[Comment by Kim Stanley Robinson, on The Guardian's website][1]:
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin (1969)
One of my favorite novels is The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K Le Guin. For more than 40 years I've been recommending this book to people who want to try science fiction for the first time, and it still serves very well for that. One of the things I like about it is how clearly it demonstrates that science fiction can have not only the usual virtues and pleasures of the novel, but also the startling and transformative power of the thought experiment.
In this case, the thought experiment is quickly revealed: "The king was pregnant," the book tells us early on, and after that we learn more and more about this planet named Winter, stuck in an ice age, where the humans are most of the time …
[Comment by Kim Stanley Robinson, on The Guardian's website][1]:
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin (1969)
One of my favorite novels is The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K Le Guin. For more than 40 years I've been recommending this book to people who want to try science fiction for the first time, and it still serves very well for that. One of the things I like about it is how clearly it demonstrates that science fiction can have not only the usual virtues and pleasures of the novel, but also the startling and transformative power of the thought experiment.
In this case, the thought experiment is quickly revealed: "The king was pregnant," the book tells us early on, and after that we learn more and more about this planet named Winter, stuck in an ice age, where the humans are most of the time neither male nor female, but with the potential to become either. The man from Earth investigating this situation has a lot to learn, and so do we; and we learn it in the course of a thrilling adventure story, including a great "crossing of the ice". Le Guin's language is clear and clean, and has within it both the anthropological mindset of her father Alfred Kroeber, and the poetry of stories as magical things that her mother Theodora Kroeber found in native American tales. This worldly wisdom applied to the romance of other planets, and to human nature at its deepest, is Le Guin's particular gift to us, and something science fiction will always be proud of. Try it and see – you will never think about people in quite the same way again.
Tenía expectativas muy altas sobre este libro, descripto como la obra maestra de Ursula K. Le Guin, mencionado en todas las listas de las mejores novelas de ciencia ficción, nominado a mejor novela de ciencia ficción en los Hugo y los Nebula...
Las ideas de fondo me parecen muy buenas, originales, y muy adelantadas para la época. Son muy consistentes, verosímiles, y están muy bien integradas al mundo construído en Gethen, su historia y su sociedad.
Pero la historia me pareció un poco insípida, por momentos aburrida, llena de burocracia, nombres y palabras desconocidas, muchas de las cuales al final del libro no aportaban mucho más que un exceso de información y un obstáculo para poder disfrutar plenamente la obra.
I didn't realise how much I loved this book until I reread it. It is the scifi book on gender in a very substantive way, but it is also, as the author acknowledges, out of date and lacking. Like Genly, le Guin and society learned and moved - one way and now, sadly, another...
It still shows misogyny in how Genly thinks of women and his (initial) attempts to put Gethians into gendered categories - perhaps exaggerated by the choice of "he" as pronoun (a great example of how "default" is not the same as "neutral").
But it is also much much more than just the scifi gender book. So much politics which must have had an impact on me when I read the book as a youngster - especially on patriotism and kindness - that I picked up much more brazenly on each reread.
Now to go discuss at …
I didn't realise how much I loved this book until I reread it. It is the scifi book on gender in a very substantive way, but it is also, as the author acknowledges, out of date and lacking. Like Genly, le Guin and society learned and moved - one way and now, sadly, another...
It still shows misogyny in how Genly thinks of women and his (initial) attempts to put Gethians into gendered categories - perhaps exaggerated by the choice of "he" as pronoun (a great example of how "default" is not the same as "neutral").
But it is also much much more than just the scifi gender book. So much politics which must have had an impact on me when I read the book as a youngster - especially on patriotism and kindness - that I picked up much more brazenly on each reread.
On the one hand, I didn't enjoy the main story that much. I wouldn't say it's boring, it just didn't grab me I guess. On the other hand, the writing/prose is quite good, and there were parts I did quite enjoy. I did like the core idea, and the setting is interesting and well-constructed. There are a couple of "lore dumps" in particular that were my favorite parts of the book.
I remember hearing someone say about some other book something along the lines of "I admire it more than I enjoyed it," and I think that somewhat fits my feelings here. I wouldn't go so far as to say I didn't like it, but I wouldn't call it a favorite either. That said, I find it hard to give it just an average rating, as it was so well-written.
