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She Unnames Them
“Most of them accepted namelessness with the perfect indifference with which they had so long accepted and ignored their names.”
*short
**published in The New Yorker, January 21, 1985
*short
**published in The New Yorker, January 21, 1985
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1985
3 people are currently reading
340 people want to read
About the author
Ursula K. Le Guin
1,046 books30.4k followersUrsula K. Le Guin published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. She lived in Portland, Oregon.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
July 11, 2024
* SPOILER ALERT*
She unnames them is a short Short Story. Yet it stays with you longer than the longer books you've read. Based on the biblical story of Adam and Eve it imagines a counter story of the male protagonist naming all things big and small in the world. We all know that story and have accepted it without questions. It has been a metaphor of how things will be in the earthly life after being banished from our divine abode.
Hence Ursula Le Guin deliberately imagines a counter narrative. Where Eve is in the process of unnaming all the creatures. The responses are different from different creatures but unanimously they all, sometimes (especially pets) after a bit of relucatance are happy to go into being unlabelled as they anyway were/are till we decided to name them for our utility and convenience. Ursula beautifully explains how by doing so Eve feels much closer to all beings as now there is no barrier of a name between them. She feels we are all now united by tbe fear for each other, as it is now hard to tell who is the hunter or hunted and there is no telling apart as to who eats and who is food. She then gives up her own by conveying it to Adam who surprising or unsurprisingly takes it back without a fuss and much pre-occupation with, you guessed it, naming things! He also asks Eve- what's for dinner?
The story then lets you understand the inherent male narrative of the creation itself. Where the woman is named and hence possessed by the man who possesses all other beings by defining them, sorting them, thereby exerting his power over them by owning, knowing, understanding and slotting them in their confines. The unnaming then is the saga of liberation. The freedom from being defined in a narrow definition and hence subjugated. A powerful idea indeed. Subverting at the same time giving the much needed release not only to the woman but to all non-human, non-male creatures of the world.
She unnames them is a short Short Story. Yet it stays with you longer than the longer books you've read. Based on the biblical story of Adam and Eve it imagines a counter story of the male protagonist naming all things big and small in the world. We all know that story and have accepted it without questions. It has been a metaphor of how things will be in the earthly life after being banished from our divine abode.
Hence Ursula Le Guin deliberately imagines a counter narrative. Where Eve is in the process of unnaming all the creatures. The responses are different from different creatures but unanimously they all, sometimes (especially pets) after a bit of relucatance are happy to go into being unlabelled as they anyway were/are till we decided to name them for our utility and convenience. Ursula beautifully explains how by doing so Eve feels much closer to all beings as now there is no barrier of a name between them. She feels we are all now united by tbe fear for each other, as it is now hard to tell who is the hunter or hunted and there is no telling apart as to who eats and who is food. She then gives up her own by conveying it to Adam who surprising or unsurprisingly takes it back without a fuss and much pre-occupation with, you guessed it, naming things! He also asks Eve- what's for dinner?
The story then lets you understand the inherent male narrative of the creation itself. Where the woman is named and hence possessed by the man who possesses all other beings by defining them, sorting them, thereby exerting his power over them by owning, knowing, understanding and slotting them in their confines. The unnaming then is the saga of liberation. The freedom from being defined in a narrow definition and hence subjugated. A powerful idea indeed. Subverting at the same time giving the much needed release not only to the woman but to all non-human, non-male creatures of the world.
February 28, 2020
This story makes me glad humans invented fiction.
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April 9, 2024MOOD
February 27, 2024
Genesis says:
"And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and He brought them to the man to see what he would name each one. And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name."
And Ursula replies:
“None were left now to unname, and yet how close I felt to them when I saw one of them swim or fly or trot or crawl across my way or over my skin, or stalk me in the night, or go along beside me for a while in the day. They seemed far closer than when their names had stood between myself and them like a clear barrier: so close that my fear of them and their fear of me became one same fear. And the attraction that many of us felt, the desire to feel or rub or caress one another’s scales or skin or feathers or fur, taste one another’s blood or flesh, keep one another warm, that attraction was now all one with the fear, and the hunter could not be told from the hunted, nor the eater from the food.”
"And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and He brought them to the man to see what he would name each one. And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name."
And Ursula replies:
“None were left now to unname, and yet how close I felt to them when I saw one of them swim or fly or trot or crawl across my way or over my skin, or stalk me in the night, or go along beside me for a while in the day. They seemed far closer than when their names had stood between myself and them like a clear barrier: so close that my fear of them and their fear of me became one same fear. And the attraction that many of us felt, the desire to feel or rub or caress one another’s scales or skin or feathers or fur, taste one another’s blood or flesh, keep one another warm, that attraction was now all one with the fear, and the hunter could not be told from the hunted, nor the eater from the food.”
