Our
last Donostia Book Club meeting was dedicated to Ursula Le Guin's
“The Left Hand of Darkness”. It was published in 1969 and won
both the Hugo and the Nebula awards. It quickly became one of the
most taught scifi novels at universitites, just when the scholarly
interest in science fiction was beginning. By most, the book is
considered a revolutionary study un gender, but anyone who has read
it will have to admit it's much more than that.
SINOPSIS
“When
the human ambassador Genly Ai is sent to Gethen, the planet known as
Winter by those outsiders who have experienced its arctic climate, he
thinks that his mission will be a standard one of making peace
between warring factions. Instead the ambassador finds himself wildly
unprepared. For Gethen is inhabited by a society with a rich, ancient
culture full of strange beauty and deadly intrigue - a society of
people who are both male and female in one, and neither. This lack of
fixed gender, and the resulting lack of gender-based discrimination,
is the very cornerstone of Gethen life. But Genly is all too human.
Unless he can overcome his ingrained prejudices about the
significance of "male" and "female" he may
destroy both his mission and himself.”
Definitely
the most visible point of the novel is Genly Ai's understanding of
bilogical and cultural concepts of male and female. On Gethen, unlike
on Earth, humans (or human´like beings) are androgynous, only
becoming male or female at the height of their sexual cycle. Anyone,
at any point in their lives could bear any of this role, anyone could
become pregnant, the responsibilities and/or risks are equal for all.
Ai, a male, feels isolated and most of the time confused by the
nature of Gethanians. Since most of the time we see the new world
through his eyes, the novel acquires almost anthropological feeling.
I
said “most of the time”. There is a second narrator, Estraven, a
local politician who decides to support Ai's cause. He knows it's not
a good choice for him, but decides to sacrify himself for the good of
his planet. That's when we realise the novel covers some big
concepts, tries to define them and throws a refreshing light on
things that by many are considered well-defined and known but are
not: patriotism, sacrifice, love. One of the most important quotes
shows us how different the perception of some ideas can be:
“Do you know, by your own experience, what patriotism is?”
“No,” I said, shaken by the force of that intense personality suddenly turning itself wholly upon me. “I don’t think I do. If by patriotism you don’t mean the love of one’s homeland, for that I do know.”
“No, I don’t mean love, when I say patriotism. I mean fear. The fear of the other. And its expressions are political, not poetical: hate, rivalry, aggression. It grows in us, that fear.”
Curiously,
as innovative and bold as it was the novel recived criticism not for
being too progressive, but for not being enough of it. Eventhough the
Gethanians are androgynous, the narrator refers to them using male
pronouns. It was widely criticised by the feminists, but also by
Stanislaw Lem. My argument not to discard this kind of expression
would be that Ai sees Gethaninas as man most of the time and he is
the narrator, so the choice of male pronouns is not that surprising.
But, Ursula Le Guin agreed with her opponents. In 1976, she wrote an
essay defending the novel and how she dealt with the Gethenians'
gender. But then in 1987, she revised the essay, and admitted that
the critics had a point.
I
don't want to reveal to much of the plot and I'm also not an expert
on science fiction literature. There are some die-hard fans who could
tell you much more about the novel and its author. So, to close this
post I would like to leave you with the video by Mr. Kolber´s Teaching suggesting some points
to ponder about when reading “The Left Hand of Darkness”. And if
you haven't read it yet: it's hight time to do it!
Hola! Una brillante entrada.me gusto conocer varios conceptos de tu reseña.gracias! Saludosbuhos
ResponderEliminarHola! Gracias por leerme! El libro tiene mucho más de lo que escribí aquí, pero para cubrirlo todo, habría que escribir un ensayo de muchas páginas ;)
ResponderEliminar