Dies war mein erstes Buch von Ursula Le Guin und ich gestehe, ich bin etwas "underwhelmed". Das hat mehrere Gründe.
Das Buch hatte ja viele Preise eingeheimst, u.a. den renommierten Hugo Award.
Leider entsprach das Buch inhaltlich überhaupt nicht dem Klappentext.
Worum es geht: Ein Gesandter der Ökumene (ein interplanetarischer Zusammenschluss humanoider Gesellschaften) kommt auf den extrem kalten Planeten Gethen, wo die Einheimischen alle androgyn sind und nur weibliche oder männliche Geschlechtsmerkmale ausbilden und sich fortpflanzen können, wenn sie in der "Kemmer" sind, das passiert etwa alle 28 Tage, aber nicht bei allen gleichzeitig.
Das ist aber gar nicht Kern der Handlung und wurde mir zu wenig beschrieben. Ich erwartete keine ausschweifenden Sexszenen, aber wenigstens eine genaue Darstellung, inwiefern sich Körper, Geist und Verhalten in der Kemmer verändern. Das wurde aber alles nur angedeutet.
Irritierend fand ich auch, dass die Menschen alle als "er ", "Herr Soundso", "der König" usw. …
Dies war mein erstes Buch von Ursula Le Guin und ich gestehe, ich bin etwas "underwhelmed". Das hat mehrere Gründe.
Das Buch hatte ja viele Preise eingeheimst, u.a. den renommierten Hugo Award.
Leider entsprach das Buch inhaltlich überhaupt nicht dem Klappentext.
Worum es geht: Ein Gesandter der Ökumene (ein interplanetarischer Zusammenschluss humanoider Gesellschaften) kommt auf den extrem kalten Planeten Gethen, wo die Einheimischen alle androgyn sind und nur weibliche oder männliche Geschlechtsmerkmale ausbilden und sich fortpflanzen können, wenn sie in der "Kemmer" sind, das passiert etwa alle 28 Tage, aber nicht bei allen gleichzeitig.
Das ist aber gar nicht Kern der Handlung und wurde mir zu wenig beschrieben. Ich erwartete keine ausschweifenden Sexszenen, aber wenigstens eine genaue Darstellung, inwiefern sich Körper, Geist und Verhalten in der Kemmer verändern. Das wurde aber alles nur angedeutet.
Irritierend fand ich auch, dass die Menschen alle als "er ", "Herr Soundso", "der König" usw. bezeichnet wurden. Das trägt dem Phänomen der Nonbinarität überhaupt nicht Rechnung erschwerte mir eine geistige Vorstellung der Gethenianer vor meinem inneren Auge.
Ansonsten erlebt unser Protagonist einige teilweise lebensbedrohliche Abenteuer, weil er zwischen die Intrigen und Machtspielchen der Einheimischen gerät.
Die Handlung ist sehr komplex und hat mich teilweise überfordert, ebenso die örtlichen Begrifflichkeiten.
Das Buch ist aber nicht schlecht und vielleicht ist das alles ein Problem der Übersetzung. Das Buch wurde kürzlich in einer neuen deutschen Übersetzung herausgegeben und vielleicht ist die ja besser gelungen, müsste man sich mal angucken.
I have mixed feelings about this book. I think it was the best of the three Hainish novels I've read so far, and I can appreciate the fact that the theme of a gender-changing alien race was somewhat revolutionary at the time.
However, I have to admit that I had to push through this book. I've read another review that likened it to homework, and that sums it up quite well for me, too. Maybe my expectations were too high and I have read it at the wrong point in time, just like in school when you have to read something that you cannot appreciate at the moment, but strikes you as profound at a different time.
So yeah, this novel leaves me a bit stumped about what to say. I liked it well enough to not stop reading, but have to admit that it could have been half as …
I have mixed feelings about this book. I think it was the best of the three Hainish novels I've read so far, and I can appreciate the fact that the theme of a gender-changing alien race was somewhat revolutionary at the time.
However, I have to admit that I had to push through this book. I've read another review that likened it to homework, and that sums it up quite well for me, too. Maybe my expectations were too high and I have read it at the wrong point in time, just like in school when you have to read something that you cannot appreciate at the moment, but strikes you as profound at a different time.
So yeah, this novel leaves me a bit stumped about what to say. I liked it well enough to not stop reading, but have to admit that it could have been half as long. The journey over the ice was the most exciting part.
