"Left Hand of Darkness" First Impressions *No spoilers*

[[deleted user]]

So, what do think of the first bit? If you're not sure, reread the first page. Remind you of anything we read recently? Also, do you think the opening passage undercuts the narrator's reliability?

[Sandi]

Dang. It's been so long since I read this book. Now, I have to go upstairs and read the first page.

[Susanne]

I've just finished the first chapter, and while I find some of the political/cultural concepts intriguing, I haven't found the narration very engaging yet. Does the first-person narrator change at some point? Because he's the kind of story-teller I'm afraid will bore me very quickly. Which would be a shame, because I do like the premise here.

[Megan]

I'm about 50 pages in to the book. I have to admit, I'm not finding it particularly compelling as of yet. I like the "first contact" aspect but I'm finding the sex/gender discussion odd because of the obvious use of gendered pronouns...

Ai has just left the main part of the city though, so I'm hoping the story will deepen.

[Sandi]

Megan wrote: "I'm about 50 pages in to the book. I have to admit, I'm not finding it particularly compelling as of yet. I like the "first contact" aspect but I'm finding the sex/gender discussion odd because of the obvious use of gendered pronouns..."

Interestingly enough, I thought the gendered pronouns were very revealing. Genly has to think of the people of Winter with some sort of pronouns. His society is gendered, so he thinks in his own gendered pronouns. We would probably do exactly the same thing. We don't use "it" for human beings. Now, when the POV changes to an inhabitant of Winter, LeGuin does keep the gendered pronoun, but I don't really mind. It would have been very awkward reading if she had made up a new pronoun or used "it". By the time we reach that point, we pretty well understand how the lack of gender works on Winter.

[Daniel]

I recognise that I am in the minority -- three out of four reviews for this book were four stars or better -- but I am having a very difficult time staying with this book.

I'm at page 180 and have a hard time even recalling the name of the protagonist (Genly Ai).

I've quit reading it three times only to resolve each time to finish it because it is a "classic." I want to be able to understand my differences with the majority or reach a point where the book becomes interesting to me.

Had I read it in 1969 (in the days of Star Trek), perhaps it would have been more interesting. I appreciate that it is "idea-driven," but I'm sure having to wade through a lot of detail to get the idea.

I keep envisioning the little kingdom in Shrek embellished with strange names for places and instruments like the nomenclature for the Who culture in The Grinch Who Stole Christmas!

[[deleted user]]

Daniel,
If you are on the fourth try, I think you have made a sufficient effort to finish the book. As discussion leader, I release you from the obligation to finish. Now you should peruse the other topics and see if there is anything else you want to say about the first half of the novel.

[Daniel]

Thomas,

Thanks for the offer, but in the meantime, I finished the book. I'll collect my thoughts, post a review and enter some of the discussions.

[Susanne]

I'm almost through... Still not sure what I think of the book. I want to love it, of course, because so many people do, but it turns out that I really, really am a reader for plot and characters. Ideas, concepts, philosophies, etc don't seem to do it for me when presented in big blocks and chunks, without moving the story along much.

The actual story-line I quite like - first contact is one of my favourite sf themes, and Ai's trials and tribulations to win over the Gethenians make for a suitable vehicle to describe this very alien nation... There's just not enough story, I think.

I have no idea how I'm even going to attempt a review yet!

[Anna]

I'm actually 3/4 through the book but I can still tell you what my first impressions were. I'm a total noob when it comes to sci-fi, or hard core sci-fi like this book obviously is. I found myself rather confuse. It was like a penguin being dropped in a rain forest and asked to learn the languge of the apes.

My first impression of the book is that it had a good. An ambassador from another planet trying to touch a new race of man in a way that they have never known. The characters are likable and the politics are understandable, if not intriguing and interesting.

The language that is used leaves me slightly perplex and mildly confused, but this is probaly because I'm a noob in the genre and have still not have learned to adapted to this new, strange, and amazing world.

