336 pages
Spanish language
Published Dec. 28, 2021 by Minotauro.
«La luz es la mano izquierda de la oscuridad, y la oscuridad es la mano derecha de la luz. Los dos son una, vida y muerte, juuntas como amantes en kémmer, como manos unidas, como el término y el camino.»
«Escribiré mi informe como si contara una historia, pues me enseñaron siendo nió que la verdad nace de la imaginación». Así comienza su relato Genly Ai, enviado al planeta Gueden —también llamado Invierno por su gélido clima— con el propósito de contactar con sus habitantes y proponerles unirse a la liga de planetas conocida como el Ecumen.
Los guedenianos tienen una particularidad que los hace únicos: son hermafroditas, y adoptan uno u otro sexo exclusivamente en la época de celo, denominada kémmer. En Invierno, Ai contacta con Estraven, un alto cargo que le mostrará cuán diferente puede llegar a ser una sociedad donde no existe la diferenciación sexual.
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.
