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| A true classic of science fiction. Source: Here |
“Light is the left hand of darkness
and darkness the right hand of light.
Two are one, life and death, lying
together like lovers in kemmer,
like hands joined together,
like the end and the way.”
and darkness the right hand of light.
Two are one, life and death, lying
together like lovers in kemmer,
like hands joined together,
like the end and the way.”
Finally, a female author to break up the monotony! And who better to start with than Ursula Le Guin and her most famous work?
The Left Hand of Darkness is a science-fiction novel published in 1969 by Ursula K. Le Guin and is part of her Hainish Cycle series. In this universe humanity originated not on Earth but on the planet Hain, expanding outward and colonizing neighbouring planetary systems. For unknown reasons, these planets lost contact and in the present the Hainish are once again attempting to form a galactic civilisation.
Our story plays out on the planet Winter (known as "Gethen" in the native people's tongue, and referred to as such because it is always cold) where galactic envoy Genly Ai has been sent to persuade Gethen to join the Ekumen - this is complicated by the fact that Gethen is divided into two nations, Karhide and Orgoreyn,who do NOT get on very amicably. The people of Gethen are an androgynous, only adopting male or female sexual attributes once a month during a period referred to as kemmer, and with no inclination toward either sex.
The significance of this book cannot be understated. Science-fiction for a large part of the 20th century has predominantly been a boys' club, with female and minority authors overlooked or lucky enough to get anything published to anywhere near the same degree as their male or white counterparts. When The Left Hand of Darkness was published in 1969, it arrived in the midst of two significant movements:
What I really enjoyed about this book was almost the anthropological approach that Le Guin took in writing this story. Her own father, Alfred Louis Kroeber, was an anthropologist, and you can see how this influence permeates the book - what with the main protagonist's central struggle focusing on successful integration and coming to grips with an alien society. We have chapters fleshing out the Gethenian race which focus on their origins, religion, and even local myths, just little features I thought helped flesh out these strange beings more than we're used to in science fiction.
Another aspect I enjoyed was seeing how Genly grappled with the concept of "the Other" all throughout. Having come from Earth, with its own gender roles and delineations, to then be thrust into Gethenian society without the same notions of gender throws him for a spin. This difference makes relating to the Gethen a great difficulty for Genly, and even his assignation of value to their perceived gendered traits (e.g. equating femininity to weakness) doesn't help matters. His alien nature prevents him from fully understanding how Gethenians and their society work.
Easily my favorite part is the character of Estraven. Not just as the mentor guiding Genly - and by extension the reader - through this frosty alien world but as a person trying to do the right thing. Even when exiled and disgraced, he still risks his life for Genly, to the extent of helping take him across a glacier in order to return to civilisation. Indeed, both Estraven and Genly appear symbolic of the book's thematic core; learning from and aiding one another regardless of it the gap between us is unbridgeable.
The gender aspect of the book I thought could have been executed better. Le Guin writes the Gethenians almost solely using male pronouns ("fathers, sons, brothers") when we have a multitude of gender neutral pronouns ("parents/guardians, children, siblings") that could have been more than acceptable. For the time it was published, the fact that there was an effort to make such different notions of gender a central part of your narrative in my eyes should be commended.
All in all, I really enjoyed this thought-provoking book. It left me with so much to mull over and I'm certain I'll come to revisit it soon enough. I think this end quote really sums up the essence of what Le Guin was aiming for here; that even when there gaps between you and "the Other" that cannot be overcome, that shouldn't stop us from attempting to try:
“And I saw then again, and for good, what I had always been afraid to see, and had pretended not to see in him: that he was a woman as well as a man. Any need to explain the sources of that fear vanished with that fear; what I was left with was, at last, acceptance of him as he was. Until then I had rejected him, refused him his own reality.”
The Left Hand of Darkness is a science-fiction novel published in 1969 by Ursula K. Le Guin and is part of her Hainish Cycle series. In this universe humanity originated not on Earth but on the planet Hain, expanding outward and colonizing neighbouring planetary systems. For unknown reasons, these planets lost contact and in the present the Hainish are once again attempting to form a galactic civilisation.
Our story plays out on the planet Winter (known as "Gethen" in the native people's tongue, and referred to as such because it is always cold) where galactic envoy Genly Ai has been sent to persuade Gethen to join the Ekumen - this is complicated by the fact that Gethen is divided into two nations, Karhide and Orgoreyn,who do NOT get on very amicably. The people of Gethen are an androgynous, only adopting male or female sexual attributes once a month during a period referred to as kemmer, and with no inclination toward either sex.
The significance of this book cannot be understated. Science-fiction for a large part of the 20th century has predominantly been a boys' club, with female and minority authors overlooked or lucky enough to get anything published to anywhere near the same degree as their male or white counterparts. When The Left Hand of Darkness was published in 1969, it arrived in the midst of two significant movements:
- In the wider world second-wave feminism was in full swing, and contrary to its predecessors this focused on gaining equality with men in social and political spheres and gaining greater legal rights for women.
- The New Wave was still in force in science fiction, marking a shift toward more experimental forms of writing and moving away from science fiction focusing on the hard sciences and toward the social sciences.
While Le Guin certainly wasn't the first female writer working in science-fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness certainly helped break down the barriers preventing women from writing more and went on to meet significant critical acclaim, winning both the Hugo and Nebula awards - the big two awards a sci-fi book can hope to attain.
What I really enjoyed about this book was almost the anthropological approach that Le Guin took in writing this story. Her own father, Alfred Louis Kroeber, was an anthropologist, and you can see how this influence permeates the book - what with the main protagonist's central struggle focusing on successful integration and coming to grips with an alien society. We have chapters fleshing out the Gethenian race which focus on their origins, religion, and even local myths, just little features I thought helped flesh out these strange beings more than we're used to in science fiction.
Another aspect I enjoyed was seeing how Genly grappled with the concept of "the Other" all throughout. Having come from Earth, with its own gender roles and delineations, to then be thrust into Gethenian society without the same notions of gender throws him for a spin. This difference makes relating to the Gethen a great difficulty for Genly, and even his assignation of value to their perceived gendered traits (e.g. equating femininity to weakness) doesn't help matters. His alien nature prevents him from fully understanding how Gethenians and their society work.
Easily my favorite part is the character of Estraven. Not just as the mentor guiding Genly - and by extension the reader - through this frosty alien world but as a person trying to do the right thing. Even when exiled and disgraced, he still risks his life for Genly, to the extent of helping take him across a glacier in order to return to civilisation. Indeed, both Estraven and Genly appear symbolic of the book's thematic core; learning from and aiding one another regardless of it the gap between us is unbridgeable.
The gender aspect of the book I thought could have been executed better. Le Guin writes the Gethenians almost solely using male pronouns ("fathers, sons, brothers") when we have a multitude of gender neutral pronouns ("parents/guardians, children, siblings") that could have been more than acceptable. For the time it was published, the fact that there was an effort to make such different notions of gender a central part of your narrative in my eyes should be commended.
All in all, I really enjoyed this thought-provoking book. It left me with so much to mull over and I'm certain I'll come to revisit it soon enough. I think this end quote really sums up the essence of what Le Guin was aiming for here; that even when there gaps between you and "the Other" that cannot be overcome, that shouldn't stop us from attempting to try:
“And I saw then again, and for good, what I had always been afraid to see, and had pretended not to see in him: that he was a woman as well as a man. Any need to explain the sources of that fear vanished with that fear; what I was left with was, at last, acceptance of him as he was. Until then I had rejected him, refused him his own reality.”
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