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between_time_and_42Me after finishing The Left Hand of Darkness this morning:
Seeing as I spent the first half of the book only mildly interested, I was wholly unprepared for how emotionally invested I'd become by the second half, oh my god. I actually want to go back and read the first half again now, because I feel like I missed out on a lot/had forgotten a lot of it since it took me such a long time to read it. (Now we're getting into spoiler territory, but: I had completely missed the fact that Estraven and Arek vowed kemmering to each other, for example, and I had also forgotten who the Handdara were and what their role in the story was.) I happen to be naturally impatient so any kind of slow-burn narrative is a struggle for me to read, and at times I felt as frustrated as Genly with the seeming lack of progress. However, by the time Genly was sent to the Voluntary Farms and Estraven broke him out and they went on a journey across the ice together... That became the point where I couldn't put the book down. I also feel like that was the point where I finally got what I wanted out of the underlying social commentary on gender roles. The parts where Genly resents Estraven's taking care of him because of his idea of masculinity, where he describes women to Estraven and realizes how sexist his description comes across, and then the very moving moment where he finally accepts Estraven's identity as "man and woman" and stops mentally categorizing him were what I expected more of in this book. I'm glad Genly eventually got there... but I did feel like the potential to truly depict a society with no distinction between gender was wasted a bit in the first half, which felt more like a generic story of political intrigue. Yes, the Gethenians have more differences in their society than just the gender thing, and I found it particularly interesting how the differences between the countries of Karhide and Orgoreyn were depicted, but I felt like there should be more emphasis on what a society would be like when there's no strict division of labor between gender, when children are raised not by a mother and father but by a community... I just felt Le Guin could have explored those structures more. I also think it's a shame that gender-neutral pronouns were not widely in use at the time that it was written (though Genly might not have thought to use them, so it fits his character, in a way), because referring to each character as "he" already sort of predisposes one to thinking of them as a certain gender... but again, that might have more to do with Genly's perception than Le Guin's, because for so much of the story he WAS trying to fit the Gethenians into rigid boxes, instead of accepting them for who and what they are. (Side note, I love how after Genly's realization, he thinks of Estraven as "whole" and "complete" for being what he sees as a blend of two genders, and how he tied this into the yin-yang concept and in a way, into the duality of existence as a whole. Something about it struck me as very spiritual, which makes me think, non-binary people are therefore inherently divine by that logic...)
Anyway, I got a little off-track there. All I can say is that I feel so empty inside after reading the ending. I'll be okay- I liked the ending- but I was NOT expecting it to break my heart like that. I think that's all I'm capable of saying...
When I started reading this book, both my friend/crush and my dad told me it was a masterpiece, and encouraged me to keep reading even when I couldn't get into it right away. Now that I've finished it, I'm glad I stuck with it (though tbh, I would have made myself keep going anyway because I felt this was a story that I needed to read), and in fact, I agree with them. Now I need to re-read A Wizard of Earthsea, because I personally consider THAT to be a masterpiece as well and I think I was a teenager when I last re-read it, so who knows how it will speak to me now? But first, I'm really excited to finally start the book I bought as a Christmas present to myself, The Dream of Dr. Bantham by Jeanne Thornton. I hope it will be just as good as her other book, Summer Fun.
Seeing as I spent the first half of the book only mildly interested, I was wholly unprepared for how emotionally invested I'd become by the second half, oh my god. I actually want to go back and read the first half again now, because I feel like I missed out on a lot/had forgotten a lot of it since it took me such a long time to read it. (Now we're getting into spoiler territory, but: I had completely missed the fact that Estraven and Arek vowed kemmering to each other, for example, and I had also forgotten who the Handdara were and what their role in the story was.) I happen to be naturally impatient so any kind of slow-burn narrative is a struggle for me to read, and at times I felt as frustrated as Genly with the seeming lack of progress. However, by the time Genly was sent to the Voluntary Farms and Estraven broke him out and they went on a journey across the ice together... That became the point where I couldn't put the book down. I also feel like that was the point where I finally got what I wanted out of the underlying social commentary on gender roles. The parts where Genly resents Estraven's taking care of him because of his idea of masculinity, where he describes women to Estraven and realizes how sexist his description comes across, and then the very moving moment where he finally accepts Estraven's identity as "man and woman" and stops mentally categorizing him were what I expected more of in this book. I'm glad Genly eventually got there... but I did feel like the potential to truly depict a society with no distinction between gender was wasted a bit in the first half, which felt more like a generic story of political intrigue. Yes, the Gethenians have more differences in their society than just the gender thing, and I found it particularly interesting how the differences between the countries of Karhide and Orgoreyn were depicted, but I felt like there should be more emphasis on what a society would be like when there's no strict division of labor between gender, when children are raised not by a mother and father but by a community... I just felt Le Guin could have explored those structures more. I also think it's a shame that gender-neutral pronouns were not widely in use at the time that it was written (though Genly might not have thought to use them, so it fits his character, in a way), because referring to each character as "he" already sort of predisposes one to thinking of them as a certain gender... but again, that might have more to do with Genly's perception than Le Guin's, because for so much of the story he WAS trying to fit the Gethenians into rigid boxes, instead of accepting them for who and what they are. (Side note, I love how after Genly's realization, he thinks of Estraven as "whole" and "complete" for being what he sees as a blend of two genders, and how he tied this into the yin-yang concept and in a way, into the duality of existence as a whole. Something about it struck me as very spiritual, which makes me think, non-binary people are therefore inherently divine by that logic...)
Anyway, I got a little off-track there. All I can say is that I feel so empty inside after reading the ending. I'll be okay- I liked the ending- but I was NOT expecting it to break my heart like that. I think that's all I'm capable of saying...
When I started reading this book, both my friend/crush and my dad told me it was a masterpiece, and encouraged me to keep reading even when I couldn't get into it right away. Now that I've finished it, I'm glad I stuck with it (though tbh, I would have made myself keep going anyway because I felt this was a story that I needed to read), and in fact, I agree with them. Now I need to re-read A Wizard of Earthsea, because I personally consider THAT to be a masterpiece as well and I think I was a teenager when I last re-read it, so who knows how it will speak to me now? But first, I'm really excited to finally start the book I bought as a Christmas present to myself, The Dream of Dr. Bantham by Jeanne Thornton. I hope it will be just as good as her other book, Summer Fun.
