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Fiction.
Science Fiction.
Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants can change their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters. Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.… (more)
lquilter: Fans of either Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness or Leckie's Ancillary Justice should enjoy the other. In common, the pacing, character-centered perspective obscuring aspects of the universe, political machinations, far-future setting, and treatment of ethics; also interesting for its simultaneous foregrounding and backgrounding of gender.… (more)
mambo_taxi: Recommended if the whole "what if we think about gender differently" genre of science fiction appeals to you. Ammonite is much more interesting and better written as well.
mollishka: Offworlder treks through snow and ice on planet where all of the natives have the same gender.
electronicmemory: Ooku: The Inner Chambers explores a feudal Japan where women rule the country after a devastating plague kills the majority of the male population. Gender roles are inverted, and Ooku: The Inner Chambers follows the story of a young man who becomes a concubine to the Shogun of Japan shortly after she comes to power.… (more)
ultimatebookwyrm: Two books in the nature of a thought experiment with regard to gender and social construction. Slow, methodical reads that aren't afraid to say a few things that won't be popular.
themulhern: Two radically different novels about the business of reclaiming/rediscovering/reuniting with planets that were lost during a great stellar war.
I read (and enjoy) more fantasy than I tend to think I do, but I read very little of fantasy’s half-sibling, science fiction. Ursula K. LeGuin is one of those authors who has been on my list forever and ever, though, so I picked this one up to give a try. Set in a distant future, it follows Genly Ai, who has traveled to a world called Gethen as an envoy to attempt to persuade its leaders to join the galactic alliance that our Earth has become a part of. While the people of this world mostly resemble humans (it’s supposed that they descended from a long-abandoned colony), they have one important difference: for most of any given month, they are “ambisexual”, neither really male or female. But for a week or so, they become gendered, more or less at random. Anyone can sire a child, anyone can become pregnant. As someone who is constantly gendered, the natives view Genly as a bit of a pervert, and he has a hard time seeing them as something other than bizarre. There are two major nations on this planet, one (Karhide) ruled by an autocrat and the other (Orgoreyn) ruled in a kind of parliamentary system, and when Genly finds his principal sponsor in Karhide, Estreven, suddenly disgraced, at least in part because of his connection with Genly, the work of two years seems likely to unravel. There’s a lot in this novel about politics, both internal to each nation and between them. Indeed, world-building is what really shines here. LeGuin has thought a lot about what this world might be like, not just politics but geology and biology and even religion and folklore. It’s intricate, and I was a bit sad to leave it behind at the end because I found it immersive and engaging. The plot has elements of a travelogue, as might be expected, but an adventure story as well, and of course the aforementioned political intrigue. Character development honestly wasn’t a standout, but she managed to tell a moving story of a friendship even despite that, which is a bit of a neat trick. There were moments when I thought I wasn’t going to end up liking this very much, but by the end I was sorry to close it. I’d recommend it but also note that it might require some patience! ( )
Dude goes to a winter world where its inhabitants are ambisexual and he has trouble accepting it.
The writing is fantastic and the world building is well done. This is a very intellectual novel mostly focusing on the topics of gender. After listening for 4 hours there wasn’t much in way of plot development, and whilst I did find a lot of the discussions thought provoking, I wasn’t that entertained and my interest was waning. I might try another of this authors works but this one wasn’t doing it for me.
You can never go wrong with Ursula Le Guin. The book features outstanding worldbuilding, multi-dimensional fully fleshed out main characters, and an inspiring story that leaves you with a lot of food for thought. ( )
This book has sent my mind in many different directions. At certain moments I just wanted more of the philosophical and anthropological but I got plot instead. Nevertheless, it is a very interesting read. ( )
Bei dem Roman "Die linke Hand der Dunkelheit" handelt es sich um nicht weniger als die erste Geschlechter-Utopie: Die Menschen auf dem Planeten Winter, die Gethianer, sind vier Fünftel ihres Erwachsenenlebens geschlechtslos, nur während der sogenannten Kemmer entwickeln sie vorübergehend männliche oder weibliche Geschlechtsorgane, wobei sie vorher weder wissen, welches Geschlecht sie annehmen werden, noch Einfluss darauf haben. Auch haben sie keine bestimmte Vorliebe für eines der Geschlechter. Sind sie nach dem Verständnis des auf ihrem Planeten gelandeten männlichen Terraners die meiste Zeit ihres Lebens "hermaphroditische Neutren", so sehen sie sich selbst als "Potentiale" oder "Integrale". Der lebenslänglich auf ein Geschlecht festgelegte und ständig sexualisierte Terraner hingegen ist für sie ein "sexuelles Monstrum". In einer Gesellschaft wie der gethenianischen gibt es keine Vergewaltigung und natürlich keinen Ödipus-Mythos. Da kein Individuum weiß, ob es sich in der nächsten Kemmer-Phase zur Frau oder zum Mann entwickelt, jedeR Mutter des einen und Vater eines anderen Kindes sein kann, ist die gethenianische Gesellschaft "in ihren alltäglichen Funktionen und ihrer Kontinuität frei von Konflikten, die ihren Ursprung in der Sexualität haben", denn "jeder kann alles machen". Überhaupt, so heißt es an einer Stelle, ist "die Tendenz zum Dualismus, die das Denken der Menschen so beherrscht, auf Winter weit weniger stark ausgeprägt". Eine solche Gesellschaft vorzustellen, ist zumindest das Anliegen Le Guins, doch gelingt es ihr nur bedingt. Zwar sind Denken und Gemeinschaft nicht durch die Geschlechterdichotomie bestimmt, doch ist "alles [...] dem Somer-Kemmer-Zyklus unterworfen", einer anderen Dichotomie also.
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.
From the Archives of Hain. Transcript of Ansible Document 01-01101-934-2-Gethen: To the Stabile on Ollul: Report from Genly Ai, First Mobile on Gethen/Winter, Hainish Cycle 93, Ekumenical Year 1490-97.
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.
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.
The unknown, the unforetold, the unproven, that is what life is based on. Ignorance is the ground of thought. Unproof is the ground of action. If it were proven that there is no God there would be no religion. . . . But also if it were proven that there is a God, there would be no religion. . . . The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.
...when action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.
Last words
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?"
"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?"
Fiction.
Science Fiction.
Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants can change their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters. Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.
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