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| Epigraph |
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For Charles, sine qua non  | |
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| First words |
I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination. The soundest fact may fail or prevail in the style of its telling: like that singular organic jewel of our seas, which grows brighter as one woman wears it and, worn by another, dulls and goes to dust. Facts are no more solid, coherent, round, and real than pearls are. But both are sensitive. | |
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| Quotations |
Light is the left hand of darkness
and darkness the right hand of light.
Two are one, life and death, lying together like lovers in kemmer,
like hands joined together,
like the end and the way. Alone, I cannot change your world. But I can be changed by it. Alone, I must listen, as well as speak. Alone, the relationship I finally make, if I make one, is not impersonal and not only political: it is individual, it is personal, it is both more or less than political. Not We and They; not I and It; but I and Thou. "Praise then darkness and Creation unfinished," A friend. What is a friend in a world where any friend may be a lover at a new phase of the moon? Not I, locked in my virility: no friend to Therem Harth or any other of his race. Neither man nor woman, neither and both, cyclic, lunar, metamorphosing under the hand's touch, changelings in the human cradle, they were no flesh of mine, no friends; no love between us. | |
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| Last words |
"You crossed the Gobrin Ice together," Sorve demanded, "you and he?"
"We did."
"I should like to hear that tale, my Lord Envoy," said old Esvans, very calm. But the boy, Therem's son, said stammering, "Will you tell us how he died? --Will you tell us about the other worlds out among the stars -- the other kinds of men, the other lives?" (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.) | |
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▾Common Knowledge (short form) | Canonical title | The Left Hand of Darkness | | Original publication date | 1969 | | Series | Hainish Cycle (4), Hainish Cycle, Chronological (6) | | People/Characters | Therem Harth rem ir Estraven, Genly Ai | | Important places | Gethen (Winter) | | Awards and honors | Hugo (Novel, 1970), Nebula (Novel, 1969), James Tiptree, Jr. Award (Retrospective), Gaylactic Spectrum Shortlist (Hall of Fame, 2001), Gaylactic Spectrum (Hall of Fame, 2003), Guardian 1000 (Science Fiction & Fantasy) (show all 7), ALA Outstanding Books for the College Bound (1999.5|Fiction, 1999) | | Dedication | For Charles, sine qua non | | First words | I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination. The soundest fact may fail or prevail in the style of its telling: like that singular organic ... (show all)jewel of our seas, which grows brighter as one woman wears it and, worn by another, dulls and goes to dust. Facts are no more solid, coherent, round, and real than pearls are. But both are sensitive. | | Quotations | Light is the left hand of darkness
and darkness the right hand of light.
Two are one, life and death, lying together like lovers in kemmer,
like hands joined together,
like the end and the way., Alone, I cannot change your world. But I can be changed by it. Alone, I must listen, as well as speak. Alone, the relationship I finally make, if I make one, is not impersonal and not only political: it is individual, it is p... (show all)ersonal, it is both more or less than political. Not We and They; not I and It; but I and Thou., "Praise then darkness and Creation unfinished,", A friend. What is a friend in a world where any friend may be a lover at a new phase of the moon? Not I, locked in my virility: no friend to Therem Harth or any other of his race. Neither man nor woman, neither and both, cycl... (show all)ic, lunar, metamorphosing under the hand's touch, changelings in the human cradle, they were no flesh of mine, no friends; no love between us. | | Last words | (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"You crossed the Gobrin Ice together," Sorve demanded, "you and he?"
"We did."
"I should like to hear that tale, my Lord Envoy," said old Esvans, very calm. But the boy, Therem's son, said stammering, "Will you tell us how he died? --Will you tell us about the other worlds out among the stars -- the other kinds of men, the other lives?" | | Blurbers | Moorcock, Michael, Herbert, Frank, Knight, Damon | | Description | The Left Hand of Darkness is the account of the efforts of a man named Genly Ai, a representative from a galactic federation of worlds (the Ekumen), who seeks to bring the world of Gethen into that society. The inhabitants of... (show all) Gethen are sequentially hermaphroditic humans; for twenty-four days of each twenty-six day lunar cycle they are sexually latent androgynes, and for the remaining two days (kemmer) are male or female, as determined by pheromonal negotiation with an interested sex partner. Thus each individual can both sire and bear children. |
▾LibraryThing members' description
| Book description |
The Left Hand of Darkness is the account of the efforts of a man named Genly Ai, a representative from a galactic federation of worlds (the Ekumen), who seeks to bring the world of Gethen into that society. The inhabitants of Gethen are sequentially hermaphroditic humans; for twenty-four days of each twenty-six day lunar cycle they are sexually latent androgynes, and for the remaining two days (kemmer) are male or female, as determined by pheromonal negotiation with an interested sex partner. Thus each individual can both sire and bear children. | |
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▾Book descriptions Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0441478123, Paperback)
Ursula K. Le Guin's award-winning, groundbreaking science fiction classic takes us to the world of Winter, and introduces us to its inhabitants, the Gethenians-whose society is not based on gender roles. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:15 -0400) (see all 3 descriptions) ▾Open Shelves Classification The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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Which is a shame. Because it's definitely worth reading, and certainly stands up to rereading.
The book is set in Le Guin's Ekumen, a loose mystical/economic interstellar polity of eighty-odd human planets with the world of Hain at its centre. Earth was seeded by the Hainish. The Left Hand of Darkness is set on Gethen, also known as Winter, which has just been invited to join.
For the rest of the review see http://justhastobeplausible.blogspot.... (