The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
I have wanted to read something by LeGuin for a while but just had not stumbled on the right book. Daniel picked up one by her (Wizard of Earthsea) and I asked him to pass it on to me when he is done but he is still making his way through it so its not hit my desk yet-should be a 2019 read. This one I picked up in NYC at Strands when we were there for Hamilton; I wanted to buy a book to support the store and it was on a "recommended reads" shelf so I took the bait.
First, I did not realize that her books were as old as they are. This was published in the 80s. Conversely, Le Guin is supposed to be one of the early female fantasy writers so if I had really thought about it I would have placed her writing in maybe the 50s or 60s. Not so. It apparently took a while for female fantasy authors to make it. I am sure there are whole thesis devoted to this topic and since I am a tax accountant and not a literature post-doc, I'm not going to get into it.
The book reminded me strongly of The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel (which, by the way, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND...if you have not read that one yet you need to get to the bookstore or the library now...its fantasy, sure, but its a fantasy type that makes fantasy lovers love fantasy and makes non-fantasy lovers just a little bit jealous that they don't like fantasy more). The protagonists in both books are emissaries in a foreign place encountering natives both hostile and sympathetic. I supposed this is a common trope within the genre but it did not seem stale here. Oddly, this book also fit in with themes that resound in today's divisive politics:..."No, I don't mean love, when I say patriotism. I mean fear. The fear of the other. And its expressions are political, not poetical: hate, rivalry, aggression. It grows in us, that fear. It grows in us year by year." Ah, she was a woman ahead of her time. Later: "What is love of one's country; is it hate of one's uncountry? Then its not a good thing." Take that, you idiot-in-chief with your ridiculous racist attitudes and stupid, stupid wall.
Woven into this story is the reality that on the host planet, all natives are androgynous, and during their reproductive time may take on either the male or female role. This leads to some curious world building ideas which Le Guin has her narrator explore. He points out that because sex is not recognized, a man's virility, a woman's feminity, has no value. "On Winter they will not exist. One is respected and judged only as a human being. It is an appalling experience." Its an interesting perspective: that while equality between the sexes is the goal, perhaps it comes at the cost of something else that is also valuable in its own right?
I made a ton of notes in this book as I was reading which I am not going to document here. A couple of the ones that are worth mentioning are that all the politics in the book drove me crazy...I was certainly skimming plenty. And the book while decent throughout really hits its stride well into the second half which is pretty far into a longish book to really start picking up speed. A shorter lead-in might have served this book better. I suspect there were not a few readers who simply did not make it far enough for the payoff. Finally, there within this gem one of the great love stories in literature which due to the physical characteristics of the lovers its never consummated but its as sweet and powerful a love as I have read on a page-it alone made me smile and cry and be pleased that I discovered this tale.
Rating: post-rescue #3 Enjoyed it Very Much overall, 'cause its hard to ignore the first half of the book: #4, Like It
First, I did not realize that her books were as old as they are. This was published in the 80s. Conversely, Le Guin is supposed to be one of the early female fantasy writers so if I had really thought about it I would have placed her writing in maybe the 50s or 60s. Not so. It apparently took a while for female fantasy authors to make it. I am sure there are whole thesis devoted to this topic and since I am a tax accountant and not a literature post-doc, I'm not going to get into it.
The book reminded me strongly of The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel (which, by the way, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND...if you have not read that one yet you need to get to the bookstore or the library now...its fantasy, sure, but its a fantasy type that makes fantasy lovers love fantasy and makes non-fantasy lovers just a little bit jealous that they don't like fantasy more). The protagonists in both books are emissaries in a foreign place encountering natives both hostile and sympathetic. I supposed this is a common trope within the genre but it did not seem stale here. Oddly, this book also fit in with themes that resound in today's divisive politics:..."No, I don't mean love, when I say patriotism. I mean fear. The fear of the other. And its expressions are political, not poetical: hate, rivalry, aggression. It grows in us, that fear. It grows in us year by year." Ah, she was a woman ahead of her time. Later: "What is love of one's country; is it hate of one's uncountry? Then its not a good thing." Take that, you idiot-in-chief with your ridiculous racist attitudes and stupid, stupid wall.
Woven into this story is the reality that on the host planet, all natives are androgynous, and during their reproductive time may take on either the male or female role. This leads to some curious world building ideas which Le Guin has her narrator explore. He points out that because sex is not recognized, a man's virility, a woman's feminity, has no value. "On Winter they will not exist. One is respected and judged only as a human being. It is an appalling experience." Its an interesting perspective: that while equality between the sexes is the goal, perhaps it comes at the cost of something else that is also valuable in its own right?
I made a ton of notes in this book as I was reading which I am not going to document here. A couple of the ones that are worth mentioning are that all the politics in the book drove me crazy...I was certainly skimming plenty. And the book while decent throughout really hits its stride well into the second half which is pretty far into a longish book to really start picking up speed. A shorter lead-in might have served this book better. I suspect there were not a few readers who simply did not make it far enough for the payoff. Finally, there within this gem one of the great love stories in literature which due to the physical characteristics of the lovers its never consummated but its as sweet and powerful a love as I have read on a page-it alone made me smile and cry and be pleased that I discovered this tale.
Rating: post-rescue #3 Enjoyed it Very Much overall, 'cause its hard to ignore the first half of the book: #4, Like It
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