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.