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.
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I agree with you! I think it's actually kind of dangerous and risky for them to have sent just ONE envoy. Genly has to travel all by himself to different nations.. what if one really sees him as a threat and actually tries to attack him? Then he's all on his own and of course he won't be able to defend himself from millions of people! But then again, I think that if they sent a whole group of people, the nation might feel kind of threatened because it's a group of strangers coming to you and you don't know what they want! I don't know, I guess they could've came with another approach before actually going there to speak to the king in person. They could've possibly sent a letter or something.
ReplyDeleteI think you make a good point and I completely agree. Someone from Karhide can believe that Estraven is just a mutation gone wrong or an evolution gone wrong. If they sent at least two, getting the people of Karhide to believe them would be a lot easier. I also think it would have been easier to complete the mission of making an alliance.
ReplyDeleteBut what about if the Envoy was a female? What if Genly was actually a female Envoy? Do you think that that would help the people of Karhide believe Genly more than they already do? I think it would help the mission a lot of they decide to send a female. First, we read about "males" Although they have no gender until kemmer, we can all see that we're reading about a son or a king or brother. So, if they sent a female who is in "permanent kemmer" it wouldn't take much effort from her to make them believe her and agree to making an alliance.