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* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Despite being not-quite HumanAliens who have not shared a biosphere with Earth for a couple of million years, the Cetians have measles - or rather, Urras does and Anarres no longer does, so Shevek needs to get vaccinated before he can travel to Urras. But measles only appeared on Earth about a thousand years ago.
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* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Subverted. The people of Anarres have no religion because they wanted to avoid a CorruptChurch, but they still have many small superstitions.
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* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Subverted. The people of Anarres have no religion organized religious institutions because they wanted to avoid a CorruptChurch, but they many are still have many small superstitions. personally religious. One of Shevek's first interactions with an Urrasti to is laugh at his mistaking Shevek for an atheist.
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** The book begins with a crowd of protestors trying to stop Shevek from leaving Anarres for Urras. Some of them come with clubs and rocks. Shevek avoids injury, but the attackers kill another person in the crowd.
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** Deliberately inverted by Laia Asieo Odo, who led the anarcho-socialist pacifist movement that was exiled from Urras to Anarres centuries before the main story. She and the women among her followers refused to shave their heads and were slurred as "longhairs". [[HippieIndex Does this remind you of anything?]]
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* DirtyCommunists: The country of Thu is not shown in the same detail as A-Io, but is implied to be this. It's pretty clearly supposed to be a FantasyCounterpartCulture of the USSR, as shown by its reference to being run by a "Central Presidium."
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* DirtyCommunists: The country of Thu is not shown in the same detail as A-Io, but is implied to be this. It's pretty clearly supposed to be a FantasyCounterpartCulture of the USSR, as shown by its reference to being run by a "Central Presidium." Presidium" and its claim of being born from the same revolutionary, socialist Odonian ideals as Anarres.
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* AllPlanetsAreEarthlike: Both of the double-planets of the Tau Ceti system have an atmosphere which supports human life, although Anarres is far less hospitable.
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* AllPlanetsAreEarthlike: Both of the double-planets of the Tau Ceti system have an atmosphere which supports human life, although Anarres is far less hospitable. Ironically, Earth itself is described in the story as mostly desert and barely habitable after centuries of ecological devastation.
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Added entry for "Libertarians in Space"
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* LibertariansInSpace: Sort of an upside-down version of Heinlein's trope-codifier Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress. Instead of being about someone who hatches a revolution for a lunar penal colony to achieve independence from the planet it orbits, it's about a pacifist descendant of a revolution that already succeeded trying to break down the barriers between the moon he was born on and the planet its inhabitants originally came from (which he considers a way of the necessary continuing of revolution). In both cases the moon is ultimately tolerated as long as it continues exporting resources to the larger civilization it orbits, but the pacifist Odonians didn't have to wage a war and reject ideas of property & marriage Heinlein wanted his Loonies to exemplify.
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* ConLang: In-universe, Pravic was created by the Odonians to invoke LanguageEqualsThought. Possessives are only used for clarity, there are no curses because it lacks sexual or religious taboos, and there's no distinction between work and play. As time went on, it evolved: the word ''kleggich'', roughly meaning drudgery, is used for work that is necessary but so miserable it can't be mistaken for play, and curses are either FantasticSlurs or loanwords from Urrasti languages.
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* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Subverted. The people of Anarres have no religion because they wanted to avoid a CorruptChurch, but they still have many small superstitions.
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* CrossCulturalKerfluffle: Happens a few times, of course, but the worst is when Shevek and an A-Io woman decide to have sex in a side room at a party. Their differing cultural attitudes towards sex and foreplay (further impaired by alcohol) nearly turns it into an assault before Shevek realizes what's happening and backs off.
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* DeadGuyJunior: All citizens of Anarres are given unique names five to six letter names to make it easier for computers to track them, with names being reused as soon as the person passes on. Shevek's name was first used by an agricultural engineer among the first colonists.
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* DeadGuyJunior: All citizens of Anarres are given unique names five to six letter names to make it easier for computers to track them, with names being reused as soon as the person passes on. Shevek's name was first used by an agricultural engineer among the first colonists.
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* GenderBlenderName: Discussed. Anarresti names are handed out regardless of gender. An A-Io woman finds this hilarious and wonders how you can tell men and women apart there, while Shevek doesn't know what the big deal is.
