In a clear allusion to the United States (represented by A-Io) and the Soviet Union (represented by Thu), one has a capitalist economy and patriarchal system and the other is an authoritarian system that claims to rule in the name of the proletariat. In The Dispossessed, Urras is divided into several states which are dominated by the two largest ones, which are rivals. Urras before the settlement of Anarres is the setting for the short story The Day Before the Revolution. An Anarresti appears in the short story The Shobies' Story. Cetians are mentioned in other Ekumen novels and short stories. The story of The Dispossessed is set on Anarres and Urras, the twin inhabited worlds of Tau Ceti. (The invention of the ansible places the novel first in the internal chronology of the Hainish Cycle, although it was the fifth Hainish novel published ).

It is also notable for its description of the invention of the new physics that is the basis for the fictional ansible, an instantaneous communications device that plays a critical role in Le Guin's Hainish Cycle. The story explores many ideas and themes, including anarchism and revolutionary societies, capitalism, individualism and collectivism, and the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. It is also notable for achieving a degree of literary recognition unusual for science fiction works. The book won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1974, both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1975, and received a nomination for the John W. Le Guin, set in the same fictional universe as that of The Left Hand of Darkness (the Hainish Cycle). If they but knew it, al-most all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia is a 1974 utopian science fiction novel by Ursula K.

With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword I quietly take to the ship.

This is my substi-tute for pistol and ball. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet and especially whenever my hypos get such an up-per hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Some years ago never mind how long precisely having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.

Mülksüzler by Ursula K. Le Guin