Dacha look down upon as reflecting the nouveau-riche tastes of their owners—and feature ostentatious items such as marble statues, fountains and exotic plants. Some have state-of-the-art sporting facilities such as an indoor swimming pool, multiple tennis courts and stables for race horses. A few privately owned estates even have small forests and lakes. Wealthy Russians have also bought up many of the tsarist-era dachas of the aristocracy, and Soviet-era dachas of artists and intellectuals. Types of houses or gardens similar to the "dacha": Dacha A dacha () is a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the exurbs of Russian
The Word for World Is Forest Athsheans: one of the elders of the Athsheans says to Selver "You've done what you had to do, and it was not right." "The Word for World is Forest" also challenges the idea of colonialism; the Terran colonists are depicted as being blind to the culture of the Athsheans, and convinced that they represent a higher form of civilization. Le Guin also challenges the metaphorical preference in Western cultures for pure light, in contrast to deeper and more complex shadows. Throughout the novel Le Guin draws a contrast between the Athshean way of integrating with the ecology of the planet,