In all those houses the backward-head people lived. They had electrical wires in their ears, and were deaf. They smoked tobacco day and night, and were continually making war. He tried to get away from the war by going on, but it was everywhere they lived, and they lived everywhere. He saw them hiding and killing each other. Sometimes the houses burned for miles and miles. But there were so many of those people that there was no end to them.

— Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin