#genly ai

[kailysander]

The Left Hand of Darkness

[art-of-pluton]

"Like the end and the way"

I think about The Left Hand of Darkness literally every day since I first read it in july

[ringneckedpheasant]

[strangers in a strange land, wanderers in a vast and unknowable universe]

[asparklethatisblue]

Eyelashes frozen shut, thawed with a kiss.

A while back @aurpiment made a comment about Genly and Estraven based on The Kiss, as a concept. And? Fellas, I had to

[hermitmoss]

Illustrations by David Lupton from the Folio Society edition of The Left Hand of Darkness.

[agoddamneddelight]

Genly and Estraven and their journey across the Gobrin ice

I also made a book poster for tlhod with this drawing under the cut :)

[estravens-tits]

- The Left Hand of Darkness out of context

[eveningalchemist]

Sometimes when I see 'ai' here I get excited because I think it is my silly always chilly guy, Genly Ai from the 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness, but no, it is generative AI, my enemy in the least fun way possible.

[bisclavaret]

old-er drawing when i'd just finished reading the left hand of darkness for the first time

[cedarboots]

Mr. Ai Before the Thirty-Three

[spocks-got-a-glock]

Ursula K Le Guin, why must you hurt me so?

After everything they've been through? After all that, the arduous, life threatening, soul forging journey they made together to get to Karhide, and Estraven just dies? It seems so unfair. It's probably meant to. I am feeling so many feelings right now. It's made me sad yes, but I'm finding that I'm moved more deeply the more I think about the deeper implications. I'm struggling to word my thoughts clearly but I'll try nonetheless.

Estraven sacrifices his life for Genly, charging into the guns of the border guards. He knows that he is a threat to Genly's mission and, seeing that there is now no other choice, no other way for him to disappear, takes it upon himself to eliminate that threat. It's noble and brave and heartbreaking.

But then there's "Arek!". Estraven cries out the name of his dead brother in his mind, his final word as he dies. His brother who he (romantically) loved and swore vows to. His brother who died, how we're never quite told, but given the parallels to the folk tale of the two brothers that we're told, it very likely might have been suicide, and Estraven follows suit. It almost seems like he's trying to join him, wherever suicide victims end up in the Handdara or Yomesh religion.

Who did Estraven die for? Genly or Arek? The answer I think might be both as one.

We're confronted again by how Genly and Estraven's relationship, their love, seems unable to separate from the relationship between Estraven and his brother. Genly says, in the moments of Estraven's death, "only in a way he answered my love for him"..... and that answer is "Arek!". Even when they mindspoke for the first time, Estraven hears Genly's words in his head in his brother's voice. To Estraven intimacy with Genly is inextricable from the intimacy he had with his brother.

There's a tragic irony to it, because it's taken so long and so much development on Genly's part to see Estraven as he truly, wholly is. To see him as both man and woman and neither, to both see him as truly alien and fully recognise and appreciate and connect with his humanity (Le Guin uses to mean personhood), to see through the vast differences between them to Estraven's individuality, and love him genuinely. And despite all this, it's Estraven that ultimately fails to see Genly unclouded and love him solely for his individual self, unentangled with the identity of another. At least, not in those last moments where he might have somehow said goodbye. Again, the unfairness of it leaves me bereft and mourning.

As David Mitchell put it and I could not phrase better, "Ursula Le Guin is a chemist of the heart".

[baytadax]

When I arrived, he was ready. No-one else on Winter was.

[l3st1b0urn3s-707]

It's been way too long since I've talked about books in here, I recently finished one of the best books I've read this year and I obviously can't keep my mouth shut about it, so this is a review of The left hand of darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin.

I' m going to start by saying that I didn't think I was going to like this book that much (I even foud it a bit slow at the begining) but boy was I wrong. So if you start it and think it's boring I can assure you you'll probably like it if you keep on reading.

So what's this book really about? It's a science fiction novel in which the main character, Genly Ai, a man from Terra (our Earth), is sent to the planet of Gethen to try to convince its people to join an spacial human alliance. What's really interesting about Gethen (appart from it being super cold) is that all of its people are ambisexual. They usually only present sexual characteristics once a month, in some kind of heat called kemmer that lasts about a week. During this time they can present either female ol male characteristics, but these rols can vary, one month you may have male genitalia and on the next one you might present as sexually female. The rest of the month, when they're in sommer they don't present any sexual characteristics whatsoever and look kind of androgynous. Gender isn't a thing in Gethen. And Genly Ai, who isn't used to that, will have to adapt to Gethen's culture.

I think I must also mention Estraven, my favourite character (I'm sorry, you know I had to), who guides Genly in this new world and shows him how things work there. I think he's a remarkable character, his relationship with Genly evolves into a pure and strong bond, not necessarily romantic, but described by both of them as love.

The left hand of darkness has heavy feminist topics that are treated in a really interesting point of view. It doesn't talk about women (there aren't any female characters in it), but it shows a society without gender norms or differences because gender does simply not exist. It shows that humans, at the end, are all humans, at that's what really is important. When Genly indentifies some steriotipically feminine behaviours in other characters and treats them as inferior you'll probably get mad at him, because he doesn't seem to really want to understand the people arround him. That's a strong message itself.

This book's exploration of gender is fascinating. It might be because I've always felt something for the concept for androgyny, but Gethen's people and culture go further and make you question your own. A book published in 1969 happens to have more feminist values than most books of the same genre nowadays. And that's what I love about this book, and specially about Le Guin. Oh, and it also critizices extreme nationalism!

So yeah, I think that's it. If anyone read this post completely I want to thank them because this got really long (I'm sorry). But I really loved this book and I can't stop thinking about it, so I needed to write something. Anyway, I really recommend this book, and I'll probably be reading more of Le Guin's novels because this woman's amazing. (And if you've read it please talk to me about it because it's now my new hyperfixation).

[asparklethatisblue]

That’s not very interplanetary diplomacy of you, Estraven…

[bespok3n]

genly “i don’t understand politics” ai and therem harth “unfortunately i understand politics very much so let’s run away together” estraven

[agoddamneddelight]

the outer space guys are rotating in my brain !!! 🪐 🌎🚀