Books In English "City Of Illusions" Ursula K. Le Guin | Page 152

him. It was the first harmony between them, and Ramarren was glad of it,
for he would need Orry before this game was done.
A slider was summoned and they went about the city, Ramarren
asking appropriate questions and the Shing replying as they saw fit.
Abundibot described elaborately how all of Es Toch, towers, bridges,
streets and palaces, had been built overnight a thousand years ago, on a
river-isle on the other side of the planet, and how from century to century
whenever they felt inclined the Lords of Earth summoned their wondrous
machines and instruments to move the whole city to a new site suiting
their whim. It was a pretty tale; and Orry was too benumbed with drugs
and persuasions to disbelieve anything, while if Ramarren believed or not
was little matter. Abundibot evidently told lies for the mere pleasure of it.
Perhaps it was the only pleasure he knew. There were elaborate
descriptions also of how Earth was governed, how most of the Shing spent
their lives among common men, disguised as mere "natives" but working
for the master plan emanating from Es Toch, how carefree and content
most of humanity was in their knowledge that the Shing would keep the
peace and bear the burdens, how arts and learning were gently encouraged
and rebellious and destructive elements as gently repressed. A planet of
humble people, in their humble little cottages and peaceful tribes and
townlets; no warring, no killing, no crowding; the old achievements and
ambitions forgotten; almost a race of children, protected by the firm kindly
guidance and the invulnerable technological strength of the Shing
caste——
The story went on and on, always the same with variations, soothing
and reassuring. It was no wonder the poor waif Orry believed it; Ramarren
would have believed most of it, if he had not had Falk's memories of the
Forest and the Plains to show the rather subtle but total falseness of it. Falk
had not lived on Earth among children, but among men, brutalized,
suffering, and impassioned.
That day they showed Ramarren all over Es Toch, which seemed to
hi m who had lived among the old streets of Wegest and in the great
Winterhouses of Kaspool a sham city, vapid and artificial, impressive only
by its fantastic natural setting. Then they began to take him and Orry about
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