End of Story Reflections Blog #5

I didn’t expect The Left Hand of Darkness to end with the death of Estarven, Genly’s best and trusted friend from Gethen. I was waiting to read about a war between Karhide and Orgoreyn, since Genly had said that the Gethenians had never fought a war with each other or anywhere else. If war had broken out, I’m pretty sure that Karhide and Orgoreyn would have declared peace between each other. Declaring war to make peace, however, would go against what Gethenians follow, which is to not progress. I liked the story overall because it helped imagine how a world with no sexes would work like, by bringing in a “human from Earth” to an androgynous society to unite the Ekumen and Gethen. Aside from Estraven’s death, Genly actually brought his ship down to Gethen, which I thought would never happen after Estraven’s death. I thought it was weird when Genly encountered one of his people, like for example Lang Heo Hew, because he found it strange to hear a woman’s voice after only three years away from his ship. It seemed like he was a native of planet Gethen when he felt uncomfortable to the touch and sound of Lang Heo Hew. I think that Genly actually did accomplish his mission after all, because his crewmembers were dispersed throughout the planet, which most likely made the Gethenians believe that the Ekumen did want an alliance with Gethen. Near the end of the story, where Sorve demanded to hear the story of how Genly and Estraven crossed the Ice, I thought it was too sudden to end the story. I don’t really understand why Therem’s son wanted to know how Therem died. Maybe it was because he thought Therem was a Traitor for leaving his family behind or something like that. Estraven’s father, Lord of Estre, said it mattered if Estraven was called a Traitor or not probably because he loved him so much that he wanted his son to be recognized as a hero instead of a Traitor.
The use of the pronoun “he” for every Gethenian really did make me imagine that every Gethenian was a male and not adrogynous. LeGuin didn’t only use the pronoun “he” throughout the whole story though. She used “her” for the sledge like for example in pg244-245:

“We had to haul the sledge up and over each knife-edged or fantastically corniced top, then slide her down, and up over the next one: for they never seemed to run parallel to our course.”

She also used “she” when she described Genly’s ship coming down to Gethen on pg295:

“She came down in a roar and glory, and steam went roaring up white as her stabilizers went down in the great lake of water and mud created by the retro; down underneath the bog there was permafrost like granite, and she came to rest balanced neatly, and sat cooling over the quickly refreezing lake, a great, delicate fish balanced on its tail, dark silver in the twilight of Winter.”

I think she just used “she” because we use “she” in our society sometimes to refer to something like she referred to. Genly is a “human from Earth” after all like from our society. Another reason I think she would use “she” might be to show how “she” is important to use after the pronoun “he” is used, just like she unites darkness and brightness in her story.

Ch 16 &17 Reflections Blog #4

As I read through chapter 16, I discovered that Estraven was attracted to Genly all along. Although Estraven was in kemmer, he resisted the temptation to engage in sexual activity with Genly. I found it really interesting when Estraven asked Genly what a woman was after reciting a poem his brother had wrote to him before dying. I’m not sure why Genly couldn’t give a direct response to Estraven. Genly said in p235:

“In a sense, women are more alien to me than you are. With you I share one sex, anyhow….”

I think that Genly said this because he finally feels he can fully trust Estraven, just as Estraven feels he can fully trust Genly. Probably Genly couldn’t find a woman that was right for him back in Terran which would have helped him answer Estraven’s question. Even though Estraven is capable of becoming woman-like in kemmer, it’s surely not the same as the woman in Terran. One other thing I don’t really get is the fact that Genly “practically” forgot what a woman was like in his two years at Gethen. How could he forget the sex opposite to his in only two years? It might have been that he got so accustomed to seeing ambisexuality throughout Gethen that he wasn’t sure what the meaning of being a man with virility like himself was anymore. I think the meaning of being an opposite sex was answered in the poem Estraven recited about the left hand of darkness being light and the right hand of light being darkness. The poem reminds me of the saying that says that opposites attract. Opposites unite to become one as a whole. It also reminds me of this symbol:
http://taoism.about.com/b/2008/04/02/the-yin-yang-symbol.htm

Estraven’s question is kind of like the question the Foretellers had to find an answer to, which was impossible, “What is the meaning of life?” In chapter 17, the myth of the creation of the Orgota explains the introduction of darkness to light. It shows the idea that light can’t possibly exist without darkness because if there wasn’t darkness where light was, light wouldn’t have a reason to exist by itself. Just like a man is incomplete without a woman. The end of the myth, however, sounds confusing to me when Edondurath’s kemmering says in p239:

“In the end when we are done, the sun will devour itself and shadow will eat light, and there will be nothing left but the ice and the darkness.”

It’s like the kemmering is saying that in order for darkness to be left, light must be sacrificed. I really like the way Le Guin set up the whole story into different perspectives, including the myths and Estraven’s journal entries. I think it really helps the reader imagine how it would feel like to be in either Genly’s or Estraven’s shoes.

