Left Hand of Darkness Post #5

One of the things that I noticed about the book, (especially closer to the end) was the motif of Shadows. Le Guin uses shadows in several different ways, so I'm not exactly sure what they symbolize, but I have a few ideas.

The first time shadows really stuck out to me was when Estraven and Genly were on their journey to Karhide. They keep saying that in the ice and snow, that they have no shadows. In this part of the story, I think that their lack of shadows, might symbolize them not having a past. A shadow is something that follows behind you, just like the past. I think that out there on their journey, it's sort of like they have no past. Both Genly and Estraven are trying to move on with life, and build their relationship with each other. It doesn't matter to them what the other did in the past, they are both striving to work for a better future, and to forget about what happened to them previously in life.

Another thing that shadows might symbolize are power. In the last chapter of the book, Genly talks about how some men's shadows grew and some shrank, referring to the men who were replaced as the 33 comencals. Basically by this he is saying that when a person has more power, their shadows are larger, and when they get pulled out of power, or demoted from something, their shadows get smaller.

The other thing in the book about shadows is the idea of shifgrethor. We find out towards the end of the book, that the word, translated, means shadow. One way that this could be interpreted is that your pride is something that is always with you, just like your shadow. I'm not really sure about other meanings that it could have. I was a little confused as to why Le Guin would make Shifgrethor translate to shadow. It's a little hard to understand, because it seems like shadows have so many different meanings in the book.

Left Hand of Darkness Post #4

I feel like it would have been much better if the Eukemen would have sent more than one person rather than just Genly Ai. This issue is addressed in a conversation between Genly and Estraven. Here is the quote:

"The first envoy to a world always comes alone. One alien is a curiosity, two are an invasion."

I think it definately would have made much more sense if they would have sent more than one person to try and talk with the Gethenians. First of all, one person is just not convincing enough. Especially a person who looks almost exactly like a normal Gethenian. (It might have been a bit more believable if Genly actually looked like an alien, but he looks pretty much the same as a Gethenian). Secondly, what if the new world was anti-alien, and they turned on the envoy. You wouldn't want to just leave somebody in a completely new world without anyone there for him to talk to or get help from. And lastly, if something was to happen where the envoy needed to get back, he is completely trapped there. It takes 8-13 days for Genly to call his starship down, and by that time it could be too late. It would be nice if there was at least one other person there with him. I dissagree completely, I don't think that two envoys would be an invasion. For it to be an invasion, it would have to be a whole lot more than 2 aliens. I think anything under 10 would be ok. You would need more than one to be able to convince people. As we can see from the book so far, Genly has only really convinced one person, but if all the people from his starship were to come down, I bet everyone on Winter would imidiately believe him.

Left Hand of Darkness Post #3

These are a few of the things that stood out to me in the last couple of chapters.

When Genly is in the truck on the way to the prison/factory, he reflects about kindness. He thinks that even when people have nothing else left, that they still have kindness. I sort of agree with Genly, but I think it more or less depends on the person. Some people have a lot but are very mean, and some people have nothing, but are very kind. I think that even when everything else is gone, people still have emotions, a contious, and feelings. It depends on the person as to how they use these things.

I was really surprised that Estraven went and saved Genly. Even when it was basically Genly's that Estraven got exiled. We learn alot about Estraven's character in this chapter. Even though he hasn't seemed like it so far in the story, he is really quite selfless.

I'm confused about what dothe is? Is it just a period of time where a person has super strength, and then once it's over they get weak and must recover?

Genly and Estraven's conversation about their trust for one and other was interesting. It never occured to me that this whole time, Estraven was trying to help Genly. He was even willing to help him to the point where he got exiled, and to the point where he could have been killed while trying to escape. Estraven is definately starting to seem like a much more trustworthy character at this point in the book.

Left Hand of Darkness Post #2

We are about 1/3 finished with the book, and I still don't really understand that much of it. I feel like Le Guin jumps around too much, and she is leaving too much out of the book. Just when I start to understand one land and culture, Genly leaves and goes to another place, or she switches view points completely. ie: Chapter 6 which is from Estravens point of view, or Chapter 9 which is a flashback/story.

Something else that really bothers me about the book is how they refer to all people as men, even after it has been made perfectly clear that they are not MEN but instead of no specific gender. This matter is addressed in Chapter 7 of the book.

"Yet you cannot think of a Gehtenian as "it." They are not neuters. They are potentils, or integrals. Lacking the Karhidish "human pronoun" used for persons in somer, I must say "he," for the same reasons as we used the masculine pronoun in referring to a transcendent god: it is less defined, less specific, than the neuter or the feminine. But the very use of the pronoun in my thoughts leads me continually to forget that the karhider I am with is not a man, but a manwoman."

On one hand I do agree with this quote, because I think it would be wierd to call all gethenians "its", but I do find it very sexist of them to refer to everyone as a man. It makes the reader forget that it is not a world of all men. Also I find it very hypocritical, considering that Le Guin goes throughout the book saying that there's no gender, that everything is fluid, but then she refers to them as men, never as girls or women, (unless a person is in the femenin stage of kemering), everyone is a man. It's kind of like in foreign languages, how if there's a group of men and women, even if there's just one man, its referred to as a group of men. It's annoying how the male gender always dominates.

The Left Hand of Darkness Post #1

I found Faxe's and Genly's conversation on the bottom of page 71 really interesting.

"The unknown," said faxe's soft voice in the forest "the unforetold, the unproven, that is what life is based on. Ignorance is the ground of thoght. Unproof is the ground of action. If it were proven that there is no God there would be no religion. No Handdara, no Yomesh, no hearthgods, nothing. But also if it were proven that there is a God, there would be no religion... Tell me, Genry, what is known? What is sure, predictable, inevitable-- the one certain thing you know concerning your future, and mine?"

"That we shall die."

"Yes. There is really only one question that can be answered, Genry, and we already know the answer... The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next."

I think that Faxe brings up a really good point here. The fact that we are all going to die some day is the only thing that we are absolutely sure of. I am a little confused, however, with what he is trying to say. Since he is a foreteller, is he saying that when he tells the future that he could be wrong.

This conversation reminds me of Beadwoman. Just like in Beadwoman, Faxe is basically saying that people shouldn't know what is going to happen to them in the future, because it's the finding out that makes life worthwhile.

Something I noticed about this chapter is its motif of ignorance. We see it first when Genly tells Goss that he is exceedingly ingorant. Next ignorance comes up when Genly is reflecting about the Old Men of the Handara. Then ignorant is used to describe the matter of which the foretellers must be to the question asked. Finally we see the motif repeated in the conversation between Faxe and Genly. I think that in thier culture they value ignorance and it is not a bad thing to be ignorant. (Ingorance is Bliss) This is different from our culture in that people tend to view ignorance as a bad thing.