The Left Hand of Darkness

Oh, geeeee. I luxuriated in this book. I think this was my second or third time reading it, and I loved it even more this time. This is such a perfect book: so masterful, so deep and touching. Damn, do I suspend my disbelief for this! I also couldn't shake the brainwave I had during my last reading - that Karhide is Tibet and Orgoreyn the People's Republic of China - it informed my entire interpretation of the culture of Gethen. But I get ahead of myself!

The plot: This is set in Le Guin's “Hainish cycle”, where human worlds across the galaxy are reconnecting after millennia of separation, and where humanity originated on a planet called Hain and was seeded to other worlds (including our Earth). As the human worlds are coming back together, they form an interplanetary alliance called the Ekumen. The Left Hand of Darkness follows an Ekumen “Envoy” named Genly Ai, a man from Terra (our Earth), as he makes first contact with the human civilization on Gethen. Gethen is a frozen winter planet (HOTH!), and the humans have evolved (or were genetically engineered by Hainish colonists, long ago) to be “ambisexual” - that is, they are sexually inactive most of the month and then enter “kemmer”, a monthly period when they become sexually active and can develop either male or female sex organs. So, basically, anyone can become pregnant, anyone can be a father, and so on.

Sooo DUH this book is hugely about gender and sexuality, since Genly Ai - as the resident extraterrestrial diplomat on a mission to open this culture up to the rest of the humanity, and a dude - struggles with a world denuded (ho ho) of a patriarchy/matriarchy/sexual oppression/sex politics/all that stuff. On this world, Genly is considered a “pervert”, someone “permanently in kemmer”, since, you know, his penis is always just THERE. Gethenian shudder of disgust

But beyond the gender and sexuality stuff, this book is such a phenomenal piece of writing about anthropology, and culture, and diplomacy and foreignness. I remember reading this in 2010 and thinking that, GOD, everyone who works in international development should be required to read this (and The Dispossessed, which also focuses on economics and innovation). Le Guin is BRILLIANT, a MASTER, at writing intelligently and sensitively about cultures meeting - about exploring “the other”, and thus exploring the world/universe. It's so inspiring, and gorgeous. Also, I personally LOOOVE “first contact”/”alien invasion” stories - they're so wonderful and exciting.

The first half of the book is a smart portrayal of politics and diplomacy, as Genly Ai tries to figure out Karhidish concepts of “shifgrethor” (face-saving, elliptical conversations). The second half of the book is an unexpectedly involving adventure story, a survivalist's tale over Gethen's polar ice caps. SO GOOD.

So I don't know where I saw this, or if I came up with it myself, but the parallels between Karhide/Orgoreyn and Tibet/PRC were many and seemed obvious. Wasn't Le Guin a Taoist? Oh yeah, she translated the Tao Te Ching. And she was such a smart, political lady, and this was written in the 1960s - a decade after the PRC's invasion of Tibet. I feel like it's clear! Karhide has mountain monasteries with oracles; the journey of Genly Ai from snowy homestead to homestead, with papers welcoming him to the next village, reminded me of Heinrich Harrer and Peter Aufschnaiter daisy-chaining their way towards Lhasa,
with local officials giving them just enough permission to go a few steps further. Meanwhile, Orgoreyn is an oppressive, meticulous bureaucracy, ruled by a committee of 33 central bureaucrats, with a creepy secret police and gulag-type prisons (basically Rura Penthe!).

Definitely one of the best spec fic books of all time. ALL TIME! No doubt. I re-read this since Le Guin sadly passed away in January this year. I look forward to re-reading and reading all of her stuff now, in homage, because she was truly one of the great masters of the genre (I place her WAY higher than Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein - who all wrote supposed classics that have never moved me much - and even Bradbury - who wrote ONE classic that blew me away, but then a bunch of okay stuff). BOWS DOWN IN REVERENCE