A Conversation for 'The Left Hand of Darkness' - the Novel by Ursula Le Guin

Peer Review: A87842118 - 'The Left Hand of Darkness' - the Novel by Ursula Le Guin

Post 1

SashaQ - happysad

Entry: 'The Left Hand of Darkness' - the Novel by Ursula Le Guin - A87842118
Author: SashaQ - don't panic! - U9936370

An Entry about the book I read this month smiley - biggrin


A87842118 - 'The Left Hand of Darkness' - the Novel by Ursula Le Guin

Post 2

Elektragheorgheni -Please read 'The Post'

SashaQ, I thought you might be interested in this author's essay on gender:

http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/10/17/ursula-k-le-guin-gender/


A87842118 - 'The Left Hand of Darkness' - the Novel by Ursula Le Guin

Post 3

SashaQ - happysad

Thank you Elektra - that was very interesting indeed smiley - ok

Makes the 'he' pronouns in LHOD fit in better rather than being simply failed feminism as the critics sometimes said. I did notice the pronouns particularly myself, but that is of course reading the text with my modern eyes rather than a 1960s view.

smiley - biggrin


A87842118 - 'The Left Hand of Darkness' - the Novel by Ursula Le Guin

Post 4

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

Nice entry. smiley - applause Thanks for explaining Ursula K LeGuin to me. I find her writing tough going most of the time, so this helps. smiley - smiley


A87842118 - 'The Left Hand of Darkness' - the Novel by Ursula Le Guin

Post 5

Gnomon - time to move on

The issue of sex on the planet Gethen is covered in more detail in the short story "Coming of Age in Karhide" (1995) which was published in the collection "The Birthday of the World" (2003).


A87842118 - 'The Left Hand of Darkness' - the Novel by Ursula Le Guin

Post 6

Gnomon - time to move on

This is a good entry, Sasha.

You say "when they enter their fertile phase each month". It's a while since I read this, but I thought that the fertile phase only happened about once every year for the Gethenians.


A87842118 - 'The Left Hand of Darkness' - the Novel by Ursula Le Guin

Post 7

SashaQ - happysad

Thanks Dmitri - yes, when I started reading the book, I found it heavy going, so it was helpful to me as well to take notes on the different strands of it and write it up as an Entry smiley - ok

Thanks Gnomon - I have added some more detail about Ursula Le Guin's other writings in relation to these ideas.

"Coming of Age in Karhide" isn't easy reading, though - I skimmed a couple of pages, but it seems to be a rather different setting to LHOD, with more violence, and reminded me too much of the bodily nightmare that was my early teens... I hope the footnote suffices to be informative without being disturbing...

I also checked LHOD, and the kemmer cycle is monthly, being about 22 days between periods smiley - ok


A87842118 - 'The Left Hand of Darkness' - the Novel by Ursula Le Guin

Post 8

Tavaron da Quirm - Arts Editor

I have never read this book, so I only know what you wrote here. So, here are my comments:

In the plot I don't understand why Ali is rejected because some politician is exiled. Who is Estraven? What does one have to do with the other?
Are there only these two countries on that plant? I don't really understand where they go at the end of the story. Back to where they came from?

What is 'the dark sleep'?

You seem to mostly talk about what the book says about gender but not the mentioned (in the first paragraph) things about governments. I would be interesed in seeing a few additional sentences about that.


A87842118 - 'The Left Hand of Darkness' - the Novel by Ursula Le Guin

Post 9

SashaQ - happysad

Thanks Tavaron - excellent points smiley - ok

I have added detail about the dark sleep rather than the 'direct' translation of thangen

I shall look at the text some more tonight to get a better understanding of the other questions, as I'm not totally clear about them myself, now I think about it smiley - laugh

smiley - ok


A87842118 - 'The Left Hand of Darkness' - the Novel by Ursula Le Guin

Post 10

SashaQ - happysad

More detail about the geography and governments have been added smiley - ok


A87842118 - 'The Left Hand of Darkness' - the Novel by Ursula Le Guin

Post 11

Tavaron da Quirm - Arts Editor

smiley - smiley A very good addition, it makes things a lot clearer.


A87842118 - 'The Left Hand of Darkness' - the Novel by Ursula Le Guin

Post 12

Bluebottle

I would comment, but I've not read the book in years. If I find my copy again in the near future I'll re-read it and let you know any comments.

<BB<


A87842118 - 'The Left Hand of Darkness' - the Novel by Ursula Le Guin

Post 13

SashaQ - happysad

smiley - teasmiley - biggrin


Congratulations - Your Entry has been Recommended for the Edited Guide!

Post 14

h2g2 auto-messages

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!


Congratulations - Your Entry has been Recommended for the Edited Guide!

Post 15

Bluebottle

smiley - applauseWell done!

<BB<


Congratulations - Your Entry has been Recommended for the Edited Guide!

Post 16

SashaQ - happysad

smiley - biggrinsmiley - bubbly


Congratulations - Your Entry has been Recommended for the Edited Guide!

Post 17

bobstafford

smiley - oksmiley - bubbly


Congratulations - Your Entry has been Recommended for the Edited Guide!

Post 18

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

smiley - bubbly


Congratulations - Your Entry has been Recommended for the Edited Guide!

Post 19

Tavaron da Quirm - Arts Editor

Cngratulations!


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