Helpful Score: 4
If you thought Sci-Fi is only about the future..., February 25, 2006
Reviewer: L. Kravitz "Reader/Thinker" (Israel)
It's long been known that since the advent of science fiction, man kind's greatest inventions were foretold in books and stories. In recent decades the focus of this genre has shifted from technology to sociology and psychology. This book, though published more than 30 years ago, is a prime example of how relevant this kind of writing is to our lives today. Even more importantly, with corporation-led globalization, and the protest and antagonism that it breeds, the lessons of this book are becoming more important by the day. The boundary between Utopia and Distopia is never clear (especially in LeGuin's writings), and this story serves to emphasize the differences between a couple of tracks we as a race may choose to follow. Never unbiased, LeGuin takes a strong moral stand, and brings some convincing arguments toward her case. Still, this is a very enjoyable read, but take care- it will make you think more than you might want to.
Reviewer: L. Kravitz "Reader/Thinker" (Israel)
It's long been known that since the advent of science fiction, man kind's greatest inventions were foretold in books and stories. In recent decades the focus of this genre has shifted from technology to sociology and psychology. This book, though published more than 30 years ago, is a prime example of how relevant this kind of writing is to our lives today. Even more importantly, with corporation-led globalization, and the protest and antagonism that it breeds, the lessons of this book are becoming more important by the day. The boundary between Utopia and Distopia is never clear (especially in LeGuin's writings), and this story serves to emphasize the differences between a couple of tracks we as a race may choose to follow. Never unbiased, LeGuin takes a strong moral stand, and brings some convincing arguments toward her case. Still, this is a very enjoyable read, but take care- it will make you think more than you might want to.
Helpful Score: 3
The Dispossessed was about twin planets--one rich in natural resources, and the other possessing a harsh climate and some minerals. Revolutionaries from the rich planet had colonized the poorer one, and at the outset of the novel had been there 150 years or so. Their social experiment was in the main successful, though like revolutions in the author's present, the anarchists had conflict over fostering talent and difference in a society that depended for justice on the enforcement of social approval. The protagonist, Shevek, is an unusual person, a genius, in a society that is about equality. The book follows his struggles to figure out his place.
LeGuin published The Dispossessed, which is apparently part of the same universe as The Left Hand of Darkness, in 1974. I am also reading some of her later books, and it's clear that she better able later in her career to express ideas in the context of the plot, without having to plant long speeches in her character's mouths. On the other hand, in 1974 she was still in the process of feeling her way toward a new political position, and that is very exciting to witness. I was 8 in 1974 and I remember in a vague way some of the political realities that shaped this book.
The Hainish series, of which The Dispossed is one novel, is not one I read in order. I read The Left Hand of Darkness first, which was the fourth she published, and The Telling, the last book in the cycle to date. I think they each stand up well to being read out of the context of the series.
LeGuin published The Dispossessed, which is apparently part of the same universe as The Left Hand of Darkness, in 1974. I am also reading some of her later books, and it's clear that she better able later in her career to express ideas in the context of the plot, without having to plant long speeches in her character's mouths. On the other hand, in 1974 she was still in the process of feeling her way toward a new political position, and that is very exciting to witness. I was 8 in 1974 and I remember in a vague way some of the political realities that shaped this book.
The Hainish series, of which The Dispossed is one novel, is not one I read in order. I read The Left Hand of Darkness first, which was the fourth she published, and The Telling, the last book in the cycle to date. I think they each stand up well to being read out of the context of the series.
I found this book to be an interesting mixture of Golden Age science fiction and New Wave examination of modern life. The general depiction of life on Urras is reminiscent of Asimov's sort of hand-wavy descriptions of some of the societies in his robot novels (please note that I say this with affection). Also, space travel is described with little detail--it is the reason we call this book science fiction, but it's not central to the story.
Le Guin's characters, however, are much more deeply fleshed out than most of the stuff coming out of the 1950s. _The Dispossessed_ is first and foremost a story of *people*--real people that have sex, use the toilet, and maybe go a little crazy. The attention to the inner life of her characters sets Le Guin's writing apart. And while I'm jaded enough to think that her depiction of the anarchist society of Urras might be a little rosy and that of Annares a bit two-dimensional, the fact is that Le Guin was quite successful in transporting me into this universe and holding me there.
I recommend this book unreservedly.
Le Guin's characters, however, are much more deeply fleshed out than most of the stuff coming out of the 1950s. _The Dispossessed_ is first and foremost a story of *people*--real people that have sex, use the toilet, and maybe go a little crazy. The attention to the inner life of her characters sets Le Guin's writing apart. And while I'm jaded enough to think that her depiction of the anarchist society of Urras might be a little rosy and that of Annares a bit two-dimensional, the fact is that Le Guin was quite successful in transporting me into this universe and holding me there.
I recommend this book unreservedly.
Helpful Score: 2
awesome read with excellent relevent political commentary a some usful philosophy
Helpful Score: 1
This is a heavily awarded science fiction novel. Think Brave New World Lite. It deals with a physicist's struggle against the constricting norms of thefuturistic world he inhabits.
