She Unnames Them
Ursula K. Le Guin The New Yorker, 21 January 1985 MOST of them accepted namelessness with the perfect indifference with which they had so long accepted and ignored their names. Whales and dolphins, seals and sea otters consented with particular alacrity, alacrit y, sliding into anonymity anonymity as into their element. A faction of yaks, however, protested. They said that "yak" sounded right, and that almost everyone who knew they eisted called them that. !nlike the ui#uitous creatures such as rats and fleas, who had een called y hundreds or thousands of of different names since $ael, the yaks could truly say, say, they said, that they had a name. They discussed the matter all summer. The councils of elderly females finally agreed that though the name might e useful to others it was so redundant from the yak point of view that they never spoke it themselves and hence might as well dispense with it. After they presented the argument in this light to their ulls, a full consensus was delayed only y the onset of severe early li%%ards. Soon after the eginning of the thaw, their agreement was reached and the designation "yak" was returned to the donor. Among the domestic animals, few horses had cared what anyody called them since the failure of &ean Swift's attempt to name them from their own vocaulary. (attle, sheep, swine, asses, mules, and goats, along with chickens, geese, and turkeys, all agreed enthusiastically to give their names ack to the people to whom)as they put it)they elonged. A couple of prolems did come up with pets. The cats, of course, steadfastly denied ever having had any name other than those self*given, unspoken, ineffaly personal names which, as the poet named +liot said, they spend long hours daily contemplating though none of the contemplators has ever admitted that what they contemplate is their names and some onlookers have wondered if the oect of that meditative ga%e might not in fact e the -erfect, or -latonic, Mouse. n any case, it is a moot point now. t was with the dogs, and with some parrots, loveirds, ravens, and mynahs, mynahs, that the troule arose. These verally talented individuals insisted that their names were important to them, and flatly refused to part with them. $ut as soon as they understood that the issue was precisely one of individual choice, and that anyody who wanted to e called /over, or 0roufrou, or -olly, or even $irdie in the personal sense, was perfectly free to do so, not one of them had the the least oection to parting with the lowercase 1or, as regards 2erman creatures, uppercase3 generic appellations "poodle," "parrot," "dog," or "ird," and all the 4innaean #ualifiers that had trailed along ehind them for two hundred hundred years like tin cans tied to a tail. The insects parted with their names in vast clouds and swarms of ephemeral syllales u%%ing and stinging and humming and flitting and crawling and tunneling away. As for the fish of the sea, their names dispersed from them in silence throughout the oceans like faint, dark lurs of cuttlefish ink, and drifted off on the currents without a trace. 5O5+ were left now to unname, and yet how close felt to them when saw one of them swim or fly or trot or crawl across my way or over my skin, or stalk me in the night, or go along eside me for a while in the day. They seemed far closer than when their names had stood etween myself and them like a clear arrier6 so close that my fear of them and their fear of me ecame one same fear. And the attraction that many of us felt, the desire to feel or ru or caress one
another7s scales or skin or feathers or fur, taste one another7s lood or flesh, keep one another warm, that attraction was now all one with the fear, and the hunter could not e told from the hunted, nor the eater from the food. This was more or less the effect had een after. t was somewhat more powerful than had anticipated, ut could not now, in all conscience, make an eception for myself. resolutely put aniety away, went to Adam, and said, "8ou and your father lent me this)gave it to me, actually. t's een really useful, ut it doesn't eactly seem to fit very well lately. $ut thanks very much9 t's really een very useful." t is hard to give ack a gift without sounding peevish or ungrateful, and did not want to leave him with that impression of me. :e was not paying much attention, as it happened, and said only, "-ut it down over there, O.;.<" and went on with what he was doing. One of my reasons for doing what did was that talk was getting us nowhere, ut all the same felt a little let down. had een prepared to defend my decision. And thought that perhaps when he did notice he might e upset and want to talk. put some things away and fiddled around a little, ut he continued to do what he was doing and to take no notice of anything else. At last said, "Well, goodye, dear. hope the garden key turns up." :e was fitting parts together, and said, without looking around, "O.;., fine, dear. When7s dinner<" "'m not sure," said. 'm going now. With the)" hesitated, and finally said, "With them, you know," and went on out. n fact, had only ust then reali%ed how hard it would have een to eplain myself. could not chatter away as used to do, taking it all for granted. My words must e as slow, as new, as single, as tentative as the steps took going down the path away from the house, etween the dark*ranched, tall dancers motionless against the winter shining.
