The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
thedevilslibrary.libsyn.com
The Devil's Library: Episode 4 - The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Latest podcast episode is up in which we repeatedly fail to wrap our tongues around the various place, people and concept names in one of the most ground breaking Sci Fi novels ever written. Sorry Ursula.
You can get it at source here, on the Fediverse via PeerTube here or any one of the seemingly infinite number of places that syndicate podcasts here.
No sponsors, no ads, just talk.
Incredible masterpiece!
For anyone not knowing it: it’s both a planner exploration book, and a deep social commentary on the role of gender in society. Thanks to Le Guin genius, the two components accentuate each other, making it a fascinating and pivotal read (or in this case, listen).
I think what's also notable is that it was published first in 1969! So this isn't a recent novel based on events of the last decade or something like that. She wrote this well before much public recognition has been given to gender debates, transgenders specifically. Or any recognition there was, was probably quite negative.
I mildly disagree, as in: the gender roles were a hot topic of discussion in the Woodstock/‘68 era, and this book is likely influenced by the surrounding climate. At the same time, it hasn’t aged as poorly as other books written on the same topic, so it feels still very contemporary and can be read through the lenses of the more recent transgender debate.
This is not an audiobook, it's satanistic atheists discussing the book. Not sure what to make of that but I'm going to give it a listen.
Le Guin has been a lot on my mind lately, or maybe on social media? I read all her stuff like 20 years ago. Amazing. Also one of those authors who resisted movie adaptations (not exclusively though), which in the end is usually a plus.
Don't worry, we're not LaVayen's ;)
She thought the lathe of heaven was a great adaption. She said the Earthsea completely missed the point and was trash.
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL59800W/The_Left_Hand_of_Darkness
There is a link to the book in the article, seems like it might be free to read with an internet archive account
I should wake up before commenting. Thanks for pointing it out! I’ll give it a try as well