The Left Hand of Darkness

In 1975 Ursula K. Le Guin won both the Hugo and the Nebula for best novel for The Dispossessed. This was by no means the first time the same book had won both the Hugo and the Nebula. However, Le Guin had accomplished the same feat once before, in 1970 with The Left Hand of Darkness. As far as I knew at the time, she was the only author to have done this twice. (Arthur C. Clarke also did it, but later.) Therefore I read The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, and subsequently everything by Le Guin I could get my hands on.Here is how The Left Hand of Darkness begins,"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."Now, if you've read a lot of science fiction, that sentence at first looks familiar: Science Fiction authors are always making up weird implausible things from other planets and exploiting them in unearned metaphors. It's cheap and annoying. So, that was my first reaction. Then I thought, "Wait... Organic jewel, seas, she's talking about pearls!" It was a brilliant stranger-than-fiction moment. These thoughts had just time to chase themselves through my brain before I read the leaden next sentence, "Facts are no more solid, coherent, round, and real than pearls are." So, that's Ursula K. Le Guin for you -- she can be brilliant, subtle, demanding, but also in the next breath sledgehammer obvious and sanctimonious.The Left Hand of Darkness is the story of a man from Earth, Genly Ai, sent as an envoy to the planet Winter, to invite/negotiate their joining the multiworld community Genly represents. As you will know from the publisher's blurb, the people of Winter are human, but they are hermaphrodites. This is the gimmick of The Left Hand of Darkness, and I confess, it didn't much interest me in itself. It was a cultural (also biological, but in my opinion the cultural difference is more important) thing that made it difficult for Genly and Estraven to connect -- it really could have been anything. Indeed, there are other cultural differences that are more important, particularly Karhidish conventions about giving advice.Estraven? Who is that? Estraven is a nobleman of Karhide, one of the nations on Winter. Estraven's nobility is not merely a matter of social rank -- he is truly a noble person. (I say "he" because throughout The Left Hand of Darkness the people of Winter are referred to with masculine pronouns. In the Zeitgeist of the time this choice was more obvious than it seems now. Le Guin later expressed some regret about it, and indeed wrote at least one story about Karhide using feminine pronouns.)So, naturally Genly finds himself immersed in a political conflict that he completely fails to understand. Estraven, a powerful Karhidish politician, favors Genly's mission. But Estraven equally fails to understand Genly.Nevertheless they become friends. For me that is the heart of the novel -- Genly and Estraven's friendship. The Left Hand of Darkness is not what we usually call a love story, but nevertheless Genly and Estraven come to love and understand each other, and even to be intimate, though the intimacy is entirely intellectual.

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!

When talking about this book, many will start with "It's about a cold planet of snow & ice called Winter populated by a race of androgynous humans without a set gender."But it's so much more than this. Yes, it's sci-fi, but not your traditional space opera. It does feature a galaxy spanning human race across 80-some worlds, but this story is told from the perspective of the Envoy, a single man sent to Gethen (Winter) to negotiate and invite nations there into the Ekumen, the alliance of human worlds. There is a greater universe out there, but the story is not about that.It's slower paced, with extensive descriptions of a fascinating world. It's a deep dive into a society driven by living in the cold and without set genders, and how this affects their psychology, sociological development, politics, human interactions, conversation, relationships, love, family, generations, courting rituals, industrialization, traditions, legends, and so much more. Le Guin masterfully creates here not one, but multiple political cultures, showcasing the differences on Gethen between living in a Monarchy vs a Bureaucratic (Communist?) Commensality.But beyond that, it's a story of struggle and love, love between two friends, two aliens, two kindred spirits brought together by circumstances, a growing mutual respect, betrayal, setbacks, adversity, and devotion. It's a beautiful story that has aged incredibly well despite the five decades since it was written, which is rare for sci-fi.The Audible narration by George Guidall was great, like a story told by a kind and caring grandfather, who changes the voices just enough to make a difference, but without theatrics. It worked, and there is respect for the text in his performance.

Uma ficção científica bem elaborada, engenhosa e profunda. Vale muito a pena.

The media could not be loaded.  Como el resto de los libros que he pedido de esta colección, llegó perfecto sin ningun detalle.Encaja muy bien en el librero con el resto de los libros de SciFi y la historia ni se diga, casi me hace chillar.

Hay que leer este libro sabiendo que se publicó en el 69. Y con ese dato en mente procede a alucinar. En este mundo de 2023 en el que los estereotipos sexistas convierten a una persona en hombre o mujer por obra y gracia de un género entendido como identidad, se nos propone un mundo ideado hace 54 años donde no hay género, pero sí sexo. Un mundo tan binario como el nuestro, porque solo hay dos sexos, pero en el que un mismo individuo encarna a los dos luego no hay género que los clasifique, ni roles diferenciados que se impongan. No hay sexismo ni estereotipos. Al inicio resultará irritante la constante identificación que hace el protagonista de lo "femenino" con lo negativo. Un hombre pensado en el 69 que estaría tan a gusto despotricando en una tasca con cualquier incel de nuestra época. Sin embargo llega la escena en la tienda de campaña, en mitad de un glaciar, donde Therem le pregunta a Genly ¿cómo es una mujer? Y este último se da cuenta de que ya no tiene ni idea. Con los estereotipos reventados, ya solo queda la biología, y esta no puede justificar por sí sola el prejuicio (Simone, guiño-guiño- codazo). Es una pregunta que flota en todo el libro como flota hoy en día en el mundo: incontestada, causa de debate y complicadas elucubraciones, pues la respuesta, tan sencilla, lleva consigo el despertar a la injusticia de milenios.

This is a first contact novel where the aliens are a long-abandoned subspecies of genetically modified humans who are biologically gender fluid. It's about trying to overcome our own prejudices about gender and sex and coming to understand the other. The envoy, or the representative of the interplanetary Ekumen is trying to open relations with the planet Gethen, but this is not the typical white man's burden story. In fact the protagonist's skin is very dark and the empire is more about the exchange of goods and ideas than colonialism. Although the Ekumen are quite enlightened, the protagonist, Genly Ai, has many sexists and ethnocentric beliefs and views the people of Gethen as strangely as they view him.The first part of the novel has the kind of in-depth world building we have seen from authors such as Tolkien, but built with Le Guine's unique incite into what it means to be human. The second half focuses more on the two main characters and we get to appreciate their depth and growth while embarking on exciting and dangerous adventures.

No one quite writes like Ursula Le Guin. Losing her was a loss for us all. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in good science fiction that makes you question everything you know.