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* MeasuringTheMarigolds: Averted. Shevek's study of physics is portrayed as beautiful, philosophical, and artistic, with his search for the Grand Theory of Time being compared to an artist's search for his magnum opus.
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* MeasuringTheMarigolds: Averted. Shevek's study of physics is portrayed as beautiful, philosophical, and artistic, with his search for the Grand Theory of Time being compared to an artist's search for his magnum opus. It is instead businessmen who are cut off from art and greater understanding, as they see no value in what they can't profit from.
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** When the multi-year famine occurs, raids on supply trains become an occasional occurrence, as are the drivers of said trains running over said raiders, although both events are viewed by the Annarresti who talk about them as indicators of how desperate things have gotten.
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** When the multi-year famine occurs, raids on supply trains become an occasional occurrence, as are the drivers of said trains running over said raiders, although both events are viewed by the Annarresti Anarresti who talk about them as indicators of how desperate things have gotten.gotten.
* {{Prequel}}: The short story "The Day Before The Revolution", published a few years later, details [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the day before the major revolution]] which led to Anarres being colonized, and what's heavily implied to be the last day in Laia Aseio Odo's life.
* {{Prequel}}: The short story "The Day Before The Revolution", published a few years later, details [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the day before the major revolution]] which led to Anarres being colonized, and what's heavily implied to be the last day in Laia Aseio Odo's life.
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Bald Women is now a disambiguation
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* BaldWomen: It's fashionable in A-Io for women to shave their heads (and faces; Cetians are mentioned here and in "The Shobies' Story" to have sparse but noticeable fur).
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* BaldWomen: BaldMystic: It's fashionable in A-Io for women to shave their heads (and faces; Cetians are mentioned here and in "The Shobies' Story" to have sparse but noticeable fur).
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* DeadGuyJunior: All citizens of Anarres are given unique names five to six letter names to make it easier for computers to track them, with names being reused as soon as the person passes on. Shevek's name was first used by an agricultural engineer among the first colonists.
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* FantasticSlurs: Annarresti use the terms "propertarian" (basically, capitalist) and "egoist" (self-, as opposed to community-focused) as terms of general abuse.
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* FantasticSlurs: Annarresti use the terms "propertarian" (basically, capitalist) capitalist), "profiteering" and "egoist" (self-, as opposed to community-focused) as terms of general abuse.
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* MeasuringTheMarigolds: Averted. Shevek's study of physics is portrayed as beautiful, philosophical, and artistic, with his search for the Grand Theory of Time being compared to an artist's search for his magnum opus.
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* StealthInsult: When Shevek is excitedly speaking about the beauty and potential of Simultaneity physics, an A-Io businessman interrupts him and says that the only thing that matters is [[CorruptCorporateExecutive what profit can be made of it]]. Shevek calls him a profiteer, and he agrees, unaware that "profiteer" is one of the worst insults on Anarres.
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* GildedCage: For most of his stay on A-Io, Shevek is kept in the university which seems to be a demonstration of the best parts of their society. Whenever he asks to go out and explore, he is given extensive tours by his guides, which show that even lower class people are happy and well off. However, he eventually figures out that he can't truly go where he pleases and that he's been shown a very skewed version of A-Io, and eventually has a servant smuggle him out and show him the countless people suffering in squalor. And then when he decides to unite with trade unions and speak at a general strike, the facade drops entirely and we learn why A-Io seems so clean and prosperous: it massacres anyone who says otherwise.
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* LanguageEqualsThought: Pravic, the [[ConLang constructed language]] used on Anarres, is designed so as not to include any distinction between work and play (although there is a distinction between "work I enjoy" and "work I dislike"). Additionally, although there is a possessive, it's normally only used for clarity - children learn quickly to say "the hat I use" instead of "my hat" and so on.
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* LanguageEqualsThought: Pravic, the [[ConLang constructed language]] used on Anarres, is designed so as not to include any distinction between work and play (although there is a distinction eventually evolved between "work I enjoy" and "work I dislike"). Additionally, although there is a possessive, it's normally only used for clarity - children learn quickly to say "the hat I use" instead of "my hat" and so on. Subverted in that while it does have words for things that don't exist on Anarres such as crime, jails, and private property so they can teach history, this doesn't mean the inhabitants actually understand said concepts, and the contrast being reading something in a book and seeing it at work is the source of most of Shevek's troubles.
