The Birthday of the World: And Other Stories (2002) (edit title/settings)

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• Sov Thade Tage em Ereb: (Coming of Age in Karhide) A Thade who lives in Rer and tells the story of hir first kemmer
• Kaza Agad: (The Matter of Seggri) Alterran man who arrives on Seggri and is quickly sent to Awaga castle, a dangerous place where all men of the area go to live and train for large war-like sporting tournaments.
• Yude (G. Merriment): (The Matter of Seggri) Hainish woman who goes to Seggri and studies the intellectual culture in which only the women of Seggri may partake
• Azak: (The Matter of Seggri) A woman of Seggri who falls in love with a man (Toddra), a practice that is shunned in Seggri, as love is considered something of which only women are capable
• Toddra: (The Matter of Seggri) The dancer who falls in love with Azak, he desires to sneak out of the <house of sex> and live with her disguised as a female servant
• Zedr: (The Matter of Seggri) The woman who falls in love with Azak and draws her away from Toddra and the <house of sex>
• Akal/Enno: (The Mountain Ways) Enno is a traveling scholar who finds herself in the Deka mountains. She falls in love with Shahes, an Evening woman from the village, who also loves another Evening woman.
• Shahes: (The Mountain Ways) A Morning woman in love with two Evening women (Enno and Temly), she hatches a plan to keep and marry both of them in a sedoretu (there can only be two women in this four person marriage).
• Otorra: (The Mountain Ways) A Morning Man whom Shahes recruits to join her sedoretu with Akal and Temly.
• Serenity: (Solitude) the younger sister of Borny (also, narrator of her story), Serenity does not want to leave Eleven-Soro for Hain with her mother and brother after Borny comes back from the boy-group.
• Borny: (Solitude) (full name: "In Joy Born") The son of a Hainish enthnologist living on Eleven-Soro, he desires to join a boy group (a gang-like group of young men who go around fighting and sometimes killing each other), much to the concern of his mother.
• Hyuru: (Solitude) best friend/soulmate of Serenity
• Dnemi: (Solitude) an older woman in the auntring (living arrangement of women and children) who guides Serenity on Eleven-Soro.
• Mr. Old Music/Esdan: (Old Music and the Slave Women) A Hainish embassador on Werel, he gets bored of the embassy and wants to free the planet's slaves.
• Rayaye: (Old Music and the Slave Women) Former Minister of Foreign Affairs before the president was overthrown.
• Kamsa: (Old Music and the Slave Women) A bondswoman (slave) of the Voe Deo who carries a small baby with her.
• Gana: (Old Music and the Slave Women) An older bondswoman on Werel who sometimes looks after Kamsa's baby
• Metoy: (Old Music and the Slave Women) Eunuch marshall of the Liberation Army on Werel
• Banarkamye: (Old Music and the Slave Women) General of the Liberation Army on Werel
• Luis: Add a description of this character.
• Hiroshi
• Hadri
• Tazu
• Rosa
• Yao
• Omimo
• Ruaway
• Roxana
• Duun
• Bingdi
• Sasni
• Haghag
• Ramon
• Kim Terry
• Sadne
• Uma
• Danro
• Meiling
• Rosie
• Patel Inbliss
• Jael
• Madu
• God Herself
• Chochi
• Shask
• Karrid
• Magel
• Arrad
• Joel
• Skodr

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Seggri: A planet that has a very strong gender imbalance (roughly 1:16 and later 1:12 M:F, mostly due to the great difficulty with which male infants are born). The women educate themselves in universities with matters of technology and science while boys are taken at age eleven and turned into champions (or losers) of large, sometimes planet-wide sporting events (men also raise large farm animals and sew decorations onto their costumes).
• Planet O: a planet in which inhabitants live in separate rooms and marry in sedoretus
• Deka Mountains: A small village with many farmers and a breed of sheep-like creatures (yama) called ariu
• Eleven-Soro: a planet rebuilt after it had been destroyed by technological advancement and overpopulation, current inhabitants live in fear of the Before Time (technological age). Women and children live in auntrings, but women must not teach other grown women or enter their houses. There is no mourning for the dead. Boys go off to boy-groups where they may be killed or raped, and they never return back to their auntring.
• Werel: a planet divided by racial lines (black rulers and white slaves) undergoing a harsh civil war between the Legitimate Government (slave owners) and the Liberation (slaves)
• Esdan
• Yaramera
• Meruo
• Bridge
• Shindychew (Hsin Ti Chiu): The new Earth that Zero Generation's descendents will visit
• Rakedr
• Dichew (Ti Chiu): The old Earth from which Zero Generation embarked
• Handdara
• Chimlu

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• kemmer: part of a monthly cycle of Karhidians in which hormone levels and sex drive increase and the individual obtains either male or female sexual characteristics (this varies from month to month). Thus, each Karhidian can impregnate as a male and be impregnated as a female in the same lifetime. Traditionally, many individuals spend this period of the month in a kemmerhouse (place where individuals in kemmer go to have sex). Other than during kemmer, Karhidians have no gender or sex.
• ansible: A device that allows instantaneous (i.e. faster than the speed of light) communication. It is used to communicate between worlds that are often light years apart.
• Ekumen: an alliance of worlds dedicated to peace and the sharing of knowledge, most ambassadors communicate via ansibles, radios that transmit instantaneously, allowing communication between worlds that are lightyears apart.
• moiety: half of the population on Planet O – one is either a Morning person or an Evening person, a classification that is inherited from one's mother
• sedoretu: a marriage on Planet O; it consists of one Evening man, one Evening woman, one Morning man and one Morning woman. Only people of opposite moieties (i.e. Morning or Evening) may have sex with each other (gender is not a restriction in the marriage). Thus, each of the members in the marriage may have sex with two of the other individuals to whom he or she is married.
• Before Time: a period on Eleven-Soro when they had technology (examples given include airplanes, tunnels and submarines) like present-day Earth. The population in urban areas ballooned to 120 billion and the flora and fauna of the planet began to die out. Now, interest in the old technology is seen as a sort of black-magic by many on the planet.
• (to do) eva: the act of going outside of the spaceship for various purposes, including the repair of the hull (which is referred to as "dermatology")

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Ursula K. Le Guin (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Nebula (Finalist, 1994: Best Novelette)
• Nebula (1995: Best Novelette, #1)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Some graphic descriptions of sex. Cultural subtleties of different worlds may be difficult for younger readers to fully appreciate.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Authors, A-Z › ( L ) › LeGuin, Ursula K.
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Science Fiction › Short Stories
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Short Stories

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history