The Left Hand of Darkness

The Left Hand of Darkness is the second novel in Le Guin's Hainish Cycle that I've read, and far more developed and interesting than the great novella, The Word For World Is Forest.  Exploring androgyny in a wintry planet possibly on the brink of war, Le Guin's brilliant novel forces us to rethink our notions of gender as Genly Ai seeks to bring Gethen into the Ekumene. Mr. Ai is forced to confront a society of humans without gender (well, except for kemmer) and see how despite the differences, the balance of "masculinity" and "femininity" has led to the creation of a very different society. Much like The Word For World Is Forest, Le Guin's interest in anthropology must have led her to research the differences in the social construction of gender in various societies, and brings mythology, elements of Eastern philosophy, and fantasy to craft this world. Much of the transgender and non-binary movements have pushed for a similar sort of realization in the present: an acknowledgement of how the gender binary is not necessarily "natural" and independent of social forces. Le Guins's consistent use of male pronouns for the non-gendered Gethenians is a bit confusing, particularly when coming from the point of view of Gethenians themselves, but the general point remains consistent on dualism that is not neither/nor but both/and, a form of thinking quite common in indigenous societies. 

The astonishing level of detail and chapter entries consisting of Gethenian mythology and history create a fully-fleshed world where the past, present, and future collide and connect with the main plot, including a powerful moment at the novel's conclusion. Furthermore, this world features some uncanny parallels to the "precogs" of Philip K. Dick's literature and the Cold War-era. The Foretellers, mindspeech among the Hainish humans of other worlds, and last but certainly not least, the power accorded to deviants (those with mental illness or in a permanent state of kemmer) have numerous comparable scenarios and characters in Dick's oeuvre, albeit Dick was never quite on the same page when it came to androgyny. In fact, the only instance in which "hermaphrodites" appear in Dick's fiction are the "mutants" who have sex with each other while changing genders for audiences (The World Jones Made). Nonetheless, the mutual interest in precognitive abilities, telepathy, and metaphysics point to a shared concern for understanding who and what we are. So what if novelists lie, as Le Guin says in her introduction, if those lies can lead to some truth? Perhaps Naipaul is right about fiction never lying.