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October 26, 2021ella dijo nonbinary rights! fuck gender! fuck labels! and I think that's beautiful 🥰
October 13, 2022
En super kort fortælling om hvordan først dyrene og siden kvinden giver deres navne tilbage. Yakokserne efter nogen diskussion, mens kattene ikke værdiger forestillingen om at de skulle have haft andet end hemmelige navne en overvejelse. Hundene holder af navne men er flade da de opdager at det kun er fællesbetegnelsen 'hund', ikke deres individuelle navne. Alle bliver de navnløst (unnamed) og giver navnene tilbage til dem (ham), der har navngivet dem.
December 10, 2019
Hoe is het mogelijk dat ik hier nu pas achter kom? Eva geeft de (categorie)namen terug die Adam aan haar en de dieren heeft gegeven, en wijst zo de scheve machtsverhoudingen af.
Geen boek maar een heel kort verhaal, waar ik door het eveneens aan te raden boek 'Kleinzeer' op gewezen werd.
'The cats, of course, steadfastly denied ever having had any name other than those self-given, unspoken, ineffably personal names which, as the poet named Eliot said, they spend long hours daily contemplating, though none of the contemplators has ever admitted that what they contemplate is their names and some onlookers have wondered if the object of that meditative gaze might not in fact be the Perfect, or Platonic, Mouse.'
Geen boek maar een heel kort verhaal, waar ik door het eveneens aan te raden boek 'Kleinzeer' op gewezen werd.
'The cats, of course, steadfastly denied ever having had any name other than those self-given, unspoken, ineffably personal names which, as the poet named Eliot said, they spend long hours daily contemplating, though none of the contemplators has ever admitted that what they contemplate is their names and some onlookers have wondered if the object of that meditative gaze might not in fact be the Perfect, or Platonic, Mouse.'
August 27, 2025
first piece back at uni. short, but it can pack a punch if i think about it too long. don't exactly love on-the-nose biblical references, but they seemed to work here.
November 30, 2020
Eve regains her authority and gives it back to animals as well by making sure that the names Adam used to posses them disappear... I love women.
October 17, 2024
Self-determination and autonomy with a good biblical reference I’m hot I’m hard ooh baby
August 12, 2019
When I read things that are very ( or even a little ) abstract I usually feel as if I need to decipher some sort of deeper meaning in order to be smart or gain anything from the story. Usually, I have a hard time with such abstractness; I get confused and bored and I feel stupid. You should think it would be the same with She Unnames Them, but it wasn’t. I cannot quite put my finger on why; maybe the shortness; maybe the ease and beauty of the writing; for whatever reason, I didn’t feel the need to dig deeper than the actual words and I loved that. I can’t say that I ‘get it’ but it is weird and sweet and odd and gorgeous and strangely funny and full of whimsy and I loved it.
February 18, 2023
I think, after all this time reading her larger works, I'm finally understanding the hype around Le Guin. Her writing concerning animals and nature is wonderfully cohesive, taking the divisions between us- whether it be a lack of communication, or in the case of this short story, an overabundance of linguistic distinguishability - and melting them away until all that is left is a pure, level field of animal expression.
June 13, 2024
Another day in the universe where I feel glad that I met the world of fiction designed by Ursula Le Guin.
"You and your father lent me this, gave it to me, actually. It's been really useful, but it doesn't exactly seem to fit very well lately. But thanks very much! It's really been very useful."
"You and your father lent me this, gave it to me, actually. It's been really useful, but it doesn't exactly seem to fit very well lately. But thanks very much! It's really been very useful."
August 18, 2023
yass queen ursula, fuck labels!!!
June 18, 2025
Lovely work and greatly enjoyed experiencing it again, this time through her own narration. Just gorgeous.
October 21, 2025
Une courte nouvelle où Eve est une alliée.
Alors toujours au jardin d'Eden, Eve retire un à un le nom donné aux animaux.
"Ils me semblaient bien plus proches que lorsque leurs noms s'étaient dressés entre eux, telle une barrière transparente : si proches que ma peur d'eux et leur peur de moi ne faisaient plus qu'une. Et l'attirance que beaucoup d'entre nous ressentaient, le désir de sentir, de frotter ou de caresser les écailles, la peau, les plumes ou la fourrure de l'autre, de goûter le sang ou la chair de l'autre, de se tenir chaud, cette attirance ne faisait plus qu'un avec la peur, et il était impossible de distinguer le chasseur du chassé, ni le mangeur de la nourriture."
Sans les définir, les peurs s'estompent et la frontière entre mangeurs et mangés s'abat. Ce n'est que lorsqu'elle rend son nom à Adam qu'elle perd son statue de pêcheresse.
Alors toujours au jardin d'Eden, Eve retire un à un le nom donné aux animaux.
"Ils me semblaient bien plus proches que lorsque leurs noms s'étaient dressés entre eux, telle une barrière transparente : si proches que ma peur d'eux et leur peur de moi ne faisaient plus qu'une. Et l'attirance que beaucoup d'entre nous ressentaient, le désir de sentir, de frotter ou de caresser les écailles, la peau, les plumes ou la fourrure de l'autre, de goûter le sang ou la chair de l'autre, de se tenir chaud, cette attirance ne faisait plus qu'un avec la peur, et il était impossible de distinguer le chasseur du chassé, ni le mangeur de la nourriture."
