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kaziaroo's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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
maryellen's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Child death, Physical abuse, and Incest
Minor: Kidnapping, Torture, Misogyny, Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Sexism, Suicide, Confinement, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Child death, and Death
tigger89's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Moderate: Alcohol, Confinement, Death, Incest, Misogyny, Suicide, and Gun violence
Minor: Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Mental illness
erebus53's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
As is often the case with hard science fiction, we break into this story feeling like and Alice (in Wonderland). We don't know what half the words mean and we are a little out of our depth, but through the ignorance of the protagonist, we learn our way around by their experiences. Despite having a world with some different names for things, and a slightly different calendar and clock, the new world is fairly easy to understand once you get over the initial shock, and I think that's pretty much the point of it. Our protagonist comes at this new place with curiosity, but with his own preconceptions, some of which slowly grow and change over the course of the book.
The core of this book explores a premise whereby there can be no "battle of the sexes" if there are no distinctly different sexes. This story tells of a people who go through a monthly fertile time, during which they become either male or female depending on the conditions. They have no sexual need outside of that fertile time, and their society is arranged to accommodate it. In coupling either of the partners could be the child-bearer so there is no division of labour as we have in out "bi-sexual" society. I can see how this would be a popular read today, as our society's friction over accepting non-binary gender identities becomes even more prominent.
As an aside, I find it amusing that the people in the new world can't pronounce the protagonist's name properly, and the Audiobook narrator has a tiny lisp. It's barely noticable but, when he has to say a soft "th" sound he uses an "ff" sound.. so death becomes deff, breath becomes breff. Typically this sort of thing annoys me, but I just think it's quite charming in such an alien story. ... aaaanyway.
There is an incisive foreword from the author at the start of the audiobook, where Ursula Le Guin says some valuable things about the roles and lying ways of speculative fiction writers, and how they are not to be trusted, or treated as though they are experts, profits or sages.
Without the relationship building in this story, it might have been quite a dry affair. After helping to introduce the protagonist to those in charge of the land, his main contact is exiled as a traitor, and the two of them are caught in the wheels and machinations of the politics of the place. They undertake a journey to find friends, and need to work together to survive the hostile climate. I was reminded of the film Enemy Mine (1985 w. Louis Gosset Jnr, Dennis Quaid) and I find it hard to imagine that a film like that (based on a 1979 novella by Barry B. Longyear) was made without the influence of this 1969 book.
The story is quite an adventurous tale, one of exploration and survival and understanding. I think the style in which it is written may be an acquired taste, but it's a must-read Classic for any fans of science fiction.
Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Confinement, Deportation, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Ableism, Sexism, and Transphobia
Minor: Vomit, Pregnancy, Racism, Incest, Suicide, and Physical abuse
bibliocinephile's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Gun violence and Incest
idajoh's review against another edition
- 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
Overall, a very good read where you are taken to a vast world in outer space
Graphic: Blood, Excrement, and Vomit
Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Animal death, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Trafficking, and Vomit
pastelkerstin's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
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.
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
laurareads87's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Le Guin, in her wonderful introduction, points out that the book is a thought experiment, not a blueprint; as such, it does not leave the reader with easy answers or a straightforward idea of how things should be. Rather, it is much more demanding than that.
Graphic: Xenophobia, Confinement, and Death
Minor: Gun violence
troisha's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Confinement and Death
Moderate: Grief, Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Violence, and Xenophobia
Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Pregnancy, and Suicide
miriamana's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, and Death
Minor: Sexual content, Sexism, and Torture