Kevin+-+The+Left+Hand+of+Darkness

 // __THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS__ // By: Ursula K. Le Guin __**Biography of Author**__  Ursula K. Le Guin was born in Berkeley, California, as the daughter of Dr Alfred Kroeber and Theodora Kroeber Quinn. Le Guin's mother was a psychologist and writer of children's stories. Her father was the head of UC-Berkeley's Department of Anthropology. The Left Hand of Darkness, is considered great in the field of science fiction because of its radical investigation of gender roles and its moral and literary complexity. The Left Hand of Darkness was one of her firstscience fiction novels and started her off on her career as a famous science fiction writer. Le Guin has written many books for many different genres, but her most famous, and well recognized books are in science fiction and fantasy. Many of her books, including The Left Hand of Darkness, have won prestigious awards like the Nebula and Hugo awards. She is still writing books today and will keep on writing them for as long as she can.

__** SUMMARY **__ Guess what folks, Genly Ai is here to save the day! This is how it may have appeared to the people of Gethen, aslo known as Winter because of its terribly cold conditions. It is winter 3/4 of the year and most of the world is covered in ice except for a small strip of land near the equator. They saw a man appear out a “spaceship” that came from the sky and landed on their earth. It was a joke, a hoax, this man couldn't be telling the truth. Genly Ai was from a federation, called the Eukemen, that sought after the alliance of as many human inhabited planets as possible. Genly was the first mobile, or envoy, that had come from the Eukemen. His goal was to try to persuade the People of Gethen to join the Eukemen.

Genly first landed in Karhide, one of the kingdoms of the Planet. Genly worked with the prime minerster to try and persuade the king and the people of Karhide to accept his offer. After a while he was able to get a meeting with the King of Karhide, Argavan, but it did not turn out well. The king did not accept his offer and had exiled the Prime Minister, Estraven for being a "traitor".

After this depressing turn of events, Genly was bewildered as to what to do. He then decided to go to a fastness to get his fortune told. When he was there he asked "Will this world Gethen be a member of the Ekumen of Known Worlds, 5 years from now?" The answer was "Yes, yes, yes" Even after this prophesy was given, Genly still had serious doubts about whether or not he could get Gethen to join the Ekumen. He had just spent a whole year working to try and persuade the influential people of Karhide that he wasn't a liar and that joining the Ekumen would be a good and profitable thing. All he got in return was the banishment of Estraven, the prime minister, and the king brushing him off like an ant.

The author sometimes switches point of view between the main character Genly Ai, and Estravan. After Estraven was banished he went or Orgoreyn, another country on Winter, but not before he was caught up in a flight for his life because people wanted him dead. When Estraven finally got to somebody with authority in Orgoreyn, the commensals, he told them about the envoy Genly and that the they needed to let Genly come to Orgoreyn.

Once Genly arrived at Orgoreyn, the Commensals accepted him with welcoming hands. They were all about having him express his ideas and how best they could have the people believe Genly. But Estraven warned Genly to be cautious with how the Commensals used him because they might use him for their own purposes. Genly wasn't sure what to think of this because the Commensals seemed goodhearted, and he asked himself if could he really trust a traitor, exiled from his own land. After he observed the commensals, he started to believe Estraven's advice. The commensals started to question his story and were less open with him. Then the commensals had Genly arrested. The guards drugged him and interogated him about the truth of his "spacecraft" and the "Eukemen" When Genly woke up he was in a truck being shipped off to a farm to work almost as a slave. While he is at the camp he is worked very hard in the cold and very harsh conditions. Every few weekes they drug the workers and interogate the workers. All that it did was make Genly terribly sick and barely able to even walk. Then out of the darkness came Estraven to save Genly from the wretched place. Genly is amazed and awestruck because Estraven risked his life to save him. Genly had thought that Estravan hadn't even liked him. It was a very risky and daring mission because they were both in danger now. First, Genly had escaped from his frosty "prison" and was now an escaped convict. Secondly, Estravan's reputation had been ruined, for being a traitor, and freeing Genly, But Estravan has a plan. Estravan believes that if they can get back to karhide and show the King and common people the "starship" that they will have to believe Genly's story and will join the Ekuman. The only problem is that there is no way get in because all the borders are guarded, except for one, the northern border. That is because there is only a gigantic Glacier stretching as far north as possible, and no one would be crazy enough to cross it. Estravan planned a 70 day trip that would take them over 800 miles across the ice. A good day would be if it got up to -15 degrees, and the sun wouldn't blind you, or if you didn't get burried by the blizzards. All they had to bring along was their winter clothes, skis, and what they could carry on their backs. They started out well, but then events turned to the worse. They got caught in blizzrds, chasms blocked their path, and the worst of all, their food supply was dangerously low. The journey of Genly and Estravan across the ice is the heart and soul of the novel. Life is simplified to the bare necessesities, and Genly, the envoy who has come to this planet to share all the wonders of the Ecumen with these primitive people, is the one who learns about life and friendship. The novel ends shortly after they end their trek across the ice, and I will leave the summary there so as not to spoil the ending.

