paperback, 312 pages
Français language
Published July 18, 1971 by Robert Laffont.
Sur Gethen, planète glacée, il n'y a ni hommes ni femmes, seulement des êtres humains. Des hermaphrodites qui, dans certaines circonstances, adoptent les caractères de l'un ou l'autre sexe. Genly Aï, un ambassadeur venu de la Terre, est chargé de rallier Gethen aux autres planètes déjà réunies sous les couleurs de l'Ekumen. Mais mille obstacles se dressent devant lui. La tâche sera rude. Parviendra-t-il à mener à bien sa mission ?
It's a classic for a reason. It's not an easy read, but it's one of the most thought-provoking pieces of SF I've read. Ideas and scenes that will occupy my mind for a long time.
Una reflexión sobre las relaciones humanas, el género, el poder, el nacionalismo, la guerra y la política dentro de un marco de ciencia ficción, en un planeta inhóspito y frío, que invita al recogimiento. Los mensajes que deja el libro son como el frío de Invierno, se filtran hasta los huesos. Una vez lo empecé no pude parar. Cualquiera diría que es de 1969, con cuestionamientos y reflexiones muy actuales.
Hindsight is 20/20, and the author's notes at the beginning act as an apology for the book to follow. There are a number of Le Guin's books that focus on exploring diametrically opposite viewpoints - The Dispossessed reached from ordered societies through to Anarchy, and The Left Hand of Darkness looks from traditional sexuality to bi-sexuality (as in the ownership of both sexes, rather than neither). A great idea for a novel, that's unfortunately bogged down with 1960s misogyny that constantly paints "female" qualities as distinctly inferior to their male counterpart, whether physio- or psychologically. Which is a shame, as the story is an excellent driver, exploring the efforts of one off-worlder to open up a new world to extra-planetary trade.
The short story "The Coming of Age In Karhide", which is added on to this edition, makes for a much more balanced view of gender, and a more enjoyable …
Hindsight is 20/20, and the author's notes at the beginning act as an apology for the book to follow. There are a number of Le Guin's books that focus on exploring diametrically opposite viewpoints - The Dispossessed reached from ordered societies through to Anarchy, and The Left Hand of Darkness looks from traditional sexuality to bi-sexuality (as in the ownership of both sexes, rather than neither). A great idea for a novel, that's unfortunately bogged down with 1960s misogyny that constantly paints "female" qualities as distinctly inferior to their male counterpart, whether physio- or psychologically. Which is a shame, as the story is an excellent driver, exploring the efforts of one off-worlder to open up a new world to extra-planetary trade.
The short story "The Coming of Age In Karhide", which is added on to this edition, makes for a much more balanced view of gender, and a more enjoyable read. This story explores a teen coming in to kemmer (fertility) for the first time and is an excellent exploration of teen anxiety in an excellent analogue to puberty. This was written in 1995 and makes me wonder what further work done in this universe today could also bring.
That said, I did enjoy the novel. Novels of this period need to be read with an understanding of the context in which they were written, as Le Guin reminisces at the beginning of the novel. She read as much as she could on gender before starting writing the novel, and admits her own shortcomings. It's worth reading, since the ideas are interesting, but the unintentional misogyny sticks out like a pair of tits on a female in kemmer.
