Anarres

Anarres is one of two inhabited planets of Tau Ceti, in the 'Ekumen' science fiction novels by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Geography

Being the smaller body of a double planet system with Urras, Anarres is largely covered by land while having two large seas as the biggest bodies of water.

While its society is egalitarian, there still exists a center, namely Abbenay, the capital city, where a spaceport and several central facilities are located.

History

It was settled by Odonian separatists coming from Urras. Ever since, contact to Urras has been strongly regulated by a treaty, the only point of tangency being Urrasti freighters landing and starting on the (planet's only) spaceport in Abbenay.

Odonianism was developed by anarchist philosopher Laia Odo, who lived in the propertarian nation-state of A-Io on the planet of Urras. Part of her tale is told in the short story The Day Before the Revolution, part of the collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters.

The story of Anarres and its settlement by Odonians is told in The Dispossessed. Odonians speak the Pravic languague, which fits their outlook and social structure and is described in considerable detail.

Cetians appear or are mentioned in various other tales, mostly without specifying which world they come from. But in "The Shobies' Story", the Cetian Gveter is an Anarresti. 'Churten theory' was developed on his world, which evidently keeps its Odonian views on cooperation and objects to 'propertarian habits'.

External links

• Excerpt from The Day Before the Revolution
• Study Guide for Ursula LeGuin: The Dispossessed