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Davidson’s Gun
The ansible represents the possibility of a genuinely civilized human race. When Commander Yung visits the human colony on World 41, he brings along an ansible, which is a transmitter that allows people to communicate instantaneously with other planets. Yung was supposed to deliver this ansible to another planet, but Mr. Lepennon and Mr. Or, emissaries to the newly-formed League of Worlds, decide to give it to the colony on World 41. They make this decision so that the government on Terra (Earth) will hold the humans on World 41 accountable for their actions. (The humans on World 41 have enslaved the planet’s native people, the Athsheans, something the League was not previously aware of because many of World 41’s reports have been censored.) The ansible thus represents the possibility of a reformed society in which humans are forced to treat the Athsheans with respect.
Despite the fact that the orders from the ansible are to free the Athsheans and adopt a policy of nonviolence (even though the Athsheans previously attacked the humans), Captain Don Davidson goes rogue and continues to secretly kill the Athshean people. This leads to another Athshean attack on a human camp, which inadvertently leads to the destruction of the ansible. The ansible’s destruction is symbolic: it implies that a civilized, nonviolent human race isn’t possible or enforceable within the context of colonialization. Even though the majority of humans agree not to harm the Athsheans after this attack, they can’t control Davidson, who continues to hunt Athsheans with a small group of men. The Athsheans must use violence against Davidson to force him to stop, as no human oversight will do this for them.
The Ansible Quotes in The Word for World is Forest
The The Word for World is Forest quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Ansible. 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:
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Chapter Three
Quotes
“No,” said the Cetian. “That’s done with. A colony like this had to believe what passing ships and outdated radio-messages told them. Now you don’t. You can verify. We are going to give you the ansible destined for Prestno. We have League authority to do so. Received, of course, by ansible. Your colony here is in a bad way. Worse than I thought from your reports. Your reports are very incomplete; censorship or stupidity have been at work. Now, however, you’ll have the ansible, and can talk with your Terran Administration; you can ask for orders, so you’ll know how to proceed. Given the profound changes that have been occurring in the organization of the Terran Government since we left there, I should recommend that you do so at once. There is no longer any excuse for acting on outdated orders; for ignorance; for irresponsible autonomy.”
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Chapter Four
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That was the gist of all the messages actually, and any fool could tell that that wasn’t the Colonial Administration talking. They couldn’t have changed that much in thirty years. They were practical, realistic men who knew what life was like on frontier planets. It was clear, to anybody who hadn’t gone spla from geoshock, that the ‘ansible’ messages were phonies. They might be planted right in the machine, a whole set of answers to high-probability questions, computer run. The engineers said they could have spotted that; maybe so. In that case the thing did communicate instantaneously with another world. But that world wasn’t Earth. Not by a long long shot!
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Chapter Five
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The townsfolk also knew that the 1200 slaves at Centralville had been freed soon after the Smith Camp massacre, and Lyubov agreed with the Colonel that the natives might take the second event to be a result of the first. That gave what Colonel Dongh would call ‘an erroneous impression,’ but it probably wasn’t important. What was important was that the slaves had been freed. Wrongs done could not be righted; but at least they were not still being done. They could start over: the natives without that painful, unanswerable wonder as to why the ‘yumens’ treated men like animals; and he without the burden of explanation and the gnawing of irremediable guilt.
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The Ansible Symbol Timeline in The Word for World is Forest
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Ansible appears in The Word for World is Forest. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter Three
...at all is not just to drop off women but also to drop off an ansible, or transmitter, to Prestno (a nearby planet). Juju Sereng, an engineer, asks what that means....
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...for it, and Or says no. In fact, they’re going to give this colony the ansible that Prestno was supposed to have, since this colony has clearly censored their reports. Now,...
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...government. Relieved, Dongh says that this means nothing is different now, but Or disagrees: the ansible makes things different. Yung applauds Or and Lepennon for deciding to give this colony the...
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...is watching him, which makes Lyubov scared: if the colonists are left with just the ansible, they’ll exterminate the Athsheans and claim it was plague. When the conference ends, Lyubov whispers...
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Chapter Four
...that a commander was bowing down to humanoids who clearly stole the idea for an ansible from humans. And things haven’t improved since the meeting. It’s fine that Davidson is now...
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Chapter Five
...not to now. He can’t do anything more to help the Athsheans survive, as the ansible’s existence protects the Athsheans and Colonel Dongh is following its orders. Because the ansible’s transmission...
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...leaves it, he can see that everything else is on fire, including HQ, where the ansible is. He has no idea where the Athsheans got explosives or how they started the...
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Chapter Six
...might know the answer to that—and the planet’s colony status—if the Athsheans hadn’t destroyed the ansible.
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This is the first Selver has heard of the ansible, as he previously believed that communication between planets took 27 years. Benton coldly accuses Selver...
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