<![CDATA[The Left Hand of Darkness]]>

false <![CDATA[The Left Hand of Darkness]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166913055m/18423.jpg 18423 45 Genly Ai is an emissary from the human galaxy to Winter, a lost, stray world. His mission is to bring the planet back into the fold of an evolving galactic civilization, but to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own culture & prejudices & those that he encounters. On a planet where people are of no gender—or both—this is a broad gulf indeed+. The inventiveness and delicacy with which Le Guin portrays her alien world are not only unusual & inspiring, they are fundamental to almost all decent science fiction that has been written since. In fact, reading Le Guin again may cause the eye to narrow somewhat disapprovingly at the younger generation: what new ground are they breaking that is not already explored here with greater skill & acumen? It cannot be said, however, that this is a rollicking good story. Le Guin takes a lot of time to explore her characters, the world of her creation, & the philosophical themes that arise. If there were a canon of classic science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness would be included without debate. Certainly, no science fiction bookshelf may be said to be complete without it. But the real question: is it fun to read? It is science fiction of an earlier time, a time that has not worn particularly well in the genre. The Left Hand of Darkness was a groundbreaking book in 1969, a time when, like the rest of the arts, science fiction was awakening to new dimensions in both society & literature. But the first excursions out of the pulp tradition are sometimes difficult to reread with much enjoyment. Rereading The Left Hand of Darkness, decades after its publication, one feels that those who chose it for the Hugo & Nebula awards were right to do so, for it truly does stand out as one of the great books of that era. It is immensely rich in timeless wisdom and insight. The Left Hand of Darkness is science fiction for the thinking reader, & should be read attentively in order to properly savor the depth of insight & the subtleties of plot & character. It is one of those pleasures that requires a little investment at the beginning, but pays back tenfold with the joy of raw imagination that resonates through the subsequent 30 years of science fiction storytelling. Not only is the bookshelf incomplete without owning it, so is the reader without having read it.--L. Blunt Jackson 817527 book 1969 The Left Hand of Darkness total:6044|5:2050|4:2266|3:1292|2:327|1:109| 6044 23953 8524 599 5 10 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 03 08:45:53 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 10 10:42:46 -0700 2007
And then you decide to give an author a go because of some weird research string you were on......more...]]> 4 9 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 04 19:45:18 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 04 19:45:26 -0800 2008
It follows Genly Ai, an envoy from the Ekumen (a perhaps-utopian union of worlds) to the planet Gethen, where th...more...]]> 4 6 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat May 12 10:11:54 -0700 2007 Thu Dec 27 00:18:09 -0800 2007
It's just a brilliant novel about people, relationships, and desires, a thought-experiment that leads to lots of insights about deep topics:
The imp...more...]]> 5 6 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 01 17:47:48 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 13 11:55:35 -0700 2008
The CCLaP 100: In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called "classics,"...more...]]> 3 8 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 31 06:51:01 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 01 19:04:38 -0700 2008
Unfortunately, I never really became attached to the characters ...more...]]> 4 2 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon May 05 08:10:50 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 17 18:10:39 -0700 2008
I checked out the 25th anniversary edition, which had an afterword by Ursula Le Guin. She mentioned th...more...]]> 3 2 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jan 26 11:36:39 -0800 2008 Sun May 18 19:56:44 -0700 2008 The Left Hand of Darkness is a first contact story. Genry (or Genly) Ai is an envoy from the Ekumen to the world of Gethen. The Ekumen represent a loose federation of humanity, and seem to act as facilitators of exchange between planets. Gethen is a world populated by humans, with a twist: the pe...more...]]> 4 2 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jan 06 06:52:22 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 06 06:54:08 -0800 2008 The Left Hand of Darkness is the third Ursula LeGuin book I have read (I read A Wizard of Earthsea a couple years ago) and her style seems to have a decidedly anthropological bent. The Left Hand of Darkness has very little in the way of story. There is enough narrative to hold the book together, but...more...]]> 2 3 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 25 17:34:17 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 08 11:52:35 -0700 2007
If I ever do pick it up again (which I might do just because I like to finish what I start and not because I ...more...]]> 0 3 false false Sat Apr 11 20:50:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 11 21:02:22 -0700 2009
A second (or other subsequent) reading might focus on other things--the Handdarata 'un-religion', the focus on shifgrethor and not gi...more...]]> 2 1 false false Mon Feb 09 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 08 02:42:13 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 02:29:51 -0800 2009
The sheer a...more...]]> 1 1 false false Sun Oct 11 22:01:26 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 17 10:01:51 -0700 2009
Lots of people have raved about this book, including my friend Dena who read it for a class she took in Science Fiction at U of M. Although I'm not usually a sci-fi fan, I figured I'd try it, especially since she was off...more...]]> 5 2 false false Mon Feb 11 08:58:11 -0800 2008 Mon Apr 14 06:42:31 -0700 2008
I see why people love it now. Excellent story, wonderful richness in prose, in plot, and in setting.

]]> 5 1 false false Thu Jun 26 17:01:13 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 28 19:45:38 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Mon Mar 17 12:01:33 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 17 12:35:07 -0700 2008
In a refreshing twist, this book doesn't have a political goal. It is a journey through the eyes of a human emissary sent to contact an alien species. The setting is the far off futu...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 1994 Thu Mar 06 13:39:02 -0800 2008 Thu Mar 06 13:51:22 -0800 2008
The gist of the background is that at some point in the past, humanity was seeded throughout the galaxy by ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Jun 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 11 14:35:05 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 16 19:47:51 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Sun Sep 16 15:57:31 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 20 05:14:53 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 17 11:08:59 -0700 2007 Sun Oct 07 06:36:08 -0700 2007
But the real attraction of this books is that the Gethen residents are all neither male or female; it is only when they enter a period ...more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Nov 28 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 12 09:23:39 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 28 14:11:13 -0800 2008
It's a hard book to get into, though. It's slow, you don'...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=18423