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Commander Yung
Gosse is an ecologist working on World 41 and living in Centralville. He and Raj Lyubov work closely together but eventually develop an antagonistic relationship, as Gosse doesn’t see the same danger in overlogging that Lyubov does, nor does he believe that the Athsheans need to be saved from extinction. At one point, Gosse berates Lyubov for helping Selver and tells him that it’s human nature to destroy other worlds. He then wonders why Lyubov came to World 41 at all if he wasn’t prepared to see the Athsheans wiped out. This leads Lyubov to distrust Gosse, something that hurts Gosse’s feelings, as he’d wanted to be a “father-figure” to Lyubov. After the massacre at Central, Gosse speaks on behalf of an injured Colonel Dongh and interacts directly with Selver, whom he blames for the deaths of Central’s men and women. Gosse is terse with Selver and clearly distrusts the Athsheans, though his hatred isn’t as deep as Don Davidson’s or even Dongh’s.
Gosse Quotes in The Word for World is Forest
The The Word for World is Forest quotes below are all either spoken by Gosse or refer to Gosse. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter Three
Quotes
“ […] We’ve succeeded, here on Central, by following the Plan: erosion is minimal, and the cleared soil is highly arable. To log off a forest doesn’t, after all, mean to make a desert—except perhaps from the point of view of a squirrel. We can’t forecast precisely how the native forest life-systems will adapt to a new woodland-prairie-plowland ambiance foreseen in the Development Plan, but we know the chances are good for a large percentage of adaptation and survival.”
“That’s what the Bureau of Land Management said about Alaska during the First Famine,” said Lyubov. […] “How many Sitka spruce have you seen in your lifetime, Gosse? Or snowy owl? or wolf? or Eskimo? The survival percentage of native Alaskan species in habitat, after 15 years of the Development Program, was .3%. It’s now zero.—A forest ecology is a delicate one. If the forest perishes, its fauna may go with it. The Athshean word for world is also the word for forest.”
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Chapter Six
Quotes
“Should we have let them live?” said Selver with vehemence equal to Gosse’s, but softly, his voice singing a little. “To breed like insects in the carcass of the World? To overrun us? We killed them to sterilize you. I know what a realist is, Mr. Gosse. Lyubov and I have talked about these words. A realist is a man who knows both the world and his own dreams. You’re not sane: there’s not one man in a thousand of you who knows how to dream. Not even Lyubov and he was the best among you. You sleep, you wake and forget your dreams, you sleep again and wake again, and so you spend your whole lives, and you think that is being, life, reality! You are not children, you are grown men, but insane. And that’s why we had to kill you, before you drove us mad.”
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Gosse Quotes in The Word for World is Forest
The The Word for World is Forest quotes below are all either spoken by Gosse or refer to Gosse. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter Three
Quotes
“ […] We’ve succeeded, here on Central, by following the Plan: erosion is minimal, and the cleared soil is highly arable. To log off a forest doesn’t, after all, mean to make a desert—except perhaps from the point of view of a squirrel. We can’t forecast precisely how the native forest life-systems will adapt to a new woodland-prairie-plowland ambiance foreseen in the Development Plan, but we know the chances are good for a large percentage of adaptation and survival.”
“That’s what the Bureau of Land Management said about Alaska during the First Famine,” said Lyubov. […] “How many Sitka spruce have you seen in your lifetime, Gosse? Or snowy owl? or wolf? or Eskimo? The survival percentage of native Alaskan species in habitat, after 15 years of the Development Program, was .3%. It’s now zero.—A forest ecology is a delicate one. If the forest perishes, its fauna may go with it. The Athshean word for world is also the word for forest.”
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Six
Quotes
“Should we have let them live?” said Selver with vehemence equal to Gosse’s, but softly, his voice singing a little. “To breed like insects in the carcass of the World? To overrun us? We killed them to sterilize you. I know what a realist is, Mr. Gosse. Lyubov and I have talked about these words. A realist is a man who knows both the world and his own dreams. You’re not sane: there’s not one man in a thousand of you who knows how to dream. Not even Lyubov and he was the best among you. You sleep, you wake and forget your dreams, you sleep again and wake again, and so you spend your whole lives, and you think that is being, life, reality! You are not children, you are grown men, but insane. And that’s why we had to kill you, before you drove us mad.”
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
