information to travel instantaneously. What is this instrument called?

Answer: The ansible

The ansible first appears in "The Word for World is Forest". It has since become something of a common science fiction device, also appearing in several other authors' works, including Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game". Card appears to give a nod to LeGuin when he has the character of Colonel Graff say the device got its common name when "somebody dredged the name ansible out of an old book somewhere".

NAFAL ("Nearly As Fast As Light") refers to the manner in which interplanetary ships travel. Churten is mentioned a few times as an experimental, instantaneous method of travel, the physical equivalent of ansible communication.
9. It is said at various times in many works that the peoples of all inhabited planets descend from the people of one original colonizing planet. Which planet is this?

Answer: Hain

The Hainish are an extraordinary people: they developed extremely advanced technology, including space travel, several millenia ago and used it to colonize a wide array of other known worlds. After losing contact with their colony planets, they reestablished contact in an effort to create the Ekumen.
Chiffewar is a planet mentioned only briefly, its chief characteristics being that its people are universally bald, and that war does not exist.
Rokanan is the planet of LeGuin's first Ekumen novel, "Rocannon's World".
Gethen, also known as Winter, is the setting for "The Left Hand of Darkness" and two short stories.
10. In "The Left Hand of Darkness", characters frequently refer to a particular deeply ingrained social code. It is best described as a sense of honor which, among other things, prohibits them from giving advice to others under most circumstances and which allows them to save face in various crises. The word for this is:

Answer: Shifgrethor

Gethenians gain shifgrethor when they come of age, after which it is grossly insulting to give or take advice. It is an extremely important aspect of Gethenian social convention, which the Terran Envoy Genly Ai, as an alien, both lacks and fails to fully understand.
A sedoretu is the unique form of marriage on the planet O. Sha'ab is the title given to one of the characters in "The Word for World is Forest", meaning something between "leader" and "God". Shoby is the name of the ship in the short story "The Shobies' Story".
11. In "The Telling", the story focuses on the Ekumenical Observer Sutty, who, due to her past, has great difficulty accepting the validity of the quasi-religious way of life. What planet does Sutty come from?

Answer: Terra

Terra is our own Earth with a different history. In this history a fundamentalist religious movement has taken control of most of the planet. The result is a chaos of repression, fanaticism and terrorist violence. Sutty, who comes from an unnamed country which is probably India, moves to Canada to escape the violence.

She experiences the loss of most of her family, as well as her lover, to the regime and the violence surrounding it. Later, when the fanatics begin to lose power and Terra joins the Ekumen, she becomes an Observer of the Ekumen, in which capacity she is assigned to the planet Aka, a planet suffering under its own sort of oppression.
12. In the short story "The Matter of Seggri", published in the collection "The Birthday of the World", the planet Seggri has a very unusual gender issue, which has shaped the society. What is this issue?

Answer: There are approximately 16 women for every 1 man

It is assumed that the extreme gender imbalance on Seggri was a result of genetic manipulation for unknown reasons by the original Hainish colonizers. The imbalance results in a society where women are in charge of virtually everything, with the men, who live apart in "castles" seen as useful only for breeding and the playing of various sports.

They are seen as lacking the intelligence of women.
13. The novella "City of Illusions" concerns a planet subjected by a frightening alien race with unusual powers. What are these aliens called?

Answer: The Shing

The Shing have the power to "mindlie", that is, to lie while speaking telepathically, an ability other peoples do not have and which terrifies the main character Ramarran when he discovers it. While they are never mentioned in any other work, several books and stories make a reference to "the Age of the Enemy" when the Ekumen was temporarily broken.

As there is apparently no Ekumen at the time of "City of Illusions", it is often thought that the Shing are the Enemy. It is also thought that they are not of Hainish descent, since they cannot interbreed with the planetary population. "Hilf" is shorthand for "Highly intelligent life-form"; a rarely-used term for "aliens". Creechie is the derogatory name that the Terrans give the native Athsheans in "The Word for World is Forest".
14. In "The Dispossessed", the character Shevek takes the unprecedented step of leaving his homeworld of Anarres to visit the planet of origin, Urras. He does this because he has slowly come to the realization that his anarchist culture, though it lacks laws and government, is stagnating due to fear of innovation. Because his ideas differ from the accepted norm, he is being prevented from making new inroads in his field. What is Shevek's profession?

Answer: Physicist

There is very little trade in goods and virtually no trade in ideas between Anarres and Urras, and no one from Anarres has apparently visited Urras since the planet was colonized by revolutionaries several hundred years ago. Shevek goes because he wishes to continue his work (which we are led to believe contributed to the development of the ansible) and he cannot do so on Anarres.
15. The short story "Solitude" from "The Birthday of the World" describes life on a planet that was once very technologically advanced, but on which the population has plummeted and society has since reverted to the Stone Age. What planet is this?

Answer: Eleven-Soro

The precise reason for the collapse of civilization on Eleven-Soro is never explicitly discussed, but it is assumed that the overpopulation caused the once-advanced world to regress so dramatically.
Davenant is another name for Hain. Kheakh is mentioned only briefly in "Four Ways to Forgiveness" as a planet that had "destroyed itself". Faraday is the violent, imperialistic planet which is the source of much conflict in "Rocannon's World"; it is never mentioned in later works.
Source: Author DanaanMI

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