The Left Hand of Darkness
Oct. 15th, 2004 06:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rms10I haven't read much science fiction, and what little I've read was all set on Earth, so reading The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin, was a bit of a revelation for me. I'd never realized how much fun it could be to completely make up biology, geography, climate, and mythology for a new world, and then throw in an Earthican (tm Futurama) Envoy and see how he deals with it. You still have political intrigue, man against the elements, friendship, and the isolation of the outsider, but then this throws in the added kink of (lack of) gender and sex drive. (Really, this is such a rich book that I could talk about it for hours, but I'll stick with the parts I can relate to me, because it's All About Me.)
The premise is that the Gethenians are effectively genderless for about 85% of the time, but for a few days each month go into kemmer, at which point the gender they develop is either random, or in response to a companion already in kemmer. Ai, the Envoy, speculates as to how this affects the global politics of the world, but I was more interested in how the characters from Earth viewed the Gethenians on a personal level. The first few are appalled at their inability to classify Gethenians as "male" or "female", and must (gasp!) treat them on an individual level. Meanwhile, Ai originally despises the feminine characteristics he perceives in the various leaders, but eventually grows to see them as (gasp!) individuals -- to the point where he is uncomfortable when encountering male and female humans.
All these gender perception issues really stood out for me, especially because just yesterday I went to a talk about women and the future of physics. The speaker, Howard Georgi, didn't really say anything I didn't already know, but it was one of the only times I'd seen a male physicist talking with other male physicists about why physics needs women. Maybe for some men, the arguments are more persuasive from another man, so I guess for that reason alone it was a good talk -- I didn't learn anything new, but maybe there were some professors who finally got the message. One of Georgi's more persuasive points was that making physics more friendly for women results in it also being more friendly towards men -- you don't need a "hypermacho" attitude and a swagger to succeed. But one of the biggest things his talk boiled down to was making sure to treat all the students like individuals.
Treat people like individuals. That seems so obvious, yet in both cases here it's almost revolutionary. I thought this was supposed to be the 21st century -- flying cars and an end to sexism/racism/homophobia/etc. Why is it that we'll probably see the flying cars first?
The premise is that the Gethenians are effectively genderless for about 85% of the time, but for a few days each month go into kemmer, at which point the gender they develop is either random, or in response to a companion already in kemmer. Ai, the Envoy, speculates as to how this affects the global politics of the world, but I was more interested in how the characters from Earth viewed the Gethenians on a personal level. The first few are appalled at their inability to classify Gethenians as "male" or "female", and must (gasp!) treat them on an individual level. Meanwhile, Ai originally despises the feminine characteristics he perceives in the various leaders, but eventually grows to see them as (gasp!) individuals -- to the point where he is uncomfortable when encountering male and female humans.
All these gender perception issues really stood out for me, especially because just yesterday I went to a talk about women and the future of physics. The speaker, Howard Georgi, didn't really say anything I didn't already know, but it was one of the only times I'd seen a male physicist talking with other male physicists about why physics needs women. Maybe for some men, the arguments are more persuasive from another man, so I guess for that reason alone it was a good talk -- I didn't learn anything new, but maybe there were some professors who finally got the message. One of Georgi's more persuasive points was that making physics more friendly for women results in it also being more friendly towards men -- you don't need a "hypermacho" attitude and a swagger to succeed. But one of the biggest things his talk boiled down to was making sure to treat all the students like individuals.
Treat people like individuals. That seems so obvious, yet in both cases here it's almost revolutionary. I thought this was supposed to be the 21st century -- flying cars and an end to sexism/racism/homophobia/etc. Why is it that we'll probably see the flying cars first?