Sans les définir, les peurs s'estompent et la frontière entre mangeurs et mangés s'abat. Ce n'est que lorsqu'elle rend son nom à Adam qu'elle perd son statue de pêcheresse.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 14, 2021
At anmelde en novelle på bare seks sider, er en lille smule svært. Der er ikke så frygtelig meget at gengive eller mene noget om. Der er dog noget, og det noget er ganske interessant. I hvert fald så interessant, at jeg glæder mig over, at Forlaget Virkelig insisterer på at udgive disse pamfletter.
Jeg oplevede den pågældende novelle som inciterende og underfundigt allegorisk, men dens verden er for begrænset for mig. Der er simpelthen ikke helt indhold nok. Det er tæt på, men jeg ville have ønsket bare et par sider mere for at få en helstøbt oplevelse.
Novellen er værd at læse, men den er måske ikke helt købsprisen værd, selvom jeg er meget glad for, at man kan købe økokritisk feministisk sci-fi i pamfletform.
Jeg oplevede den pågældende novelle som inciterende og underfundigt allegorisk, men dens verden er for begrænset for mig. Der er simpelthen ikke helt indhold nok. Det er tæt på, men jeg ville have ønsket bare et par sider mere for at få en helstøbt oplevelse.
Novellen er værd at læse, men den er måske ikke helt købsprisen værd, selvom jeg er meget glad for, at man kan købe økokritisk feministisk sci-fi i pamfletform.
October 24, 2024
Le Guin blesses us with this profound deconstruction of patriarchal (and biblical) authoritarianism in what? two pages? absurd.
we are shown that the concept of naming is deeply founded in this faux assertion of male control. and her interpretation and criticism of this naming convention just. makes. sense.
by naming things we are appropriating their essence, we steal their true identity and replace it with what WE observe and insert it into the man-made jigsaw puzzle of the chain of being that WE can now use to easily identify because it suits US and it puts US in charge.
its revolting and it makes me want to relinquish any names i hold over anything surrounding me, i want to set them free the way they were supposed to be before man.
we are shown that the concept of naming is deeply founded in this faux assertion of male control. and her interpretation and criticism of this naming convention just. makes. sense.
by naming things we are appropriating their essence, we steal their true identity and replace it with what WE observe and insert it into the man-made jigsaw puzzle of the chain of being that WE can now use to easily identify because it suits US and it puts US in charge.
its revolting and it makes me want to relinquish any names i hold over anything surrounding me, i want to set them free the way they were supposed to be before man.
September 30, 2024
This is an extremely short story, that is very clear with it's message without having to repeat it to the reader again and again. Eve undoes what Adam did, when he gave names to all of the animals, which then makes the animals more connected to their identities as individual creatures instead of their identitites as groups of animals, which proves that everyone is able to find their own destiny without influence from who they are expected to be.
Time to go watch like three video essays about this short story now.
Time to go watch like three video essays about this short story now.
May 21, 2025
Even when she took the long way around to express her struggles, she did so in a truly unique way—drawing attention with utter disgust at the state of things, yet without a trace of aggression. In doing so, she revealed her natural gifts—her cognitive abilities and her humanity—yet she's ready to throw it all away, because not even in the eyes of God does she find the righteous equality she deserved.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 19, 2025
I had to read this for an English class, and it really confused me while reading it in the moment, but when I wrote my thoughts down I realized it was really clever. Very short read, and pretty interesting! Made me think about labels and the power of names. Also, I can always appreciate a retelling of Christian mythology (if that's the right word, it's very late, forgive me.)
January 10, 2026
“And the attraction that many of us felt, the desire to smell one another's smells, feel or rub or caress one another's scales or skin or feathers or fur, taste one another's blood or flesh, keep one another warm—that attraction was now all one with the fear, and the hunter could not be told from the hunted, nor the eater from the food.”
May 18, 2025
Min første Le Guin, og jeg tror jeg forstår det.
Smuk, underfundig, ligetil uden at blive belærende. Havde lyst til med det samme at sende den i posten til min gode ven Astrid, det er et utrolig stort kompliment
Smuk, underfundig, ligetil uden at blive belærende. Havde lyst til med det samme at sende den i posten til min gode ven Astrid, det er et utrolig stort kompliment
November 16, 2018
Beautiful! What a thought, valuing every animal for their individual being rather than seeing them as a category.
December 6, 2018
Beautiful and imaginative short! Le Guin never disappoints me to be honest!
October 28, 2021
menuda reina
January 8, 2022
Absolutely beautiful. It is like freedom.
April 5, 2022
Need to read more LeGuin asap.
October 30, 2022
Very common Ursula Le Guin W
February 11, 2023
I didn’t understand it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews