I need your help understanding The Left Hand of Darkness. I was almost indifferent to it, but it has a huge GoodReads average: 4.02 from 42,943 ratings. As Shannon from Giraffe Days put it on her own review:
When you dislike a popular book, a canonised book – a “masterpiece” and an “instant classic”, according to other reviewers – naturally part of you wonders whether you’re just not getting it, whether you’re not bright enough or clued-in enough, or whether you’re placing unnecessary or unfair demands and expectations on it.
(I wish I could just copy/paste her entire review because that’s also pretty much how I felt about the book.)
One of my biggest issues was not caring about any of the characters. Have the feeling characterization wasn’t a priority for Le Guin (who was Genly Ai, our main character? What really motivated him? What was his life before arriving in Winter?), preferring instead to focus on world-building. Fair enough, but apart from describing the planet and their mostly asexual people, Le Guin is never though-provoking about the implications of that asexuality in their civilization or how someone like Genly, an audience-surrogate, faces it.
The whole topic of gender politics, for which the book is so acclaimed, ends up reduced to a few isolated comments by Genly (“I don’t know. They [women] don’t often seem to turn up mathematicians, or composers of music, or inventors, or abstract thinkers. But it isn’t that they’re stupid.”) and one relevant conversation between him and the native Estraven. This lasts for a couple of pages and ends up not solving the obvious sexual tension between them. Was there something more I missed?
We often see the story from Estraven’s point of view, which would be a great opportunity to see the world (and Genly) from a non-gendered mind, but apart from a couple of cultural misunderstandings you could also find on Earth, nothing more stands out. Also, although Genly has been on that planet for two years, we never get any real insight into his own sexual desires, which could have been really interesting and though-provoking.
It’s almost as if Le Guin, having shocked everyone in 1969 by having penned a sci-fi novel set on a non-gendered world, felt it was enough to stir things up and decided not to risk going deeper. I felt the book dated, but the 4.02 rating is definitely not from the 60s and 70s, so I can’t shake the feeling I’m missing something!
Another thing that I’d like your input on is the alliance that Genly represents. Chris called it a “perfectly anti-imperialist empire without any will to power at all”. This also nagged at me. I swear that up to the last pages I was expecting a big twist, but nope, Genly did come in peace, cynical me!
***
Other thoughts: A Striped Armchair, Opinions of a Wolf, The Wertzone, Shelf Love, Neth Space, Books Under the Skin, Gasping for the Wind, James Reads Books, The Book Smugglers, conceptual fiction (yours?)
The Sleepless Reader 
13 comments
Comments feed for this article
November 17, 2014 at 11:07 pm
Bettina @ Books, Bikes, and Food
I had to go back to my own review of The Left Hand of Darkness, because I remembered that I really liked it and I’d forgotten why (with hindsight then… not that memorable, apparently). It turns out that I also thought the aspect of a gender-less world was a bit weakly developed, and that this was maybe a product of the time it was written. If that is the case, I almost find it encouraging that this now seems so strange to us, because lately I’ve become rather disillusioned by how little we seem to have achieved in terms of gender equality overall. But if we are both under the impression that this issue could’ve been explored in much more depth, then maybe I’m at least a little bit wrong and we have come some way since 1969 ;).
I also thought about the Ekumen alliance. I thought that maybe Le Guin was a bit of a fan of the European integration ideal that was still going strong(er) back then than it is now. I also wrote about that in my review (not to lure you in, but goes into more depth than this comment – it’s here: http://booksbikesfood.com/2013/07/22/ursula-k-le-guin-the-left-hand-of-darkness-1969/)
Sorry that you didn’t love it though. Perhaps for me it was also all about low expectations… I was very sceptical about a “political” SciFi book going into The Left Hand of Darkness, so maybe it was just really easy for me to be pleasantly surprised!
November 18, 2014 at 9:49 am
Alex
That’s a very good point! If Le Guin had written it now, how different would it be? I’m sure there would be more sex, Genly and Estraven would have hit it off in the tent 🙂 Le Guin is a famous feminist, one who writes sci-fi and created a genderless world. It’s normal readers expect a bit more meat to it.
If you give it a 60s/70s context, i can understand the Ekumen, but from my own cynical 21st century context it feels so… naive!
Have you read anything else by her? I didn’t warm up to the first Earthsea either. I think I’ll still try The Dispossessed, but then I’ll call it a day.
November 19, 2014 at 9:13 pm
Bettina @ Books, Bikes, and Food
I haven’t read any of her other books. I might read another at some point, but I feel like my SciFi education is so underdeveloped I should probably try a few different authors first.
November 18, 2014 at 12:06 am
Christina
This book was assigned for a class I took back in college and I felt rather indifferent to it. So much so that I couldn’t even pen a review. I always planned to go back and read more Le Guin but it’s been five years and no progress on that front.
November 18, 2014 at 9:52 am
Alex
I had no idea it was part of university canon. I can see it creating a good debate around what a genderless society would be, more than actually discussing the book itself.
November 18, 2014 at 8:50 am
Violet
You’re not alone. I had to read it at university for a gender studies class and was totally underwhelmed. I think it’s very much a book of its time and reflects political concerns that are old news in 2014. It was probably fresh and innovative back then, though. I don’t pay much attention to GR ratings. I think there’s a lot of ‘follow the leader’ going on there. 🙂
November 18, 2014 at 9:55 am
Alex
Yes, also have that feeling for many GR books, but the sheer average vs readers for this one really make the wonder what I was not getting. I had this before for certain YA books, but understood it, since I’m probably not there main target audience.
November 18, 2014 at 11:47 am
Annabel (gaskella)
Le Guin is one of those authors whom I ought to try reading. Back in my teens and early 20s I read so much SF & F, but Le Guin passed me by. It’s a shame it’s dated – but I’m willing to give it a go – it’s on my shelf!
November 19, 2014 at 9:25 pm
Alex
I feel it’s never a complete waste to read a bad classic since it’s great to be able to talk about it!
November 18, 2014 at 6:53 pm
Sam (Tiny Library)
I love classics but have had no luck with sci-fi classics so far. In fact, I’ve not had much luck with sci-fi in general, and this doesn’t seem to be like a good place to start….
November 19, 2014 at 9:27 pm
Alex
Sci-fi classics are indeed a tough one. I’ve read Foundation earlier this year and also failed to get as excited as everyone else seems to be. When I was a kid I loved Heinlein, but reading it now was also not a good experience.
I’m almost afraid to pick up Dune from the TBR…
November 18, 2014 at 11:23 pm
Jay
I’m sure I own this book, but I have never read it. Last year(?) when I read her awesome short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” I thought about trying to search for my copy of this one. Your post makes me curious if I should try it or not. 🙂 I think I may have started it once long ago, but never got far enough for it to catch hold of me and didn’t get back to it.
November 19, 2014 at 9:28 pm
Alex
As I was saying to Gaskella above: even if you don’t like it, at least you’ll have fun writing about and discussing it!