left hand of darkness Ursula LeGuin

In Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula LeGuin presents a world far different from the ones readers are familiar with on Earth. Gethen is ironic in that it eradicates the types of gender binaries that constrain human identity, life, behavior, and social institutions and yet still fails to offer a utopia. Topographically and meteorologically, Gethen seems no better, if not worse, than Earth, living up to its translated name of Winter. LeGuin immediately alerts readers that Gethen is in the midst of an Ice Age, and people have to dress accordingly, “not for the sunshine,” (6). Having to remain perpetually steely and rigid in response to environmental conditions parallels the suppressed emotions that make Left Hand of Darkness so compelling. Gethen might be attractive from a social justice perspective but beneath the surface it bears signs of crystallized values and institutions preventing progress. Overall, though, Gethen is as ideal a place to live as Earth, reasonably comfortable, and bearing the same sorts of political and social problems. It is mindspeak most of all that gives Gethen the slight edge over earth, making it a more idealized place to live.
Gethen is characterized in part by its potential to use—but simultaneous suppression of—mindspeak. Mindspeak becomes one of the most tantalizing motifs in LeGuin’s novel. It signifies everything that human beings genuinely need and desire in their own communications and interactions with others. With the potential to eliminate miscommunication, mindspeak is one of the features of life on Gethen that allows the possibility to “actualize new social and cultural configurations,” (Smillie 1). Interestingly, LeGuin capitalizes on the power of mindspeak to show how, when its use is suppressed as it has become on the planet, that it leads to disruptions in the social order and also in the individual psyche. The journey of Genly through Gethen, and Genly’s role in re-establishing the core communication needs of the Gethenians, is the crux of The Left Hand of Darkness. Through the vulnerability and power that mindspeak conveys, Estraven ultimately reaches a point of psychic healing and is in a position to promote meaningful change on the planet.






Works Cited

LeGuin, Ursula. The Left Hand of Darkness.
Smillie, Tuesday. “Radical Imagination And The Left Hand of Darkness.” Journal of Gender New Media and Technology, No. 12, https://adanewmedia.org/2017/10/issue12-smillie/