Scan barcode
A review by midici
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
4.0
"I talk about the gods, I am an atheist. But I am an artist too, and therefore a liar. Distrust everything I say. I am telling the truth."
Genly Ai is an envoy of the Ekumen of Known Worlds, stationed on a planet known as Gethen (Winter), to usher their world into connection and comunication with the rest of the known worlds. The danger and difficulty of navigating a land that is harsh in its extreme environment and complicated in its politics, is made more difficult by the social differences. There is no gender on Winter. Every person is both at once, and therefore neither. They have a cycle that allows them to take on characteristics of either gender, each month, which allows for reproduction.
His guide through the political waters in Karhide is a person called Estraven. In very simplistic terms, this book follows Genly as he tries to convince various political powers to put aside their differences and communicate in a friendly and peaceful way with the Ekumen, to exvhange knowledge and ideas (and technology if they so wish). That summary does not give any information on the depth of exploration of how Winter, as a world without the inherent binaries of our own, functions. As one of the original investigators writes: "One is respected and judged only as a human being. It is an appalling experience." There is a lot of emphasis on unity - how you can't have one thing without the other - no light without shadow, no male without female, no life without death - and how one can try to embody 'both' and therefore 'none' or 'all' (whichever you prefer) to become whole.
At first I was distracted by exploring this world with Genly. Moving forwards, I became irritated with Genly as a character. He reminds himself that he should not think of the Gethenians as either gender, then proceeds to do so by naming every action he likes or admires as masculine and every one he does not as feminine. He is very obtuse as to Estraven's motives which seemed very clear to me. Estraven risked - and lost - everything for Genly, for his mission, for the shining idea of bringing his world to the stars to join the rest of humanity. And Genly did not know why Estraven did so, or pretended not to, so he would not have to care.
"For he was the only one who had entirely accepted me as a human being: who had liked me personally and given me entire personal loyalty: and who therefore had demanded of me an equal degree of recognition, of acceptance. I had not been willing to give it. I had been afraid to give it. I had not wanted to give my trust, my friendship to a man who was a woman, a woman who was a man."
This is Genly's realization, and moment of acceptance. It's an important part, and a vindicating one; the poisonous idea that one cannot be true friends with someone who could possibly be a "sexual object" is one that gets Genly in a world of trouble. Genly and Estraven's long trip over the ice together is a catalyst or mirror for their relationship. They will die without each other on the ice. They have to learn to work together and master the physical danger around them. As they do so they become closer together, their isolation from everyone else leading them into an intimate relationship.
Beyond the social commentary and amazing worldbuilding, the writing itself is great. I felt while reading as though characters were giving words to ideas I've never properly articulated, which is a sure sign that I'm going to reread this at some point and love it even more.
"I certainly wasn't happy. Happiness has to do with reason, and only reason earns it. What I was given was the thing you can't earn, and can't keep, and often don't even recognize at the time; I mean joy."
Genly Ai is an envoy of the Ekumen of Known Worlds, stationed on a planet known as Gethen (Winter), to usher their world into connection and comunication with the rest of the known worlds. The danger and difficulty of navigating a land that is harsh in its extreme environment and complicated in its politics, is made more difficult by the social differences. There is no gender on Winter. Every person is both at once, and therefore neither. They have a cycle that allows them to take on characteristics of either gender, each month, which allows for reproduction.
His guide through the political waters in Karhide is a person called Estraven. In very simplistic terms, this book follows Genly as he tries to convince various political powers to put aside their differences and communicate in a friendly and peaceful way with the Ekumen, to exvhange knowledge and ideas (and technology if they so wish). That summary does not give any information on the depth of exploration of how Winter, as a world without the inherent binaries of our own, functions. As one of the original investigators writes: "One is respected and judged only as a human being. It is an appalling experience." There is a lot of emphasis on unity - how you can't have one thing without the other - no light without shadow, no male without female, no life without death - and how one can try to embody 'both' and therefore 'none' or 'all' (whichever you prefer) to become whole.
At first I was distracted by exploring this world with Genly. Moving forwards, I became irritated with Genly as a character. He reminds himself that he should not think of the Gethenians as either gender, then proceeds to do so by naming every action he likes or admires as masculine and every one he does not as feminine. He is very obtuse as to Estraven's motives which seemed very clear to me. Estraven risked - and lost - everything for Genly, for his mission, for the shining idea of bringing his world to the stars to join the rest of humanity. And Genly did not know why Estraven did so, or pretended not to, so he would not have to care.
"For he was the only one who had entirely accepted me as a human being: who had liked me personally and given me entire personal loyalty: and who therefore had demanded of me an equal degree of recognition, of acceptance. I had not been willing to give it. I had been afraid to give it. I had not wanted to give my trust, my friendship to a man who was a woman, a woman who was a man."
This is Genly's realization, and moment of acceptance. It's an important part, and a vindicating one; the poisonous idea that one cannot be true friends with someone who could possibly be a "sexual object" is one that gets Genly in a world of trouble. Genly and Estraven's long trip over the ice together is a catalyst or mirror for their relationship. They will die without each other on the ice. They have to learn to work together and master the physical danger around them. As they do so they become closer together, their isolation from everyone else leading them into an intimate relationship.
Beyond the social commentary and amazing worldbuilding, the writing itself is great. I felt while reading as though characters were giving words to ideas I've never properly articulated, which is a sure sign that I'm going to reread this at some point and love it even more.
"I certainly wasn't happy. Happiness has to do with reason, and only reason earns it. What I was given was the thing you can't earn, and can't keep, and often don't even recognize at the time; I mean joy."