Books In English "City Of Illusions" Ursula K. Le Guin | Page 16

"The Shing."
"Why?"
"They broke the League of All Worlds, took choice and freedom from
men, wrecked all man's works and records, stopped the evolution of the
race. They are tyrants, and liars."
"But they don't keep us from leading our good life here."
"We're in hiding—we live apart, so that they'll let us be. If we tried to
build any of the great machines, if we gathered in groups or towns or
nations to do any great work together, then the Shing would infiltrate and
ruin the work and disperse us. I tell you only what you told me and I
believed, Master!"
"I know. I wondered if behind the fact you had perhaps sens ed
the…legend, the guess, the hope…"
Falk did not answer.
"We hide from the Shing. Also we hide from what we were. Do you
see that, Falk? We live well in the Houses—well enough. But we are ruled
utterly by fear. There was a time we sailed in ships between the stars, and
now we dare not go a hundred miles from home. We keep a little
knowledge, and do nothing with it. But once we used that knowledge to
weave the pattern of life like a tapestry across night and chaos. We
enlarged the chances of life. We did man's work."
After another silence Zove went on, looking up into the bright
November sky: "Consider the worlds, the various men and beasts on them,
the constellations of their skies, the cities they built, their songs and ways.
All that is lost, lost to us, as utterly as your childhood is lost to you. What
do we really know of the time of our greatness? A few names of worlds
and heroes, a ragtag of facts we've tried to patch into a history. The Shing
law forbids killing, but they killed knowledge, they burned books, and
what may be worse, they falsified what was left. They slipped in the Lie,
as always. We aren't sure of anything concerning the Age of the League;
how many of the documents are forged? You must remember, you see,
wherein the Shing are our Enemy. It's easy enough to live one's whole life
without ever seeing one of them—knowingly; at most one hears an aircar
passing by far away. Here in the Forest they let us be, and it may be the
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