Lesson Plan #2 - "She Unnames Them," by Ursula LeGuin I. Goals: To demonstrate to the students how eminism !ts into literary disourse. To e$lore with the students e$eriments with the rewritin% o history. To e$lore with the students the im$ortane o &oie. To ha&e the students e$eriment with lan%ua%e, details, and desri$tion. II. 'b(eti&es: )* Students see how &oie, throu%h memory re+etion, re&eals the settin% de!ned as time, $lae, and historial si%ni!ane.* 2* Students see how lan%ua%e is a mere notion that arries no si%ni!ane without wo*man. * Students see how &oie re&eals the harater o the s$eaer. III. /aterials: )* 0ero o$ies o the story, "She Unnames Them," by Ursula LeGuin. 2* 0ero o$ies o list o de!nitions. III. 1rid%in% or ousin%: 3e will disuss the history we learned rom the "The Lady4s /aid," and the memoir writin% we looed at in "5ountry." 6istory and memory will be main $arts o the lesson $lan today. 3e will loo at how &oie re&eals settin% in "5ountry," and how it does it in "She Unnames Them," and we will loo at the historial si%ni!ane o today4s story in om$arison to "The Lady4s /aid." I7. Se8uene o 9ti&ities: )* 6a&e two 8uotes on the board beore lass be%ins - e$lain to the students brie+y* how they relate to the story in terms o eminism rewritin% history and the role o eminism within a literary ontet. )* "...the o$$ression o women; is also a 8uestion o seual ideolo%y, o the ways men and women ima%e themsel&es and eah other in a male-dominated soiety, o $ere$tions and beha&iour whih ran%e rom the brutally e$liit to the dee$ly unonsious."
it is a 8uestionin% o all suh $ower and status. It is not that the world will be better o? with more emale $artii$ation in it> it is that without the "emini@ation" o human history, the world is unliely to sur&i&e." the untion o eminism isliterary here. I allusions to the Garden o
some o the to$is we taled about in lass - eminism, rewritin% history, $atriarhy, reli%ion, et. 7. 9ssessment -9re the students able to om$lete the assi%nmentH 9re their $oems ull o ima%es that are reminisent o a $lant or animal without atually namin% itH Does the student try to throw in an allusion to eminism, o$$ression, or $atriarhyH -3as the disussion ruitulH Did the students understand the issues $resented in the storyH 3ere they intri%ued by the $osition o the s$eaerH -Did they understand who4s $oint o &iew the story ame romH or where they story too $laeH Did they understand how LeGuin slowly re&ealed they s$eaer4s harater, settin%, and dilemma throu%h a memoryH -3ere the students intri%ued or bored by the storyH Did anyone say it was too hardH Should the lesson be etended into two or three lass $eriodsH 3as there time to aom$lish enou%h so that the students seemed to en(oy the storyH 7'591UL9K - "She Unnames Them," by Ursula LeGuin )* 9L95KIT - heerul ea%erness> s$ri%htliness. 2* 9PP the at o namin%. * 191 transitory. * LIMM9<9M - 5arolus Linaeus latini@ed name o 5arl &on Linne* )A-)J. Swedish botanist. 6is S$eies Platarum is onsidered the oundation o modern botanial nomenlature. * /''T P'IMT - sub(et to debate. J* /M96 - any o &arious 9sian birds related to starlin%s. =* M'/ systemati namin% in an art or siene. )A* P<<7IS6 - irritable. ))* T unertain. )2* U1INUIT'US - bein% or seemin% to be e&erywhere at the same time.
"...the o$$ression o women; is also a 8uestion o seual ideolo%y, o the ways men and women ima%e themsel&es and eah other in a maledominated soiety, o $ere$tions and beha&iour whih ran%e rom the brutally e$liit to the dee$ly unonsious."
ournal #. Tae the new lan%ua%e that the s$eaer o the story has reated or unreated* and write a $iee o $oetry, narrati&e or essay desribin% a natural settin%, or a sin%le $lant or animal without atually namin% the ob(et. The lan%ua%e should be rih enou%h in desri$tion that the reader will be able to !%ure out what it is sim$ly by the detailed seth $ro&ided in the writin%.
"...the o$$ression o women; is also a 8uestion o seual ideolo%y, o the ways men and women ima%e themsel&es and eah other in a maledominated soiety, o $ere$tions and beha&iour whih ran%e rom the brutally e$liit to the dee$ly unonsious."
