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Urrasti
The people of the planet Anarres, the moon of Urras. Anarresti defected to the desert-climate moon almost two centuries ago, shepherded there by their leader Odo, who envisioned an anarcho-syndicalist s society free of the constraints of capitalism.
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Anarresti Term Timeline in The Dispossessed
The timeline below shows where the term Anarresti appears in The Dispossessed. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...he busily communicated with the people on the planet Urras, and also conferred with his Anarresti friend Bedap and other members of their syndicate about the “plans and possibilities” for Shevek’s...
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...deep down that he has “yielded himself up to these people,” and has abandoned his Anarresti “birthright of decision.”
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...is puzzled by the idea of clothes meant just for sleeping and asks where his Anarresti clothes have gone. The doctor tells Shevek that he sent them out to be sterilized,...
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...seeing all foreigners as inferior. Shevek tells the doctor that the onetime leader of the Anarresti, Odo, referred to this Urrasti phenomenon as “the creation of pseudo-species.” Shevek confesses that he...
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...work. Kimoe asks Shevek if it is true that women and men are equals in Anarresti society in terms of social status. Shevek asks Kimoe to explain the concept of status,...
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...in Pravic, only realizing after the doctor has left that Kimoe does not understand the Anarresti language.
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Chapter 2
Years later, in a Speaking-and-Listening class at an Anarresti learning center, a lanky eight-year-old child stands up to offer his voice. The child is...
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...in school, Shevek and his friends are reading the Life of Odo, a book of Anarresti history. The book mentions prisons, which do not exist on Anarres, but which Shevek and...
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...what it would be like to go there, noting that the PDC wants to keep Anarresti from traveling to Urras at any cost.
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If Anarresti society truly is superior to all other societies, Tirin argues, they should be able to...
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Chapter 3
...that he wants to learn, not ignore, Urras’s past, because he believes that Urrasti and Anarresti civilizations must know one another.
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Oiie asks Shevek if he has come as an emissary of Anarresti society, and Shevek replies that he has come as a syndic of the Syndicate of...
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Chapter 4
...that arrive eight times a year from Urras are considered a necessary evil by most Anarresti. The Urrasti bring fossil oils, petroleum, electronics that Anarresti manufacturing cannot create, and other goods....
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...the growing communities to sustain themselves, let alone support another far-off town as well. The Anarresti persisted, begrudgingly allowing a central distribution and organizational center to develop in Abbenay despite fear...
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...a disgrace. Human solidarity is a privilege, and in a communal society such as the Anarresti one’s privacy has little function. Shevek soon realizes, though, that his work is made easier...
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...checks himself into a local clinic, where he is diagnosed with pneumonia. Shevek, like most Anarresti, feels it is shameful to be ill, and attempts to refuse medical help, but eventually...
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Chapter 5
In his home state of Thu, Chifoilisk says, the people are socialists, just like the Anarresti. Shevek argues that Thu is centralized, though, even moreso than A-Io, and they have a...
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...brothers of.” He urges Shevek to give his theory to the Thuvians or even the Anarresti—anyone but the Ioti. Shevek tells Chifoilisk that he has already tried to give his own...
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...physics, genealogy, and history. Atro recalls the first time Cetians—the race of the Urrasti and Anarresti people—who had contact with the Hainish people, humanoid aliens from far away in space. Atro...
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Chapter 6
...even understood—meanwhile, his work serves no necessary social function and makes no aspect of communal Anarresti life better.
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Bedap tells Shevek that the problem is that Anarresti society is designed to stifle the individual mind. Bedap sees the PDC as an archist...
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...music called The Simultaneity Principle. Neither music nor physics are of great import to the Anarresti, and so both Shevek and this composer languish in obscurity.
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Chapter 8
...land to keep the holum plants alive, as they are the source from which the Anarresti derive food, clothing, paper, and more. Meanwhile, Takver is pregnant, and though she craves sweets...
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Shevek takes a train back to Abbenay. Though Anarresti trains are usually reliable, in the midst of the drought the demands on transport are...
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...and staff have been cut back. Shevek wonders if the drought is serving to make Anarresti priorities clear again, and scour out the “sick spots [and] sluggish organs” in the body...
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Chapter 9
...doing his physics research—the work Shevek was called to do though it did not benefit Anarresti society in its time of need—was a rebellion in and of itself. On Urras, however,...
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Tuio tells Shevek that Anarresti society has been a beacon of hope to the Urrasti lower classes for generations—a common...
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Chapter 10
...in the desert, it becomes clear that the famine has taken a devastating toll on Anarresti society. Shevek’s job at the mills was “making lists of who should starve,” though on...
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...as she should have refused her work posting to the Northeast. Shevek says that because Anarresti believe they are free, they do whatever they are told, believing they are acting of...
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Chapter 11
...rest of the galaxy, he could not finish his work—and even if he could, no Anarresti saw any use in it. Now he has finished the work, though he has not...
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...outward. He now realizes he was wrong to leave—there is nothing on Urras that the Anarresti need. When the Odonians left nearly two hundred years ago with empty hands, Shevek says,...
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Chapter 12
...introduces a project idea from the Syndicate of Initiative, who have—against the recommendation of several Anarresti organizations—been in contact with Urras for twenty decads. Bedap has been fighting against the gathered...
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...Syndicate, whether the two of them have “set off an uncontrollable chain of events.” The Anarresti have been angrier and more opposed to communications with Urras than either Shevek or Bedap...
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...but tells him that it is impossible to predict the level of danger, since the Anarresti know so little about what things are really like on Urras. Rulag stands, announcing her...
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...towards the society’s welfare.” Rulag believes that if Urrasti come to Anarres, they will dismantle Anarresti society and occupy the planet, ending the Anarresti once and for all.
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...experiment of Anarres has failed, but rather will show them it has succeeded, and the Anarresti are now strong enough to face the Urrasti as equals. The argument between Bedap and...
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...his duty, and his right, to pursue his work alone. He says that forcing any Anarresti to work in a certain field or with a certain group is tyranny, and the...
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...agrees that it is worth the risk, stating that she believes that there are more Anarresti on their side than they realize—perhaps Shevek’s journey to Urras would flush like-minded Odonians out...
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Chapter 13
...notes that the style is not opulent in the Urrasti way or austere in the Anarresti, but strikes a balance between the two. The Hainish crewmembers are considerate and somber, and...
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...in Pravic. After his radio conversation, Shevek tells the Hainish first mate, Ketho, that the Anarresti will contact him tomorrow to arrange entry. Ketho notes that it seems, from Shevek’s conversation,...
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...believes all foreigners, by implication of the Terms, are barred from Anarres. Shevek states that Anarresti managers who, after first contact with the Hainish sixty years ago, wanted to keep them...
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...with Ketho, and the two announce that they have obtained the entry pattern from the Anarresti ground control. The commander tells Shevek that as soon as he is ready, they will...
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