Four Ways to Forgiveness 2: Forgiveness Day

[Jenny]

For those who are ready to move on - let's feel free to keep talking about Betrayals on the other thread if we still have something to say though.

[Rosamund]

Hello! Sorry that my reply to this has been slow -- I was travelling and missed this. I don't think "Forgiveness Day" is as strong as "Betrayals", but I still enjoyed reading it. I found Solly interesting -- the sci-fi paradox of having a character that has been alive for so long, but is still so young and naive is really well done. Solly's response to slavery and the dynamics of life on Werrel --that she immediately expected the enslaved people to trust her because she was different and that her distrust of the slave owners made her put herself in danger -- seems convincingly naive and lacking in experience of the world. I found the relationship with Teyeo less convincing: I liked the way that they learned to bridge their divide within the cell, but that Solly would end up falling in love with him and marrying him did not seem particularly realistic or interesting to me. Centring this piece around a love story didn't work for me; it seemed to distract from the ways in which Le Guin was exploring captivity and rebellion.

[Judy]

I felt that the chasm between Solly and Teyeo, the chasm between their expectations of others and their own moral codes, was an important part of the story. Le Guin seems to be saying that the time they spent in the cell where life was reduced to helping each other to survive, where all their preconceptions and expectations were swept away, where they were stripped of everything but essentials, this time enabled each other to see the other's true inner being and come to love each other. It's a big stretch of the imagination, true, but isn't that what science fiction does?

[Francisca]

Judy wrote: "It's a big stretch of the imagination, true, but isn't that what science fiction does?"

I don't think it's such a big stretch to learn to love someone who you once hated because of preconceive ideas once those preconceived ideas are shown to be false. Particularly, if the situation that challenges those ideas is one in which you are faced with the worst and the best of others, and come to discover the strength and kindness of the person you once detested.

I found this story less appealing, at least at first read (it did grew on me, though, as I read it the second time). It think it's because it took me time to warm up to Solly as main character.

Solly spent the first part of the story looking down on Teyeo without actually knowing anything about him except that he was an officer and belonged to the slavers class.

Similarly, Teyeo detested Solly because he decoded each of her actions and personality using his own culture and knowledge.

They both reacted to the other from prejudice, yet I found Solly to be more detestable for that. Solly was an envoy of Ekumen, she had traveled the galaxy, she had experience other cultures and had had access to education and knowledge out of Teyeo's reach. That privilege, that enormous privilege, is why she was selected as envoy. Yet, she was unable to do anything but judge everyone around as inferior for not sharing on her beliefs.

Rosamund called Solly naive, and there's some of that, but for me Solly fells mostly arrogant and spoiled, so willing to talk and impose, but never willing to listen.

She herself says it, "We are invaders, no matter how pacifist and
priggish we are..."

And that is how she behaved from the first part of the story, as an invader, trying to impose her beliefs on others without any regard for their needs or wants.

For me, it feels as if falling in love with Teyeo is Solly's way of falling in love with a new part of herself, a part that is finally open to really learn about others and see them as equals even if they believe in things she doesn't.

Thinking about this story in contrast to Betrayals, the thing that jumped at me is how in Betrayals, the main characters knew a lot about each other. They shared a common history, knowing many details about each other's lives, and it's that story they need to forgive to then learn to love each other.

In contrast, in Forgiveness Day, the lovers know nothing of one another. There's no personal history to forgive, instead, they need to learn the history of the other, so they can "forgive" their preconceive ideas and learn to love the real person in front of them.

Thinking of this contrast helped me like the second story a bit more.