Although even though the author justifies the use of "he" rather then "it" early on in the book, I find myself thinking that the planet is invested with males.

So far, a good book.

[Sarah]

This is a tough book to tackle as an SF newcomer, Maxi -- you get definite points for ambition!

I think that's a good point you make about the use of "he" rather than "it". I wonder if all the arguments over in the other thread would have been different if Le Guin had chosen to use a pronoun (even an invented one) with less baggage. I guess maybe the protagonist's mind forced him to choose a gender to associate with them (even though he knew that was inaccurate), and so the author gave us that perspective as well.

[Kara]

Sarah Pi wrote: "I think that's a good point you make about the use of "he" rather than "it". I wonder if all the arguments over in the other thread would have been different if Le Guin had chosen to use a pronoun (even an invented one) with less baggage."

I think they would, but not different in a good way. "It" has unfortunate connotations in this case, as "it" would characterize the Gethenians as something other than human, creatures rather than people. The same problem occurs with an invented pronoun, with the added inconvenience of making the book harder to read. Since it's important that Genly, and by extension, the reader, come to see the Gethenians as completely human--to the point that at the end of the book he begins having trouble adjusting to the notion of two genders again--only a gendered pronoun will do.

Although I similarly applaud Maxi's efforts, since The Left Hand of Darkness is a tough book, I disagree that it's a tough science fiction book. I actually think that this is a great book for people who aren't familiar with or dislike more conventional action-orientated (i.e., Star Wars) or hard science fiction. In my experience, people who pan SF tend to focus on its reliance on technology as a vehicle for the story. The science in this book is almost exclusively social--anthropology and sociology--which can be easier for newcomers to relate to than the "hard" sciences. There are some small digressions when Le Guin mentions the effects of time dilation on Genly's travel to Gethen; beyond that, his ship, and his ansible, there are very few technological set pieces. This makes it an excellent introduction to science fiction as a setting for books that stimulate intellectual thought without burdening the new reader with an excess of jargon.

[Sarah]

Fair points, all.

I think you're right that it is not hard SF, and the science in it is primarily social science, and fairly accessible. I do think that it would be intimidating to someone who doesn't ordinarily read SF. There are a lot of ideas thrown at the reader in the early pages, before it evens out.
I think there's something inaccessible - overly formal, perhaps - about Le Guin's prose. Once I got past that - or got used to it? - I was able to enjoy the book...but to get past the beginning took me years.

[Sarah]

Exactly!

[Sandi]

BunWat wrote: "I know what you mean about LeGuin's prose Sarah Pi. I think I would describe the quality as dispassionate. When it works for me it feels like I'm reading something timeless and almost mythic, whe..."

I think I loved this book because it felt mythic and timeless to me.

[Peregrine]

Megan wrote: "I'm about 50 pages in to the book. I have to admit, I'm not finding it particularly compelling as of yet. I like the "first contact" aspect but I'm finding the sex/gender discussion odd because o..."

In Chapter 7, A Question of Sex, Investigator Ong Tot Oppong writes,"Lacking the Karhidish 'human pronoun' used for persons in somer, I must say 'he,' for the same reasons as we used the masculine pronoun in referring to a transcendent god: it is less defined, less specific, than the neuter or the feminine. But the very use of the pronoun in my thoughts leads me continually to forget that the Karhider I am with is not a man, but a manwoman."

Genly Ai has this struggle all through the book, even to being surprised and uncomfortable when finding Estraven in kemmer and female. This is the feminist thread that runs deeply through the story: how can one sex subordinate another when they can exist at different times in the same body? What *is the difference between male and female, when the same body can both bear and father children, when that same body is no different, generally speaking, from other human bodies for most of the time? What makes maleness "less specific" than femaleness, and does that mean, in the context of the narrative, that males have more potential, even more "self" than females? And how much harder it was for folk to open to these ideas in the 60s, I think, when, for example, homosexuals were pathologised, criminalised, and demonised, to say nothing of transsexuals. Not exactly the same, I know, but Left Hand has much food for thought on the questions, "What is a pervert?" and "What makes a human?" Radical for its time, I find the book deeply satisfying every time I read it, because of the depth of ideas and imaginings on these topics.