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* LoopholeAbuse: How the ObstructiveBureaucracy manages to work even through the anarchist structure. While there is no central government and important syndicate positions are shuffled regularly so no one holds power for too long, custom is used to shame people into conformity, and minor, supposedly nonimportant positions can slip under the radar. For example, Shevek's rival in physics uses his position at the PDC as a "physics consultant" to control what research gets published and squash competing scholars.
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* MissingMom: Shevek's mother leaves Shevek and his father when Shevek is two years old. Although this is accepted practice in Annaresti society, Shevek never really forgives her for it.
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* MissingMom: Shevek's mother leaves Shevek and his father when Shevek is two years old.old, and Shevek only meets her essentially by chance when he's around age 20. Although this is accepted practice in Annaresti society, Shevek never really forgives her for it.
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** When the multi-year famine occurs, raids on supply trains become an occasional occurrence, as are the drivers of said trains running over said raiders, although both events are viewed by the Annarresti who talk about them as indicators of how desperate things have gotten.
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** Shevek speculates that the way jobs are distributed uses this as a way of discriminating against partnered couples, especially skilled workers, because you can either do the job you are passionate about, or live in the same settlement as your partner and/or children, but not usually both. As Shevek is a physicist and Takver is a fisheries biologist, this is a recurring problem for them.
* FantasticSlurs: Annarresti use the terms "propertarian" (basically, capitalist) and "egoist" (self-, as opposed to community-focused) as terms of general abuse.
* FantasticSlurs: Annarresti use the terms "propertarian" (basically, capitalist) and "egoist" (self-, as opposed to community-focused) as terms of general abuse.
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* EurekaMoment: After spending decades struggling to reconcile the theory of Sequency (temporal physics where one thing happens after another), and Simultaneity (temporal physics where time is understood as a whole) and running into dead end after dead end, Shevek eventually realizes that if he treats the equation he's been trying to solve as unprovable and comes at it from a different angle, he's able to form the General Theory of Time.
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* FreeLoveFuture: It is mentioned that on Anarres people who aren't coupled frequently engage in one-night stands, and everyone is open about their sexual orientation. Also, it is not uncommon for friends to have sex with each other to affirm their bond, though public make-out sessions are frowned upon. The main character Shevek has sex with his male friend, even though Shevek is by his own account “pretty definitely heterosexual”, because he knows it would mean a lot to the “pretty definitely homosexual” friend. That being said, there are strong hints that the most mature relationships are long-term and monogamous. Shevek himself is HappilyMarried in all but name with his partner Takver.
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* FreeLoveFuture: It is mentioned that on Anarres people who aren't coupled frequently engage in one-night stands, and everyone is open about their sexual orientation. Also, it is not uncommon for friends to have sex with each other to affirm their bond, though public make-out sessions are frowned upon.upon (Shevek compares foreplay before unmated people to eating in front of hungry people). The main character Shevek has sex with his male friend, even though Shevek is by his own account “pretty definitely heterosexual”, because he knows it would mean a lot to the “pretty definitely homosexual” friend. That being said, there are strong hints that the most mature relationships are long-term and monogamous. Shevek himself is HappilyMarried in all but name with his partner Takver.
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* HumanAliens: Literally human, by way of TransplantedHumans. Cetians look somewhat different from Terrans due to millennia of divergent evolution but they're still close enough to be considered the same species.
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* HumanAliens: Literally human, by way of TransplantedHumans. Cetians look somewhat different from Terrans due to millennia of divergent evolution (for one, there's a layer of thin hair over their bodies) but they're still close enough to be considered the same species.species.
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* InformationWantsToBeFree: Shevek eventually figures out how to make the SubspaceAnsible work, but quickly realizes that A-Io will keep the theory to themselves to profit from it rather than letting the whole of humanity advance. [[spoiler:He eventually gives it to the Terran ambassador, on the condition that it be spread across all of the Hainish systems, and later books indicate that this is the case.]]
