In this book Genly Ai is sent to the planet Gethen on behalf of the Ekumen, an alliance of human societies residing on far flung planets, to acquaint the inhabitants with the existence of the Ekumen and convince them to join the alliance. The Gethenians are unique: every individual has the potential to be a man or a woman during regular periods of time, referred to as “kemmer”. The period of kemmer is the only time when a Gethenian has a defined sexuality. Throughout the course of the book any individual Gethenian is referred to as a “man”. The narrative is told through two POVs, both in the first person: Genly Ai, the Envoy; and Estraven, who is the prime minister of Karhide, Mr Ai’s liaison with the nation’s king. Over the course of the narrative, Le Guin explores a society totally uninfluenced by sexuality which interestingly holds up a mirror to how sexuality /gender permeates every nook and cranny of our social existence. It was however the beautiful depiction of the progression of the relationship between Mr Ai and Estraven that made me fall in love with this book. The complete disconnect between the cultures of the two main characters initially made them misjudge each other leading to dangerous consequences. Later, unexpectedly thrown in together while traveling for days in the icy wilderness, they begin to understand and accept each other for who they are; the story ultimately culminating into it’s heartbreaking conclusion. I will end with these beautiful lines: “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.” (I had posted this earlier elsewhere, and thought I would post it here for any interesting discussion).
I’ve always enjoyed Le Guin. This one is one of her more dense Hainish Cycle novels, but all of them explore amazing and fascinating societies. She was as equally good at world building as she was at creating engaging characters, which is a rare talent in a writer.
I also highly recommend The Dispossessed, which is my favorite novel of hers. It explores two societies- one anarcho-communist and the other ultra-capitalist and it’s so interesting.
Planning to read that soon.
There’s a short-story set on Gethen that opens her Birthday of the World compilation. It follows a protagonist through coming-of-age and dives deeper into their sexuality. It’s pretty good, and if you liked Left Hand, you’ll probably like it a lot too.
Sounds interesting. I will check that out.
It’s a great one! It’s called “Coming of Age in Karhide” IIRC. But I recommend the whole book.
I just read left hand of darkness this summer (and dispossessed and the first Earthsea!). Going in, I had heard so much about the gender aspects and I guess was expecting something more pointed, but was really surprised how it’s just not really a focus, but just naturally comes up in the world building. The book was incredible, and the Gethen societies felt so real and tangible. I really enjoyed this one and is the reason I picked up the other le guin books.
My edition also had a foreword by le guin about sci-fi and authoring lies and truth. That was also well worth reading too!
This was one of the things I loved - the society and culture felt real, also the characters felt so real. I was completely caught up with what was happening with the two main characters. Also, the ending was really heartbreaking. I remember having to take a break for a day before reading the last chapter.
OK. It’s on my list now.
The thing that’s floored me is that when I first read it in the 90s, it was already quite a few years old. It was written in 1969, over a decade before I was even born.
But it was written so adeptly that it’s still relevant now, in 2023, which is one hell of a thing 50 years later.
One of my regrets from the 90s is that so many of her works were out of print at the time, because they were written in the 70s, etc. That’s a non-issue these days with eBooks, but at the time, if something wasn’t in print any longer (because physical books had limited print runs) it was hard as hell to get it, so I didn’t read a lot of her stuff at my most impressionable age simply because I had no access to it.
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I also recommend reading “Is Gender Necessary? Redux”, an essay by Ursula that deals with her relationship to feminist critiques to The Left Hand of Darkness (for example, using male pronouns to signify genderlessness) and how her opinion of those critiques changed throughout the years. It’s one of my favorite pieces of writing by her.
That sounds so interesting. I will definitely look it up. Saving the comment!
Hey, I know this was a while ago that you posted this, but I wanted to let you know that the BBC did a radio drama adaptation of The Left Hand of Darkness that I’ve been listening to and really enjoying. I got it on Amazon as an Audible audio thing, but there are definitely other options. There’s a list here of places you can buy it if you click on Shop Now.
Sounds interesting. I will check it out.
I went into this book with no existing knowledge or expectations. Was a great experience reading it that way.
I didn’t find the book very interesting, creative, or engaging. The gender/kemmer stuff was probably the most bland part about it to me.
I didn’t hate it, but I think maybe the bar was lower back then.