[Sarah]

Great articulation of the ideas in the book, Peregrine.

[Peregrine]

Sarah Pi wrote: "Great articulation of the ideas in the book, Peregrine. "

Thank you very much, Sarah.

[MK]

So, I borrowed this from the library, but wasn't sure if I'd have time. I just took a peek. I have NEVER read a Le Guin before, so I had no idea what to expect. I just read a six-page introduction written by her in 1976. The book I have is the 79th printing, of this 1969 book. :-o How have I never read anything by her before???

Based solely on the introduction, I'd say she had a HUGE brain, and also, perhaps, is not averse to casual drug usage that may tend to cause introspection? :D.


HUGE praise for this book on the back cover. Does it matter that it's third in the series? I looked at the series page here on Goodreads, it appears that the series can be read in any order?

[Ken]

I really liked this book. It does not matter if you have read the rest of the series or not.

[MK]

Thanks, Kenneth! That's good to know. I was uncertain if I wanted to jump into the middle of the series. :)

[Margaret]

A good deal of Le Guin's SF takes place in the same universe, and these are styled the "Hainish Cycle", but they're not really a "series" as the term is usually understood nowadays. Like Kenneth says, not to worry!

[MK]

Cool! Thx, Margaret :)

[Michael]

I have started this and am loving/liking it so far. "First contact" is an interesting premise for a series, and I'm wondering if the other books in this "cycle" are all about new worlds being contacted. If so, it allows for a lot of creativity, and as you said, MK, she will need a HUGE brain to do this kind of stuff consistently.

I say "loving/liking" because I am always a bit hesitant about political intrigue-type storytelling. World/court politics is my big weak spot and so it will often lose me or frustrate me. (Ironically, Dune is one of my favorite books, so maybe it depends on how it is presented.) I love that twice now the narrator has inserted explanatory notes supporting their analysis of the king's motives. Very helpful for us math-focused types!

MK, I also have missed out on Ursula K. Le Guin's bibliography, but for a different reason - I tried one or two from her Earthsea Cycle early in my childhood and don't remember really liking or understanding them. Also, they are fantasy and I have still not figured out my relationship to fantasy, because there seems to be a lot of it I don't like. So I kind of dropped her as an author, not realizing she also wrote a lot of science fiction.

So far, I'm glad I gave her another try, this is a very interesting book!

[Valerie]

I just picked it up from the library and will be reading it when I finish Blackbirds. I did take a moment to read the intro and I also like the author's perspective on writing scifi.

[Patrick]

It was the first Le Guin book and once through it, I loved it. But, I have to admit, at a couple points if I had never heard of Le Guin and didn't come into the book knowing she's A Very Big Deal, I might have set it aside.

Sometimes author reputation helps.

[Beth]

The most recent post in this thread was almost seven years ago. Necropost time!

About forty pages in, it's very dense. It isn't terribly fun to read, but it's interesting.

Genly Ai isn't an appealing narrator. His overt misogyny, and seeming inability to come to terms with the people of Karhide culturally, although he's supposed to be an envoy or diplomat, are huge put-offs. I hope he'll become more sympathetic later.

It's an indicator of how times have changed since 2009, that no one in this thread thought to use singular "they" for the people of winter, rather than the definitely off-putting "it," or the usual binary pronouns.

[Economondos]

Beth wrote: "About forty pages in, it's very dense. It isn't terribly fun to read, but it's interesting."

Thank you for your impression, thought maybe it was just me. Heard about this book for years, but never made time to read it. Now (3 years after you) I am finding the time.