Deplorable Word word itself, and had vowed that none of them, nor their descendants, would seek to discover it. Jadis said she had "learned it in a secret place and paid a terrible price to learn it". The book does not say what that price was, or give further details on the Deplorable Word. Lewis does not explicitly link the Deplorable Word to any specific weapon of mass destruction, but he alludes to the power of humanity to destroy life. Writing in 1955 in the midst of the Cold War, Lewis has the lion Aslan say to the central characters from the
The Word for World Is Forest Whereas with planets such as Gethen in "The Left Hand of Darkness" the integration with the Hainish planets is seen as a good thing, Athshe is seen as changed for the worse both by the loggers and by being taught to kill their own species. The League eventually decides to isolate Athshe and limit all contact with it, a decision shown to have ambiguous overtones. Language and linguistic barriers are a major theme in "The Word for World Is Forest", something exemplified by the title. In contrast to other Hainish universe novels such as "The Left Hand of Darkness", "The