Chapter 14: The Escape

In Chapter 14, The Escape, Estraven seems to be a different person as he’s narrating throughout the chapter. At first, the name of the chapter made me think that Genly Ai was going to try to escape the Pulefen Farm himself. I didn’t expect Estraven to try to help Genly escape from the farm. Ever since the beginning of the story, from Genly’s perspective, Estraven seemed like an indifferent liar and traitor. After Estraven was exiled, Estraven tried to warn Genly to be more cautious and told him that the Orgoreyn people were probably going to “use” Genly. Genly was too naïve to understand what Estraven was talking about, which was probably imprisonment to interrogate Genly of his mission. After Genly was arrested, Estraven went looking for Genly to liberate him and continue with Genly’s mission. Estraven explained to Genly that he rescued him in order to break the rivalry between Karhide and Orgoreyn. I think Estraven rescued Genly because he became one of the Handdarata. He probably answered his own question of wether to really trust in Genly or not, as the solution to Karhide’s and Orgoreyn’s rivalry. The darkness of Estraven’s character is concealed with the new Handdarata personality. Genly doesn’t really believe Estraven would go through so much to save Genly. I wouldn’t believe Estraven either, but I would believe him if we communicated with mindspeech.
In page 186, Estraven says:

“What I had seen and heard lay heavy on me now.”

He probably felt that what the ex-prisoners had told him, would happen to Genly. I think he said it would lay heavy on him because probably with the Handdarata personality, he was more emotional. From Estraven’s change, I can see that he really does need Genly’s help to promote progress in the planet of Gethen.

The Left Hand of Darkness Chapter 9 & 10 Reflection

I am not sure what Le Guin is trying to say about the peace between the Domain of Stok and Domain of Estre in Chapter 9. Arek of Estre and Therem of Stok meet each other and start kemmering as if they’re going to be together forever, although they both accept that they are mortal enemies of each other. They remain together for about 2 days and suddenly one man of a group of men from Stok kills Arek of Estre with a knife while Therem of Stok watches his bloody death. Therem of Stok then simply says to the murderer to take Arek’s body back to Estre for burial. In the other half of the chapter a story similar to this one is repearted with the son of Arek of Estre.
From what I understand, Arek of Estre is called Estraven and Therem of Stok is called Stokven.
One sentence I did not understand was when Estraven asked in p.126:

“Did you warm me back to life in order to kill me, Stokven?”

Why would Estraven ask why Stokven was trying to kill Estraven if clearly, Stokven was trying to save Estraven’s life from the cold?

I think Estraven asks this because Estre and Stok are supposed to be enemies.

In Chapter 10, Genly Ai reveals a big secret to some Orgota people. That secret is that Genly has a starship orbiting Gethen’s sun in case he has to call it, if the Orgoreyn government actually accepts Ekumen relations and trade. Genly is being spied by one of Tibe’s spies while he says this. One of the spies, Gaum, tries to make Genly look like a liar or even a lunatic.

I basically think that if Genly had brought more people from his Ekumen place, Gethenians would be convinced that the Ekumen are actually real. Then Genly would have accopmplished his goal of exploring and befriending the Gethenians. The mission, however, is not easy because Erhenrang has already rejected Genly’s mission, from what I understand. Orgoreyn is almost his last hope to convincing Gehtenians, but in order to achieve the alliance between the Gethenians and the Ekumen, war will have to break out. Genly kind of doubts the Gethenians will be in a war and thinks he is surrounded by a “fake” world. That, I think is a sign of losing confidence in Genly’s mission.

The Left Hand of Darkness Chapter 5 Reflection

The most interesting part I found of this chapter was the perspective of a Foreteller of Otherhord. Genly wanted to know more about the Foretellers by asking one of them questions. He asked Faxe why he didn’t use his future predicting capabilities to help conclude decisions. Faxe’s answer was that questions have to be precise in order to mean what they really mean. For example, how to make the best out of something depends on what the person thinks is the best way to use that something. I thought Faxe’s answer was interesting when he said that he came to the Fastnesses to think of what questions not to ask. If one is thinking of what question not to ask, one has fear of asking the wrong question. Estravan had explained to Genly that patriotism was fear of the other. Probably all Karhides have that same mind set of having fear of the other as patriotism. At the end of the chapter, Faxe says that life would not be possible if it wasn’t for uncertainty, of knowing what comes next in life. That answers Genly’s question of why future prediction isn’t put to use to aid in decision making. Aside from uncertainty of the future, uncertainty of sexes is present in Karhides, from Genly’s point of view.
Genly also asks Faxe if he could communicate with Faxe with their minds. Faxe does not accept because he says that it’s a thing of business, politicians, and kings. Clearly Faxe is not interested in progress, but in presence. He says that he does not want to change the entire world. Although 5 years were predicted of Ekumen encounter, the future is not definite. It would contradict Faxe, of what he said of life not being possible if it wasn’t for uncertainty. Genly felt a bond with Faxe, probably because he thought of Faxe as a woman.