In this book Genly Ai is sent to the planet Gethen on behalf of the Ekumen, an alliance of human societies residing on far flung planets, to acquaint the inhabitants with the existence of the Ekumen and convince them to join the alliance. The Gethenians are unique: every individual has the potential to be a man or a woman during regular periods of time, referred to as “kemmer”. The period of kemmer is the only time when a Gethenian has a defined sexuality. Throughout the course of the book any individual Gethenian is referred to as a “man”. The narrative is told through two POVs, both in the first person: Genly Ai, the Envoy; and Estraven, who is the prime minister of Karhide, Mr Ai’s liaison with the nation’s king. Over the course of the narrative, Le Guin explores a society totally uninfluenced by sexuality which interestingly holds up a mirror to how sexuality /gender permeates every nook and cranny of our social existence. It was however the beautiful depiction of the progression of the relationship between Mr Ai and Estraven that made me fall in love with this book. The complete disconnect between the cultures of the two main characters initially made them misjudge each other leading to dangerous consequences. Later, unexpectedly thrown in together while traveling for days in the icy wilderness, they begin to understand and accept each other for who they are; the story ultimately culminating into it’s heartbreaking conclusion. I will end with these beautiful lines: “Light is the left hand of darkness and darkness the right hand of light. Two are one, life and death, lying together like lovers in kemmer, like hands joined together, like the end and the way.” (I had posted this earlier elsewhere, and thought I would post it here for any interesting discussion).

  • @IonAddis
    link
    English
    81 year ago

    The thing that’s floored me is that when I first read it in the 90s, it was already quite a few years old. It was written in 1969, over a decade before I was even born.

    But it was written so adeptly that it’s still relevant now, in 2023, which is one hell of a thing 50 years later.

    One of my regrets from the 90s is that so many of her works were out of print at the time, because they were written in the 70s, etc. That’s a non-issue these days with eBooks, but at the time, if something wasn’t in print any longer (because physical books had limited print runs) it was hard as hell to get it, so I didn’t read a lot of her stuff at my most impressionable age simply because I had no access to it.