Loftwings and Demons

Well, I finally finished reading The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin.  I'd started it years ago and gotten perhaps 80 pages in before I stopped.  I had a much easier time getting into it this time around.  I found it interesting and thoughtful, though the over half-century between now and when it was written certainly shows.  I think that even stories that try to imagine cultures starkly different from their own as this one does still can never quite escape their own in ways that may be quite subtle to those in that time and place, but quite obvious to those outside it.  Though I will say that of the books I have read from LeGuin, she is the sci-fi and fantasy author I've seen make the most effort to reimagine culture.  

It's simply that I can still see the bones of that culture, that time and place, even here in this alien world and especially in this human who hails from what would still be an unimaginable society to us, seeking as it does only trade and companionship with other worlds, and not control or domination.  I think all stories are, to some extent, rooted to the culture they arise out of, as we can never entirely understand what we dwell within.  But this is a larger attempt to dwell outside that culture than other sci-fi I've seen, from any time period.

I don't know if it's supposed to be incomprehensible, but I never could understand why Genly distrusted Estraven for so long, and it meant I found him quite unlikeable for a good portion of the story.  Naturally my favorite character was Estraven.

I had also been under the false impression based on what others had said about this story  that there was sex in this novel. There is no sex in this novel. Just aliens who go into heat.  On a frigid cold planet. With a human who is always cold there, and sometimes must huddle, naked, with those aliens for warmth. Who is sometimes completely alone with their dearest friend, who is in heat.  This is, I think, a very important thing to understand about this novel. 

Anyway, I was glad to finally finish this story.  I found it much easier to read through on my second attempt.