Reviews with content warning for Miscarriage - The Left Hand of Darkness

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The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

22 reviews

scifi_rat's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Plot: 4.75★
Prose: 4.7★
Pace: 4.5★
Concept/Execution: 5★/5★
Characters: 5★
Worldbuilding: 5★
Ending: 4.5★

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jodar's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I admire how Le Guin writes – it’s a distinctive, often poetical and meditative style that I can readily recognise and immerse myself in.

This SF novel is about the first contact by a single envoy (the MC) to an icy planet (Winter) inhabited by a human species unique in their sequential hermaphroditism. The envoy comes from a benign, intergalactic ‘cooperative’ consisting of scores of planets who over thousands of years have made contact across a human diaspora from long ago.

Le Guin here focuses, as is typical, on social, personal and political themes. Notably here, the MC strikes cultural misunderstandings in both directions, often without realising till later on that a misunderstanding has occurred. The envoy gradually learns, with the help of a key ally in Winter and after considerable physical suffering, how to approach the cultures of Winter effectively. We also read events from the perspective of the MC’s ally.

Originally written in 1969, the novel has elements of the cold war, with ideological differences between states, one of which is essentially communist and has secret police and brutal prisons reminiscent of the Soviet Union. Le Guin also, as often, brings in eastern thought, such as yin and yang, deep meditation and theology-free religious life. Though to me there are also shades of the Judeo-Christian story of prophets coming to a people from ‘another place’, there the spiritual realm, here the intergalactic cooperative. These political, religious and interpersonal/sexuality threads are teased out in an interweaving, complex way, which is one of Le Guin’s fortes. Nothing didactic, but a lot to mull over by the reader.

I read this first in November 1985 and I hugely enjoyed this challenging, but wonderful novel again.

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kaziaroo's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Synopsis: an envoy is sent from a vast, interplanetary alliance to a wintery planet to recruit its inhabitants, a people of no gender whose bodies instead develop sexual organs for just a few days each month; in his quest, the envoy becomes embroiled in the politics both within and between two feuding countries, while being drawn to one figure in particular.

This was very interesting to read, especially from a 21st century perspective where we are accustomed to the boundaries of the gender binary being pushed, twisted, and ignored in wonderful diversity. We are also mostly familiar with, and accepting of, the gender neutral pronoun "they" being used exclusively to refer to a particular person.

In The Left Hand of Darkness, the main character, Genly Ai, is a poor representative of planet Earth in this respect; he is frequently disgusted by the Gethenians' bodies and attitudes towards sex and constantly tries to fit them and their characteristics into gendered boxes. He refers to the Gethenians using masculine pronouns, and seems to reject their femininity; it is only when one of them cries, or flirts, or is distressed, that he thinks "Ah ha! There is his femininity!" when it has been there all along. Genly's awkwardness around the Gethenians' sex and even his own fumbling description of what defines a woman, paired with the fact that he is the minority, the alien, on this planet, betray the notion that perhaps it is us earthlings who are the silly ones, forcing divides and highlighting differences between genders where there are none, and believing ourselves superior because of it. The Gethenians have no gender, yet they also have so far had no testosterone-fueled war or sexism (although they are not perfect; some parts of the book had strong echoes of 1984). On the other hand, the society of Earth that we see glimpses of is cisnormative and allonormative; at the beginning of the book, Genly cannot fathom a sexless and genderless society

and yet by the end he is in the beginnings of what I would tentatively call a queerplatonic relationship with no sex and no gender roles

.

I enjoyed this book a lot, and although I would have liked an earlier explanation of certain concepts (mostly kemmer), once I understood them I could fully immerse myself in the world. The Gethenians' societies and customs felt incredibly detailed and well thought out for such a short novel. It was interesting reading from the perspective of both the alien visitor and the visited, except this time it's us earthlings who are the visitors. I particularly loved the scenes journeying across the icy landscape. I highly recommend this book, but it's important to remember the publication date before complaining about the intricacies of gender politics – it was ahead of its time.

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thecriticalreader's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Blurb:

Genly Ai is a human envoy from an interstellar organization called Ekumen that coordinates communication, trade, transportation, and cultural exchange between anthropoid planets sent to the planet of Gethen to convince the planet’s government to join Ekumen. Gethen is an extremely cold planet with near-constant wintery weather. Another notable aspect of the planet is that its inhabitants belong to a singular, fluid sex. Their physiology is androgynous and asexual except for when they find themselves in heat, at which point they couple with another person in heat. When coupling, one person’s anatomy and hormones closely resemble that of a human male; the other, that of a human female. Genly Ai struggles as he fights to accomplish his goal on a planet that he finds strange, confusing, and inhospitable.

Review:

The Left Hand of Darkness is a science fiction novel that is often spoken about for its exploration of gender and sex, but it would be unfair to limit one’s assessment of the novel here, because The Left Hand of Darkness also delves into themes of patriotism, war, human nature, and cultural anthropology. The book’s main strengths lie in world-building, philosophical thought, and thematic explorations: since it reads like a cultural anthropology report, Le Guin’s highly imaginative world stands out but remains rather remote from the adventure, unique characterizations, and gripping plots that some expect from the science fiction genre. Nevertheless, she expertly evokes an icy atmosphere, both in terms of Gethen’s physical conditions and in the bewildering incomprehensibility its society presents for Genly Ai. The language and descriptions are so vivid, in fact, that I felt distinctly chilly every time I picked up the book. Although the plot moves slowly and takes place on another world, the story at the book’s center is a very human one.

The book’s imaginative worldbuilding and profound philosophical discussions make it a worthwhile and enjoyable read, but it would be incorrect to call The Left Hand of Darkness a ‘timeless classic,’ as several aspects of its thematic exploration betray it as a product of its time. For one, the book’s concern with the nature of patriotism and war reflects anxieties over America’s division over the Vietnam War, although these discussions still hold relevance today. On the other hand, its central optimism, rather unquestioning faith in institutions of open trade and cultural exchange, and lack of concern surrounding ecological destruction seem rather naïve to a twenty-first-century reader. Similarly, Le Guin’s narrative brushes against but never fully embraces the idea of gender and sex as social constructions, ultimately unable to fully escape a bio-essentialist understanding of gender. Her exclusive use of he/him pronouns to describe the ambisexual Getherians—despite their nonbinary conception of gender—particularly undercuts the impact of her commentary. The Left Hand of Darkness would have certainly been radical in the middle of the second wave of feminism, but now appears rather outdated in the face of subsequent scholarship in the field of gender and sexuality studies.

The Run-Down:

You will probably like The Left Hand of Darkness if:

· You enjoy cerebral, philosophical science fiction in the vein of Star Trek

· You are a fan of cultural anthropologys

You might not like The Left Hand of Darkness if:

· You are looking for an action-packed, adventurous story with fascinating characters

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sylvester749's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

extremely dense, very interesting and well read, found it a little difficult to get into. didn't feel as groundbreaking to me as i thought it would going into it, but that very may be because i read it 54 years after its publication. still, what a galaxy brain and very well explored premise.

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