To examine a part of the book I feel was ignored in discussion on Monday, I wanted to explore my interest in the Handdara and their philosophy. The whole concept of Foretelling is fascinating, especially as it is practiced in a religious society that considers it to be a completely fruitless exercise. There is a point early on in the book when Genly is talking with Faxe about the process of Foretelling and how useful it is, but Faxe is trying to get Genly to understand him. Faxe says “…we in the Handdara don’t want answers.

One of the things that was touched on in class recently was the way in which Genly Ai often characterized the ways the Gethenieas acted around him. Particularly interesting to me were the ways that appeared derogatory towards woman, and what this conveys about him and the ‘Ekumenical’ society he comes from.

The clash of duality and singularity is the overarching theme and conflict in Ursula LeGuin’s “The Left Hand of Darkness.” Many things on Gethen seem to exist in a state of oneness rather than parity, and while the contrasting of Genly Ai’s dualistic worldview against this new “norm” is how this idea is predominantly played out, many fail to notice that there do exist examples of pairing within the Gethenian society and planet, and I feel there to be yet another overarching theme that can be derived out of this clash.

I'm going to pass on this one.

I'm using my pass on this response

Though we discussed all the issues involved in the duality inherent in our culture and language, I don’t think we really discussed the issue of duality itself as Ursula Le Guin portrays it in The Left Hand of Darkness. It is true that our fixation with the opposites of male and female make interpreting the world of Gethen difficult; we can’t quite comprehend the idea of androgynous humans. But this doesn’t mean our refusal to let go of this way of thinking is necessarily bad.