Review of The Left Hand of Darkness

The Left Hand of Darkness

Author: Ursula K. Le Guin

Publisher: Ace Books

Publication Date: March 1969

    “Light is the left hand of darkness | and darkness the right hand of light. | Two are one, life and death, lying | together like lovers in kemmer | like hands joined together, | like the end and the way.” The Left Hand of Darkness questions how far outside the surroundings of Earth and our social realities we will have to go to find the borders of who and what we are. Set on Gethen, a planet of permanent winter, a Terran (human to readers) envoy named Genly Ai interacts with aliens who would be identical to Terrans if not for the fact that the aliens have no set gender, changing from neutral to male or female during each mating cycle. In other words, Gethenians are fundamentally different. In a chronicle of Ai’s attempts to convince the societies on Gethen to join the Ekumen, the society of known worlds, Le Guin explores the complexities and frailties of different forms of government, the extent to which social interaction is controlled by gender, and who and how we might be if this elemental aspect of our nature were altered.

    As much as the book is about how we govern ourselves and how gender governs us, it is also about connection - about what binds us together when we remove the limitations of conventional social norms. Le Guin wove a delicate combination of otherworldly adventure, familiar human politics, and philosophy. Her story is dense and eloquent, requiring and capturing the reader’s full attention from the first page. Gethenian myths and beliefs add another layer of distinctions between Gethenians and Terrans. If I might fault The Left Hand of Darkness for anything, it would be for having a little too much social observation and critique packed into one read. While the underlying story is compelling, loading a narrative with what feels like a profound contemplation of the nature of humanity sometimes burdens the momentum of the story itself. But this is a complaint about what is a gripping, intimate, and intelligently sensitive novel.

    A half-century ago, the concepts that The Left Hand of Darkness addressed were progressive and thought-provoking. Le Guin’s vision was so powerful that they remain progressive and thought-provoking now. The questions Le Guin raises in the story are neither simple to pose in a novel nor easy to answer, so I would recommend this book to more mature YA readers and adults who enjoy thoughtful science fiction. 

- D. K. Nuray