I am not the biggest reader of fiction, but this book had me fully engaged. It's the first book that's made me feel emotionally attached to characters in a long time. I picked this book up off of my sisters' bookshelf, and it's inspired me to read more of Le Guin's work.
Review of 'The Left Hand of Darkness' on 'Storygraph'
3 stars
It has some interesting explorations on first contact but despite having a potentially interesting world, an exhausting amount of time is taken up by Ai being confused about Gethen sex & gender yet never passing beyond a surface level conversation on the topic. While it was groundbreaking for 1969, I can’t help but feel its exploration of gender and feminism to be a little half-arsed in today’s context. Nothing specifically bad, but I don’t see how it can be so elementary when so much of the book is occupied by it, to the detriment of character development and the broader world building.
It has some interesting explorations on first contact but despite having a potentially interesting world, an exhausting amount of time is taken up by Ai being confused about Gethen sex & gender yet never passing beyond a surface level conversation on the topic. While it was groundbreaking for 1969, I can’t help but feel its exploration of gender and feminism to be a little half-arsed in today’s context. Nothing specifically bad, but I don’t see how it can be so elementary when so much of the book is occupied by it, to the detriment of character development and the broader world building.
Review of 'The Left Hand of Darkness' on 'Storygraph'
3 stars
As someone who’s never really read fantasy, this was very confusing to read! There were so many new words and phrases that I just couldn’t understand, so I kind of gave up sadly! This book is clearly well written, but I was not particularly interested as I was so lost… I probably should’ve not chosen this as my first fantasy book though!
As someone who’s never really read fantasy, this was very confusing to read! There were so many new words and phrases that I just couldn’t understand, so I kind of gave up sadly! This book is clearly well written, but I was not particularly interested as I was so lost… I probably should’ve not chosen this as my first fantasy book though!
Review of 'The Left Hand of Darkness' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
This is more socially-driven than plot or character. What would a society be like if people were not male or female but a sort of neuter except during each period when they became sexually active for a few days during which they became male or female at random? There are other significant differences to the way our "Western" societies work, it is up to the reader to imaging whether these were causally related to the different sexual biology.
In spite of that there are a lot of insights into our political issues, too.
This is more socially-driven than plot or character. What would a society be like if people were not male or female but a sort of neuter except during each period when they became sexually active for a few days during which they became male or female at random? There are other significant differences to the way our "Western" societies work, it is up to the reader to imaging whether these were causally related to the different sexual biology.
In spite of that there are a lot of insights into our political issues, too.
Review of 'The Left Hand of Darkness' on 'Storygraph'
4 stars
Happy to have finally read something by Le Guin. I enjoyed the pseudo-epistolary structure and concept of a fully gender fluid civilization, but the book's age really shows through in the limits of how far this queerness can go (all relationships "become" heterosexual, for instance, because reproduction I guess).
I think I'm missing some important context for when this was written, as it has both a lot of vaguely anti-communist sentiment and also seems to be pulling from Catholic mission trips to East Asian countries, but I can't quite pinpoint a through line. A bubbling pot of challenging political ideas that are not so much unexplored as they are too large for a 300-page scifi novel. Very curious to check out some of Le Guin's later work, but this seems as good a place as any of, like me, you've been meaning to check her out.
Happy to have finally read something by Le Guin. I enjoyed the pseudo-epistolary structure and concept of a fully gender fluid civilization, but the book's age really shows through in the limits of how far this queerness can go (all relationships "become" heterosexual, for instance, because reproduction I guess).
I think I'm missing some important context for when this was written, as it has both a lot of vaguely anti-communist sentiment and also seems to be pulling from Catholic mission trips to East Asian countries, but I can't quite pinpoint a through line. A bubbling pot of challenging political ideas that are not so much unexplored as they are too large for a 300-page scifi novel. Very curious to check out some of Le Guin's later work, but this seems as good a place as any of, like me, you've been meaning to check her out.
Review of 'The left hand of darkness' on 'GoodReads'
3 stars
Absolutely loved the world, the story told, the characters, the politics, and the cultural dives.
Three stars because I just found that it was so difficult of a delivery, that it took me way too long to read. I think it's because the first half of the book was so lacking in activity, and heavily focused on abstract descriptions of things by the main narrator. Even the last half of the book which could be seen as action packed (crazy journey over glaciers), felt slow to read.
