WEEK 10 - The Fiction of Ideas: "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula LeGuin




The Left Hand of Darkness addresses the concept of science fiction (exceptionally well for the times), as well as  feminism. It is a book about making whole. It’s also a book about what it means to be a good person and where gender is significant in that. It, in a way, defined what it truly was to be a man or a woman. It’s a fantastical story set in a fascinating culture, and the content regarding gender is only part of that. This deftly constructed story touches on all key themes, including the complexity of gender roles, both in their biological and culturally imposed forms. LeGuin probes the nature of political institutions and examines the fragility of pacifist attitudes as they try to reach a meeting of minds in a dynamic setting. 

Overall, The Left Hand of Darkness is the story of the journey that the two main protagonists take together. What's more is that the book is written in such a way that you have Estraven’s journals (currently written at the time) and Genly’s report (written later) along with various poems and folktakes and stories of Gethen inserted in the text at appropriate points. The world is not only a character, but one of the most important characters-- one that is unique because of the people and how different it is from its government, and the religions. The planet is in an "ice age" of sorts, and the adaptations to the climate have shaped the cultures of the planet as much as the gender issue has-- if not more. They’re like real cultures, with real oddities, and the way the story is told enhances that.

In terms of characters, Genly appears to be the “normal” character within the novel. The reader's "filter," if you will-- the one who is a gender we recognize, from a planet we’re familiar with. Genly’s journey frees him of his own limitations. So much so, that when other agents of the Ekumen appear, he is almost disgusted by their sexuality. Going off of this, a quote by him in particular that struck a chord with me was when he said:

“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.”

 I'm particularly a fan of Estraven's character however, because he’s not a man or a woman. Despite constantly being in exile everywhere, he always sees the big picture and tries to do what he can to be a good person, even under difficult circumstances. His backstory, which is revealed so beautifully slowly, is one of the most apparent beauties of this book.

There are even some political aspects from our own history that seem to be reflected throughout some undertones of the novel. In this case, there seems to be some sort of a Cold War legacy in the way Karhide and Orgereyn are opposed, while Orgoreyn is totalitarian, with its endless units and work camps. However, I feel that Orgereyn only really exists to give Genly and Estraven something to "escape from," in a sense. It’s conveyed pretty well overall though, especially through Genly’s subjective experience of it, but I don’t think Orgereyn is as developed or as well thought through as Karhide.

The Gethenians have a different view on pride, which they refer to as “shifgrethor”. It's a notably different belief from Earth views on offending pride-- only in how conscious they are of it, and what is sayable and unsayable. I think it’s one of the more interesting gender things-- —much more interesting than the fact that they don’t fight wars. It's that they have this set of shifting privileges and offendable pride that they’re aware of. For lack of better words; they’re touchy in a very alien way, and I think that’s really effective, along with the way she explicitly feminizes them. 

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