Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - The Left Hand of Darkness

Synopsis: an envoy is sent from a vast, interplanetary alliance to a wintery planet to recruit its inhabitants, a people of no gender whose bodies instead develop sexual organs for just a few days each month; in his quest, the envoy becomes embroiled in the politics both within and between two feuding countries, while being drawn to one figure in particular.

This was very interesting to read, especially from a 21st century perspective where we are accustomed to the boundaries of the gender binary being pushed, twisted, and ignored in wonderful diversity. We are also mostly familiar with, and accepting of, the gender neutral pronoun "they" being used exclusively to refer to a particular person.

In The Left Hand of Darkness, the main character, Genly Ai, is a poor representative of planet Earth in this respect; he is frequently disgusted by the Gethenians' bodies and attitudes towards sex and constantly tries to fit them and their characteristics into gendered boxes. He refers to the Gethenians using masculine pronouns, and seems to reject their femininity; it is only when one of them cries, or flirts, or is distressed, that he thinks "Ah ha! There is his femininity!" when it has been there all along. Genly's awkwardness around the Gethenians' sex and even his own fumbling description of what defines a woman, paired with the fact that he is the minority, the alien, on this planet, betray the notion that perhaps it is us earthlings who are the silly ones, forcing divides and highlighting differences between genders where there are none, and believing ourselves superior because of it. The Gethenians have no gender, yet they also have so far had no testosterone-fueled war or sexism (although they are not perfect; some parts of the book had strong echoes of 1984). On the other hand, the society of Earth that we see glimpses of is cisnormative and allonormative; at the beginning of the book, Genly cannot fathom a sexless and genderless society

and yet by the end he is in the beginnings of what I would tentatively call a queerplatonic relationship with no sex and no gender roles

.

I enjoyed this book a lot, and although I would have liked an earlier explanation of certain concepts (mostly kemmer), once I understood them I could fully immerse myself in the world. The Gethenians' societies and customs felt incredibly detailed and well thought out for such a short novel. It was interesting reading from the perspective of both the alien visitor and the visited, except this time it's us earthlings who are the visitors. I particularly loved the scenes journeying across the icy landscape. I highly recommend this book, but it's important to remember the publication date before complaining about the intricacies of gender politics – it was ahead of its time.

Content Warnings

maryellen's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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sylvester749's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

extremely dense, very interesting and well read, found it a little difficult to get into. didn't feel as groundbreaking to me as i thought it would going into it, but that very may be because i read it 54 years after its publication. still, what a galaxy brain and very well explored premise.

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bl4m3s's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I have a very complicated relationship with this book. We are thrown straight into the world of Gethen, with it's own language and terms and weather that is only explained as you read. This made the first half of the story difficult to get through and I had to Google the meaning of several words multiple times in order to understand what was actually happening. However, once I became familiar with the language the second half of the novel was much smoother sailing. It's definitely a read that requires your full attention and focus.

Other reviews have mentioned that this is much more of a speculative fiction novel than a science fiction one, and while this is true I don't believe it is a bad thing. The weather, politics and species being something we can relate back to earth and the human race allows greater focus to be placed on what does differentiate humans from gethenians. The societies on Winter are very similar to that on earth: with Orgoreyn having a communist government similar to that of the USSR in the 60s, and Karhide having a government closely resembling a monarchy. The benefits and drawbacks of both nations are discussed throughout the novel, which in term is a criticism of earthly governments.

What I find most interesting is the discussion of gender. Gethenians are androgynous people and only present with male or female genitals for 6 days each month. Anyone can become pregnant and anyone can impregnate - the father of one child can be the mother of another. This then means that all Gethenian societies are not influenced by gender. No one is expected to be the stay at home house wife, and no one is expected to be the breadwinner. Connotations such as "strength, courage, assertiveness = masculinity" and "sensitivity, gentleness, fragility = femininity" simply do not exist on Gethen. Most intriguingly, this has led to a world that has never once experienced war, as there is no pride or greed that is associated with male dominance. Gethenians are also very in touch with their emotions and experience no shame in outwardly expressing grief, anger and joy. It's very entertaining to watch Gently Ai, our male human protagonist, come to terms with and understand Gethenian biology and how he desperately tries to relate each person back to what is traditionally masculine and femine throughout the story.

"My efforts took the form of self-consciously seeing a Gethenian first as a man, then as a woman, forcing him into those categories so irrelevant to his nature and so essential to my own"

These notions are gradually broken down as the story progresses and eventually Ai reaches a point where seeing men and women of his own race is more alien and off-putting than the gethenians - the real aliens to him.

While the writing is strange and the pacing somewhat hard to make sense of, the messages and topics discussed in this novel are compelling and reflective. While there are some parts that have perhaps not aged so well, to say this novel was written in the 60s it is relatively progressive and innovative for its age, and the ideas put forward within it are topics still widely discussed and relevant to this day. I'd absolutely recommend reading this novel, especially as a queer person. Incredibly insightful and has left me with much to think about.

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idajoh's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

At some point I thought it contained somewhat of an internalised mysoginistic tone, however, I think it was mostly the voice of the main character, rather than the authors opinion

Overall, a very good read where you are taken to a vast world in outer space

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swampmonster's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A story very focused on political intrigue, the concept of home and humanity, and, most of all, nationalism and it's impacts. Not my favorite on a personal level, but well-done.

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surelyinthefountain's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Love this book; it's the romance of the century, though I admit I have so much personal attachment to it because of the care and nuance with which Le Guin writes nonbinary characters. Estraven is the nonbinary rep we all deserve, and Genry's growing understanding of who they were outside of the gender binary was just SO formative for me and helpful in my own journey. There's a lot of wisdom there and at least in my opinion, not very dated. The use of "he/him" for androgynous characters perhaps isn't what Le Guin might have chosen had she been writing today, but it's well-justified, I think, based on who Genry Ai is that he would use that pronoun set when writing his report. A couple of passages seem rooted in a more overtly sexist society, but to be honest, we unfortunately still live in a world where many people still fundamentally believe those things, even if they know what they're "supposed to" say, and those attitudes still do great harm out in the world. So this book is more relevant than ever, I think.
But then, maybe I'm just biased. This book is beautiful and I'm not afraid to gush forever about it! A world where people aren't seen as male or female, just as human beings -- what's not to love??

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