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kaziaroo's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
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.
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
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
Graphic: Blood, Medical trauma, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Death, Kidnapping, Grief, Incest, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Medical content
Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide, Gun violence, Sexism, Excrement, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Pregnancy, Rape, Child death, and War
tigger89's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I'm ashamed to say that it took me many years and two false starts to get around to reading this. I knew it was going to be good, but it was very much a case of "right book, wrong time" for me. I very nearly had to return the copy unread this time as well, but decided I could marathon it over the weekend instead. I'm glad I did, because this book is a classic for a reason.
What everyone knows about this story is that it's the one where the aliens are gender-neutral, except for once a month when they become either male or female — varying from month to month — in order to engage in sexual intercourse. Frankly, in 2023, that's not the most interesting part of this story. I don't know if it's because Seinfeld is Unfunny(tvtropes) or because of our conversations around and understanding of gender evolving, but it doesn't feel terribly groundbreaking. At times, the binary themes even felt regressive, though I understand that they had a different cultural significance in 1969. Rather, what I found to be far more timeless were the cultural misunderstandings and Genly's struggle, first to salvage his mission and then to survive.
Le Guin's descriptions of the various landscapes were incredible. Let me tell you, I felt the wind on that glacier! And her explorations of the cultural institutions — such as Shifgrethor, Kemmer, and the Foretellers — were SF/F at its best. I'd never heard this book praised for its world before and that's a shame, because those who read to experience fantastical lands and cultures unlike our own(hi!) will find plenty to dig into here.
Something that I really struggled with was the extensive use of male-as-neuter language throughout the text. I found it very difficult to remember that the characters were meant to be androgynous when all the pronouns were he/him. Yes, I know the language is a 1969 thing(see also: "bisexual society", which is way less of a party than it sounds). But that doesn't make it any easier on the reader. The edition I read had an afterword by Charlie Jane Anders, in which she proposed the idea that Genly himself is an unreliable narrator of sorts, expressing his own misogyny through his use of male pronouns for the Gethenians. I really liked that idea, and have adopted it as my own headcanon.
What everyone knows about this story is that it's the one where the aliens are gender-neutral, except for once a month when they become either male or female — varying from month to month — in order to engage in sexual intercourse. Frankly, in 2023, that's not the most interesting part of this story. I don't know if it's because Seinfeld is Unfunny(tvtropes) or because of our conversations around and understanding of gender evolving, but it doesn't feel terribly groundbreaking. At times, the binary themes even felt regressive, though I understand that they had a different cultural significance in 1969. Rather, what I found to be far more timeless were the cultural misunderstandings and Genly's struggle, first to salvage his mission and then to survive.
Le Guin's descriptions of the various landscapes were incredible. Let me tell you, I felt the wind on that glacier! And her explorations of the cultural institutions — such as Shifgrethor, Kemmer, and the Foretellers — were SF/F at its best. I'd never heard this book praised for its world before and that's a shame, because those who read to experience fantastical lands and cultures unlike our own(hi!) will find plenty to dig into here.
Something that I really struggled with was the extensive use of male-as-neuter language throughout the text. I found it very difficult to remember that the characters were meant to be androgynous when all the pronouns were he/him. Yes, I know the language is a 1969 thing(see also: "bisexual society", which is way less of a party than it sounds). But that doesn't make it any easier on the reader. The edition I read had an afterword by Charlie Jane Anders, in which she proposed the idea that Genly himself is an unreliable narrator of sorts, expressing his own misogyny through his use of male pronouns for the Gethenians. I really liked that idea, and have adopted it as my own headcanon.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Confinement, Death, Incest, Misogyny, Suicide, and Gun violence
Minor: Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Mental illness
pastelkerstin's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book took a while to get interesting, but once it did, I found it hard to put down.
At its core there are some pretty good radical ideas in here about favouring community over patriotism. Genly speaks of a world based on cooperation and without law enforcement out among the stars. What a vision.
Gender and sex is also obviously a big topic in this book. I think it shows the arbitrariness of gender roles well, even though Genly and the other Envoys struggle with understanding this, as they come from a binarist society. Genly often makes sexist comments about manly or womanly qualities he sees in the Gethenians, people who are neither men nor women (or who are both, depending how you want to see it). But I don't think that means that the reader is supposed to agree with Genly. Seeing whatever a main character says as correct is a misguided way of reading fiction, in my opinion.
That's also why when Genly's interior monologue says that sexual desire/attraction is people's driving force (a very Freudian idea) and a requirement for being human, and therefore the Gethenians with their sexual cycle seem strange and inhuman to him, I think we're not supposed to think he's right. After all,Genly learns to see Therem fully, as not fitting into Genly's ideas of sexuality and gender, but as a full human being, despite these differences. There is the implication here that asexuality either doesn't exist on the other planets or that Genly isn't aware of it. So I would put an aphobia warning on this just in case, because reading "no sexual attraction = inhuman" stings even if you know that Genly struggles to see past his own experience of the world.
I think Genly and Therem's relationship is the most interesting part of this book. And it feels very queer to me, even thoughthey are never officially together and Gethen doesn't seem to have a concept of queerness (unlike Genly's homeworld).
Overall, I liked this book, even though it has some elements that are a bit squicky or hard to read for me, like the way incest is tolerated on Gethen under certain circumstances and how this is part of one the main characters' backstories, or the aforementioned sexism and (almost certainly unintentional) asexual erasure from Genly.
At its core there are some pretty good radical ideas in here about favouring community over patriotism. Genly speaks of a world based on cooperation and without law enforcement out among the stars. What a vision.
Gender and sex is also obviously a big topic in this book. I think it shows the arbitrariness of gender roles well, even though Genly and the other Envoys struggle with understanding this, as they come from a binarist society. Genly often makes sexist comments about manly or womanly qualities he sees in the Gethenians, people who are neither men nor women (or who are both, depending how you want to see it). But I don't think that means that the reader is supposed to agree with Genly. Seeing whatever a main character says as correct is a misguided way of reading fiction, in my opinion.
That's also why when Genly's interior monologue says that sexual desire/attraction is people's driving force (a very Freudian idea) and a requirement for being human, and therefore the Gethenians with their sexual cycle seem strange and inhuman to him, I think we're not supposed to think he's right. After all,
I think Genly and Therem's relationship is the most interesting part of this book. And it feels very queer to me, even though
Overall, I liked this book, even though it has some elements that are a bit squicky or hard to read for me, like the way incest is tolerated on Gethen under certain circumstances and how this is part of one the main characters' backstories, or the aforementioned sexism and (almost certainly unintentional) asexual erasure from Genly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Death, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Violence, Vomit, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia, Body shaming, Child death, Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture
Minor: Infertility, Suicide, Ableism, and Homophobia
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