The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Sep 28, 2014 Jenny rated it really liked it

Reading this novel took me back to middle and high school when I read a lot of science fiction—including Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, The Lathe of Heaven, etc. Like all good speculative fiction, it says as much about the time it was written (1974) as it does about the future. I missed that it was subtitled, “An Ambiguous Utopia,” but that seems a fitting title.

Set in the far distant future where mankind (one assumes) has spread to many galaxies and planets, this novel tells the story of Reading this novel took me back to middle and high school when I read a lot of science fiction—including Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, The Lathe of Heaven, etc. Like all good speculative fiction, it says as much about the time it was written (1974) as it does about the future. I missed that it was subtitled, “An Ambiguous Utopia,” but that seems a fitting title.

Set in the far distant future where mankind (one assumes) has spread to many galaxies and planets, this novel tells the story of one man caught between two worlds and two worldviews. Shevek is born on Anarres, an arid moon-like planet, whose society was formed when an anarchist group split off from the more earth-like planet, Urras. In Anarres, there is no government or elected leaders or money. Everyone works together to stay alive and to raise the next generation. Life is hard but because the sacrifices are shared, no one rebels. However, by choice, Anarres has almost totally cut themselves off from Urras—accepting only the occasional trading mission. This is because they see everything they’ve left behind there—unequal gender roles, huge gaps between rich and poor, wasting of resources, etc.

As a youth, Shevek develops a love for physics and his aptitude for it (and maybe something already in his personality) begins to set him apart from others. As he grows older (and begins to butt up against the limits of his own society), he begins to wonder if this barrier between two worlds is one that should be broken—for the benefit of both. The story is told in alternating chapters—one chronicles Shevek’s experiences as he travels to Urras to share his knowledge and perhaps develop new theories in physics and the other tells the story of what led Shevek to make this life-changing (and life-endangering) decision.

This isn’t just a story of one man but also a story of competing ideologies and the limits inherent in both. Given all that’s going on with the 99% and the Occupy Wall street movement, I think this novel doesn’t feel trapped in the 70’s. Rather just like The Left Hand of Darkness questions gender constructions so too does this novel force the reader to think about the ways societies are organized and how that shapes thinking and actions.
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Dec 08, 2016 Kate rated it liked it

Good, but it got too heavy on the political philosophy. I appreciate scifi that actually addresses real-world issues where the scifi quality exists mostly as a context for exploring our own world more thoroughly, but this felt really heavy-handed. Characters, in some cases, were just mouthpieces for various political ideals, and not particularly interesting humans in their own right. It's certainly an interesting exercise to put a character from an anarchist/socialist culture into a capitalist o ...more

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