Zana’s Reviews > The Left Hand of Darkness > Status Update

“...How did the fellow come here, riding on a comet? Astride a meteor? A ship, what sort of ship floats on air? On void space? Yet you're no madder than you ever were, Estraven, which is to say shrewdly mad, wisely mad. All Karhiders are insane....”

So rude

“I was born to live in exile, it appeared, and my one way home was by way of dying.”

Emo

‘“...Tell me, Genry, what is known? What is sure, predictable, inevitable—the one certain thing you know concerning your future, and mine?”’

“That we shall die.”

“Yes. There's really only one question that can be answered, Genry, and we already know the answer.... The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.”’

Damn deep

‘”You don't see yet, Genry, why we perfected and practice Foretelling?”

“No.”

“To exhibit the perfect uselessness of knowing the answer to the wrong question.”’

Deep

‘“...He might simply ask, Who'll serve me best as prime minister?—and leave it at that.”

“He might. But he doesn't know what serving him best may mean. It might mean the man chosen would surrender the valley to Orgoreyn, or go into exile, or assassinate the king; it might mean many things he wouldn't expect or accept.”’

Gotta hit chat with the detailed prompt

“The Karhidish slang for them is halfdeads. They are sterile.”

Is being called a halfdead better than being called a pervert?

“Excessive prolongation of the kemmer period, with permanent hormonal imbalance toward the male or the female, causes what they call perversion; it is not rare; three or four percent of adults may be physiological perverts or abnormals—normals, by our standard. They are not excluded from society, but they are tolerated with some disdain, as homosexuals are in many bisexual societies.”

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“Do you know the story of the Lord of Shorth, who forced the Foretellers of Asen Fastness to answer the question What is the meaning of life? Well, it was a couple of thousand years ago. The Foretellers stayed in the darkness for six days and nights. At the end, all the Celibates were catatonic, the Zanies were dead, the Pervert clubbed the Lord of Shorth to death with a stone...”

Bruh

“In winter the wind of the plains may keep the city clear of snow, but when it blizzards and piles up they do not clear the streets, having no streets to clear. They use the stone tunnels, or burrow temporary ones in the snow. Nothing of the houses but the roof sticks out above the snow, and the winter-doors may be set under the eaves or in the roof itself, like dormers.”

So cool

“...Quarrels, murders, feuds, forays, vendettas, assassinations, tortures and abominations, all these were in their repertory of human accomplishments; but they did not go to war. They lacked, it seemed, the capacity to mobilize. They behaved like animals, in that respect; or like women. They did not behave like men, or ants.”

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