The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia in War Nerd Reading List

Jun 29, 2023 Keenan Calhoun rated it it was amazing

I read this right after reading the Left Hand of Darkness, and what that book does for gender, this one does for economics. As a Marxist myself, I still have a difficult time imagining a world without capitalism, and while the anarchist world of Annares is no true communist utopia, it does paint a picture of what our lives could be like in a world without the need to fight for our survival daily through wage labor. Of course, Le Guin's prose is top notch in this book, as I assume it is in all he ...more

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May 25, 2019 Rashid Yasin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi

I have read a lot of fiction that is dystopian, that warns of futures that might be. But very little that is utopian but that still feels real and possible. The Dispossesed is the best I have read of the latter. I knew going in that it was about anarchist principles on an alien world. And I think that's what's best to know, not any more - it's better to understand the pieces as they are put together on your own. The strength of the story is twofold: that it depicts the constant need for struggle ...more

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Mar 31, 2021 JC added it

Shelves: fiction

Have to say I did not like this book. Hard DNF even though I was more than half-way through. The book was a slog.

For some reason, the tone of the book made me feel like it was assigned to me in a high school English class. I don’t know if that makes sense, but that’s why I put it down and said “no more.”

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