The Left Hand of Darkness: SCI FI or psychology

The book starts in the kingdom of karhide, where Genly Ai is trying to convince the king to join an interstellar group of aliens called the Ekumen. After talking to the clearly crazy King, he travels to Orgoreyn, a neighboring country that is a bit more bureaucratic, and promptly gets in trouble for not having papers. Although the situation is improbable and the language that Ursula K Le Guin uses is cryptic at best, the emotion and psychology in the book is very relatable. I would recommend this book for people who like science fiction with a complex plot and deep characters.

 

The premise of this book is improbable and because of that it seems a little less real. the reason for this is how long it takes to travel from planet to planet given that they have no faster than light drive. In addition if all of these planets were seeded in the way indicated in the book, each individual planet would be so different that communication much less cooperation would be nigh impossible, they would just think in ways to alien to each other. Many of the social issues and complications that would occur if an alien landed on a planet, that hadn't even thought that there might be more life in the galaxy, are simply ignored or glossed over and I doubt that any alien would be received with such little reaction on any planet. In addition the technical progress of the gethenians is bafflingly skewed, they use sonic guns but not computers. This is probably because the book was published in 1969 before the internet existed or computers were a really big deal, it is however a little disconcerting to read about because other SCI FI books and shows of the era incorporated computers. All of these little issues make the story a little less believable.

 

In addition the language is somewhat difficult to understand because of how cryptic the characters are. The theory is that the culture of the whole planet is just unnecessarily cryptic, like a politician-lawyer-rubix cube. This is unlikely to ever occur because, as a culture that uses a given language ages the language changes and typically it gets easier to understand,example, “‘Let no one else use you mr. Ai.’ the king was saying. ‘keep clear of factions. tell your own lies, do your own deeds. And trust no one. D’you know that?’” (p 34). An easier way to say this would be simply be careful of who you associate yourself with. This excessively complicated language sometimes detracts from the story because you have to think about what is being said to understand it and that detracts from your enjoyment.

 

Having said that the emotion and psychology that is displayed by Genly is both interesting and engaging. He displays confusion at the King's reaction to his proposal,”three thousand? I see. Now tell me why we, one against three thousand, should have anything to do with all these nations of monsters living out in the void?”(p 36) and curiosity at the parade and what it's about. His reactions are believable and relatable, it makes you think what would I have done in this situation. At first Genly seems a little distant, like he can't be angry or emotional, but when he is about to have his audience with the King, and hears on the radio that his "friend" had been banished for treason, he freaks out and has a minor crisis, thinking that maybe he was banished because he was Genly's confidant. If this was why he was banished then genly might have been killed or thrown in prison just for knowing Estravan.

 

Booksmugglers.com says "The Left Hand of Darkness is not an easy book to read. Ms. LeGuin’s prose is descriptive and graceful, but requires a high level of concentration and memory to understand and keep straight the different peoples and customs throughout. At less than 300 pages, The Left Hand of Darkness is nevertheless full to the brim with challenging ideas, themes, and concepts – not only is gender examined at length, but so too are political systems, religion, and the facets of human nature itself." Although The Left Hand Of Darkness is based on an improbable premise, the emotion and actions of the characters makes it relatable and hard to put down. I have to agree with this reviewer, The left hand of darkness is a difficult book to read and not my favorite, but it should definitely be on your reading list.