#edit: there's more to say about the sibling thing and ursula's logic in why a society that places different associations on sex might be

[meadowlarkx]

One of my favorite things about the worldbuilding in The Left Hand of Darkness is the "perverts" in Gethenian society—those who are permanently in one of the kemmer forms. The "normal" person on Gethen goes through a kemmer cycle with periods of somer, but that's not every Gethenian. People whose bodies don't work this way get treated with repulsion. Genly compares them to "homosexuals" in his society, and that comparison is really instructive. Gethenians may not have gender roles and identities the way we do, but they do have societal norms, including about bodies and sexuality. And those norms leave people out. They are imperfect and sometimes they are unfair. I think this is part of the point.

In subtle ways, this theme is woven throughout the book's descriptions of Gethenian cultures. To stick to sexuality, something similar can be said about the different norms surrounding incest on Gethen and the empathic treatment of Estraven's past relationship with Arek. There is no taboo about incest between siblings on Gethen, only on siblings vowing kemmering, but if a child is born of it, the parents have to separate (and it seems like Estraven is separated from Sorve because of this). The reason for including this element, in my reading, isn't to impose our own moral standards by "showing" that Estraven's relationship with Arek was "bad" (in fact, we learn fairly little about it, beyond that Estraven cared deeply for him.) Instead, I think it's partly to demonstrate the dissonance between Gethenian mores and our own, and unsettle both. Because, like Genly, we see Gethenian norms as strange, we can notice that they bring about particular situations and cause particular hurts. Even the custom of vowing kemmering monogamously for life, which sounds more familiar, is shown as double-edged. Estraven breaks a taboo by making his "false" vow to Ashe, but was trying to build a new life with Ashe really wrong?

These things are not 1:1 to any "real life" issue, but like everything else in this story, I think they're chosen because they are provocative. It's really meaningful to me that even in terms of gender and sexuality, Gethen isn't painted as a utopia, but as a real place. Le Guin shows us two sets of norms and asks us not just "are our norms arbitrary and/or constructed rather than essential truths?" but also "are norms always socially constructed? Should we question them sometimes? What harm is done to maintain them? Who is being left out?"

#the left hand of darkness #lhod #my posts #thank you alix jouissants for reading over this and aiding me to express more clearly <3 <3 <3 #and idk i am obsessed with ''estraven the traitor'' being a name from folk legend. with the way the character who comes across most moral #and most thoughtful betrays the norms of patriotism and of prejudice against ''perverts''. vows twice and had a child with his sibling #it says something powerful i think about what is really important and more important about a person ultimately. character of all time. #this is not to say the normless utopia could/should exist or that the portrayal of gethenian cultures is wholly negative btw--not at all #constructed =/= useless or without power/meaning or completely arbitrary either #just it is such a thoughtful book. and it's saying so much on so many levels #obviously i haven't even touched here shifgrethor or suicide or the budding nationalism... and i don't have my copy on me. #maybe some of this seems obvious but it feels worth highlighting #edit: there's more to say about the sibling thing and ursula's logic in why a society that places different associations on sex might be #mainly concerned with avoiding kids born of those unions--but i'm thinking here about what we see of estraven's experience