Review: Paradises Lost by Ursula Le Guin
First Published in The Birthday of the World and Other Stories
Nov 18, 2008
Paradises Lost is unique in that it there is no hibernation during travel; inhabitants live out the entire journey in real time on the space ship Discovery. The intricacies of their society, such as the clothing ceremony for children are interesting in their own right , enhancing the realism of the fictional society enclosed in space. However, the story’s strength lies in its portrayal and treatment of more universal themes.
The Purpose of Life Onboard Discovery
"I never could get the story, until a religious theme began to entwine itself with the idea of the sealed ship" Le Guin writes in the foreword.
The mission set down for the middle generations, as set down by the pioneering batch, was not to see the new planet, but to maintain the ship and furnish a new generation to complete the ship’s mission of exploring the universe for knowledge:
Discovery would build a vast and delicate rainbow bridge across space, and across it the true gods would walk: information, knowledge. The rational gods.
However, an antithesis, the creed of Bliss, develops over time. Described as a psychic adaption of existence in near perfect homeostasis, its believers view the ship not as a tool for travel to another planet to restart life, but as a heaven which protects them from the death of the outside and will bring them into endless life and bliss, and themselves not as explorers, but chosen "angels". Followers of Bliss have over time infiltrated sectors such as Education and Records, and its leaders plot to ultimately control the ship’s plenary council and realize their ideologies.
Paradises Lost depicts the developing conflicts in the proponents of the original mission of discovery and those who want a new spiritual transcendence. When the ship’s navigators find out the ship will arrive within their lifetime, an unexpected forty years ahead of schedule, the differences must be resolved in days, not decades.
Relationship of Luis and Hsing
Parallel to the clash of purpose on the ship is the love relationship between Luis and Hsing, two fifth generation colonists. They share moments together and develop a special understanding of each other, right from when they are children on the ship till they are old and on the new planet. Some instances were their love for each other are:
- When Hsing shares her composed poems to him in childhood and realizes ‘the fierce, regretful tenderness for him that swelled up insider her’
- Luis writes in a notebook given to him that is "A Box to Hold Luis’s Mind. Made with Love by Hsing", which sparks off his understanding and actions against the Bliss movement
- On the new world, they dance together in a silent and touching manner to celebrate the dirt beneath their feet which sustains them, at the story’s closure.
They never marry each other, developing separate romantic lives with other characters, yet the hints of their strained relationships with these characters and their constant displays of love make this love story a touching and bittersweet one.
Life on SindyChew
The last part of the story describes the moment of reckoning where many of the colonists choose go out of their "little world and walk upon a wide new earth", and the theme of discovery of the new world and themselves is poignant as the settlers in their new unfamiliar environment and struggling with hygiene, food and diseases. They move from the privative nature of their previous existence, where so much can only be simulated, to a world where "Nothing was virtual":
Rain fell out of a certain kind of cloud, and the rain wet you, you were wet, the wind blew and you were cold, and it went on and didn’t stop because it wasn’t a program, it was the weather.’
Luis describes the new life as poignantly as "Moments of unconditional existence. Delight." The single, slightly chilling hint of the fates of those who chose Bliss and travel with the ship when it leaves the planet presents us with this conception of existence portrayed as the correct one for human life and fulfillment.
Paradises Regained
Margaret Atwood called the story one that rather than showing paradises lost, presents the world as a ‘freshly discovered Paradise Regained’. The story might be best described as beautiful and as one which moves beyond entertaining, and illuminates and touches readers with its careful portrayal of characters, society, and its interpretations of life.
Paradises Lost can be found in Le Guin's short story collection The Birthday of the World and Other Stories, firstpublished in 2002 by Gollancz(ISBN: 0575075392).
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