
‘The Left Hand of Darkness' at Fifty - fanf2
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/03/12/the-left-hand-of-darkness-at-fifty/
======
kaycebasques
Definitely agree with the other comment to close this thread and go read the
book without knowing anything about it.

On with the discussion for those who have read it:

As my roommate puts it, any one who thinks gender studies is pointless should
read LHoD. I’m not talking about the politicized aspect of gender studies.
Just as a means of appreciating how deeply notions of gender influence our
thoughts and actions.

The other things that make me so fond of the book:

* The beautiful, intricate relationship between Estraven and Ai.

* How central coldness is to the story. As someone who enjoys cold over heat, I loved reading about the ice world. Random conjecture: I wonder if people who prefer heat over cold have a harder time reading this book. Because Le Guin really makes you feel it at times.

I kinda live for good stories. LHoD was one of those books that invigorated me
with life.

~~~
caconym_
The tragic thing about gender (and related) studies is that beyond the
political extremists on both sides who've latched onto various aspects of it,
it addresses things that absolutely need to be addressed.

LHoD does a great job with this. It is thoughtful, fascinating, and not at all
dogmatic.

It makes me so sad to see all the people on the left screeching about
wrongthink and identity bullshit at the slightest provocation, and all the
(willfully obtuse) people on the right hiding behind their dictionaries as if
the fact that gender and sex have historically meant the same thing in some
contexts somehow invalidates this whole domain of thought. Absolute idiocy,
all of it. I'd say people have forgotten how to think critically but I don't
have data to support the hypothesis that they ever had that ability.

------
scottbcovert
"But the highest praise I can give The Left Hand of Darkness is that Le Guin
captures the texture of life. This book is full of little moments, bits of
sensation and emotion, that show what it feels like to be alive, day after
day."

Well put; this was one of the things I enjoyed most about the book as well. I
began reading fully expecting to be immersed in the Gethenians' world and
their foreign culture, just as Mr. Ai did at the start of his journey. By the
end though I realized Le Guin had used these "aliens" to show Mr. Ai and the
reader what it truly meant to be human.

The fact that some others here feel that LHoD was not Le Guin's best work
makes me excited to read her other books!

~~~
icebraining
> By the end though I realized Le Guin had used these "aliens" to show Mr. Ai
> and the reader what it truly meant to be human.

Telling lies to show the truth, as she puts it in the introduction:
[http://theliterarylink.com/leguinintro.html](http://theliterarylink.com/leguinintro.html)

------
mistrial9
from the Wikipedia article on "Ursula of Berkeley":

In December 2009, Le Guin resigned from the Authors Guild in protest over its
endorsement of Google's book digitization project. "You decided to deal with
the devil", she wrote in her resignation letter. "There are principles
involved, above all the whole concept of copyright; and these you have seen
fit to abandon to a corporation, on their terms, without a struggle."[32][33]
In a speech at the 2014 National Book Awards, Le Guin criticized Amazon and
the control it exerted over the publishing industry, specifically referencing
Amazon's treatment of the Hachette Book Group during a dispute over ebook
publication. Her speech received widespread media attention within and outside
the US, and was broadcast twice by National Public Radio

------
zimablue
I'd urge anyone reading this before the article to read the book. It's one of
the best books I've ever read and a lot of that is because I didn't know what
it was about, I don't think I'd have enjoyed it knowing more. Just close this
comment page and go read it.

------
zwieback
I wanted to like "The Left Hand of Darkness" but found that Le Guin didn't
make that much of a great premise and the storytelling seemed a little weak. I
don't think this is her best work by far.

Reading this review I realize maybe I didn't read it closely enough or maybe
I'm not invested enough in the topic.

~~~
msbarnett
Out of curiosity, which would you say is her best work?

(Left Hand isn't my favorite, either. I'd probably give that to The
Dispossessed).

~~~
tildedave
My personal favorite is _The Tombs of Atuan_ - it introduces a new character,
creates an entire world around her, then pulls all the assumptions beneath the
world apart.

~~~
tanbog
I second this. I think it was my first encounter with a genre book that
totally "subverted" everything I had learned fantasy narratives should be.

------
Jtsummers
A thing I usually bring up:

Le Guin's parents were anthropologists. Her mother wrote two books about Ishi,
last of the Yahi tribe. One novelized accounting of his life and another non-
fiction accounting of his entering into the world of the US in the 1910s and
the work Ursula Le Guin's father did with him.

When viewed from this anthropologist lens, Left Hand of Darkness and other
books are fascinating. She makes a world, a history, a people, and she
occupies it. Then she explores that world with the characters. LHoD does this
in a very literal sense (with a foreign character learning along with us, the
readers). I think that's one of the things that I most enjoyed while reading
her books.

------
rabboRubble
Read this book for a book club and I found the gendered themes and the way
those themes were unpacked for the reader, dated in this era of "gender is a
social construct". Unfortunately I'm about a year out from my read of the
novel, so I can't really be more specific with that critique as my
recollections are also dated.

Ponderous while still interesting. The author did create a compelling
alternate universe but I went in with such high expectations given the book's
reputation I found myself a bit let down.

------
tome
I read the book about six months ago and I didn't really enjoy the experience.
However, in retrospect, I feel glad to have read it. I didn't draw the same
conclusions as the author of this article but it was nice to read her opinion
nonetheless.

