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The Left Hand Of Darkness
A envoy from Earth confront a people who confounds his own perception of himself
One of the most compelling science fiction books I’ve ever read, The Left Hand of Darkness is a complex novel containing several layers. Its main plot is relatively straightforward, the protagonist, Genly Ai, on a mission to bring a remote planet into the Federation of Planets. Beneath this main story line, there is a yet another even richer and more intriguing tale earthling Ai confronting a race of people with a psychological and physiological make-up entirely different from his own.
The book opens in the main street of Erhenrang, a large city in the nation of Karhide on the planet Gethen or Winter. As the name implies, the planet puts the reader in mind of a Scandinavian landscape and climate of snow and ice. Genly Ai is the representative of the Stabiles of the Ekumen, the Federation of Planets including Earth. He is seeking to bring Gethen into their Federation. There on the street, he describes a parade in progress.
The procession of dignitaries includes King Argaven XV, ruler of the nation of Karhide, a rival of the nation of Orgoreyn on the planet. "The occasion of the parade is the completion of that arch, which completes the new Road and River Port of Erhenrang, a great operation of dredging and building and roadmaking which has taken five years and will distinguish Argaven XV’s reign in the annals of Karhide."
Ai has been patiently waiting for a second audience with the king to press his case for joining the Ekumen. The Prime Minister to the King—the King’s Ear in the Karhide culture—aids him in his quest. The minister’s name is Therem Harth rem ir Estraven. The book’s plot follows the adventure of Ai and Estraven as they deal with the political intrigues of this remote planet.
While the adventure in this cold forbidding planet is a compelling to the reader, it is the other story that makes the book linger in the mind of the reader long after the novel ends. The people of Gethen are all completely bisexual, but not in the way we perceive the word. Instead, during each sexual cycle or kemmer, each Gethenian has the ability to be either male or female for the duration of the cycle. On the next cycle, a male in the previous cycle could easily become a female and bear children.
The book is at its best when Genly Ai, the earthling with his well defined notion of sexual roles, must try comprehend his friend Estraven who assumes no such role outside of the sexual cycle. Indeed, Ai has a difficult time attributing gender to anyone on Gethen. For the most part, Ai sees Estraven as a male, but in countless verbal exchanges Ai perceives Estraven acting as a woman would. Indeed, in the way the Gethenian behave to one another, there is a subtle unspoken language that men attribute to women.
"‘Will you have supper with me tonight Mr. Ai?’ I accepted, with more surprise than pleasure. Estraven had done a great deal for me in the last six or eight months, but I did not expect or desire such a show of personal favor as an invitation to his house. Harge rem ir Tibe was still close to us overhearing, and I felt that he was meant to overhear. Annoyed by this sense of effeminate intrigue, I got off the platform…"
The Left Hand of Darkness won the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best science fiction novel of the year. After you have read it there will be little doubt as to why it was chosen. For the reader accustomed to well defined roles for men and women, this story will confound your sense of sexual orientation and leave you asking why we are the way were are, which, after all is what a great piece of fiction should do.
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