__**CRITICISM**__ What didn't work This book was very well written and there was very little that didn't work. The few low points of the book were that it was a little slow and very confusing at the start of the book. It took a very long time to actually understand who the people were and what was happening. It seemed as if she jumped into it a little too quickly and could have explained the characters a little better.

What did work The thing that made Gethen unique was that everyone was androgynous. Each person has the reproductive organs of both males and females. Most of the time they are actually asexual, are sexually inactive and can't reproduce. About once a month they go into Kemmering, similar to when an animal goes into heat, and they are sexually active. Sometimes an individual will be a woman and sometimes a man. When they aren't sexually active they don't look like either a man or woman, but have qualities of both. The ironic part of this book is that as a reader, one may think of Gethenians as odd and different because of their androgyny, but the Gethenians thought of Genly as a pervert because he seemed to them to be in a constant state of kemmering and was always a male. The most interesting and somewhat difficult part of the book to understand was the fact that there was no "man" or "woman" attached to a person. There was no dominace of men, or subservientness of women. They all had the same qualities and treated each other equally in that sense. That does not mean that there wasn't any discrimination, they just applied it for different things, like Genly being a "pervert"

One of the greatest qualities of this book is the use of Taoism in it. It is never specified or explained, but it is a feeling that you get throughout the book. There is no real "religion" that the people are affiliated to, or even really believe in. Most people just let things happen as it happens. As in one point in the book Genly has been arrested and in a truck being shiped to a farm to work at. There is a man that isn't receiving any water and is clearly dying, but no one goes to help him. This is because they feel that this is how it goes and he has chosen his path. Also, Estravan has "luck", which helps him through his life. Wherever his intuition takes him he follows it and hopes that his "luck" will make his choices beneficial. Yin-Yang becomes visible from time to time. The title itself reflects this. One finds out along the way that light is the left hand of darkness. My favorite part of this book is when Le Guin, instead of exlaining the history, or morals of the people of Karhide or of Gethen, she has these wonderful folk tales of the land that give you a better description of their morals, beliefs, and a understandment of how the people think than could ever be explained. One of the stories explains how two Karhidians vowed kemmering, but one commited suicide. The brother that was still alive was shunned from the community were ever he went until the only place left was the Ice. He walked for 9 days in the Ice until he was almost dead and then, to his amazement, found a haven with green grass and trees. At this haven, he finds his kemmerer that had commited suicide who asked him to stay with him there. But the Karhidian that was still alive wouldn't stay because he believed that since his kemmerer had commited suicide that he didn't want to be alive with him so therefore he had to leave. This explains how terrible a sin they thought suicide was that it went even beyond love, and that if commited suicide, you would be disgraced forever and there will be no love for your name ever again.

Ursula Le Guin, in her introduction to The Left Hand of Darkness, describes her novel, and a lot of science fiction, as a "thought experiment." I think that describes this novel really well. She said to herself, "what would a planet populated only by androgynous people be like?" The answer was The Left Hand of Darkness.

This is classic science fiction novel. It was publshed in 1969. The Left Hand of Darkness won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. These are awards given to the best Science Fiction or Fantasy novel of the year. __** QUOTES **__ From field notes of Ong Tot Oppong, Investigator, of the first Ekmenical landing party of Gethen/Winter, cycle 93 E.Y. 1448 "Our entire pattern of soci-sexual interaction in nonexistent here. The Gethenians do not see one another as men or women. This is almost impossible for our imaginations to accept. After all, what is the first question we ask about a new born baby?" (94) "Yet you cannot think of a Gethenian as "it." They are not neuters. They are potentials; during each sexual cycle they may develop in either direction for the duration of that cycle. No phyisiological habit is established, and the mother of several children may be the father of several more." (94) "There is no division of humanity into strong and weak halves, protected/protective. One is respected and judged only as a human being. You cannot cast a Gethenian in the role of Man or Woman, while adopting towards "him" a corresponding role dependent on your expectations of the interaction between persons of the same or opposite sex. It is an appalling experience for a Terran..." (94) "I was glad to get the confrontation over with at once. It was plain that no tolerable relationship could exist between Estraven and myself." (130) The person thinking this was Genly. This is so ironic because by the end of the book their bond is so strong that Estravan is willing to give everything to help Genly's mission succeed in making Gethen part of the Ekumen. "Yes, yes, yes" (66) This was a great part because it brings inspiration that Genly will succed. "Arek!" This was at the end of the book, at a very tragic point that I never saw comming and at the climax of the novel. .sci.fi/leguin.htm>
 * __ LITERARY INFORMATION __**


 * __ LINKS__**

Ursula Le Guin's Web site: http://www.ursulakleguin.com/

A Biography of Ursula Le Guin: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/leguin.htm

A list of her books: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/ursula-k-le-guin/