Yes. About the only definite evidence is that one apostrophe, Estraven himself being so extremely reticent. And that "flash of my friend's spirit in this grim, fierce, provincial boy." Incest is not forbidden, but sibings cannot vow kemmering, and if one of the pair bears a child they are ...

Yes, she makes some wonderful points about patriotism. In the first chapter Estraven calls it not the love of one’s country, but fear of the Other. At the end of the book, Ai wonders: “not for the first time, what patriotism is, what the love of country truly consists of, how that yearning loyalty t...

Yes it is amazing, isn't it? I think the author shifts around in narration in order to keep us off balance, a bit like Faulkner. We are constantly having to adjust to a different point of view, assimilate another facet in order to piece together the wholeness -- and this is exactly Ai's situation to...

Thanks very much, Suzanne. I'm enjoying the discussion, and the archives as well.

On the structure: On my first reading I found it off-putting. Le Guin demands a great deal of attention from the reader in this book, doesn't she? To understand these tales and cultural notes you have to be really on your toes, noting that this one for instance was written in the reign of Argaven VI...

I agree, Argaven does not seem to be mad. He is scary in this chapter, though, laughing and snarling -- Ai says himself he is "a good deal more afraid of him than I had expected to be." And, as he says himself, he is afraid: of what Ai brings, and probably of losing his place in their smal...

What a coincidence! But you appear to be at the other end of the country. I am about an hour south of Hamburg, in more snow right now than I have ever seen here. But Bavaria is huge -- are you more north or south in it?

The masculine/feminine dichotomy is certainly central to the book, and some aspects of her treatment of it were probably explosive at the time it was written. But probably because of my own point of view, the themes of exile and foreignness struck me most forcefully. (I've been living abroad for 15 ...

I have been thinking about this, especially because it bears heavily on the ending. In a Tolkien book discussion I was once in, someone pointed out that suicide is a grievous sin in Catholicism, because it amounts to capitulation to despair. No matter how bad things appear, one should maintain the h...

What luck to have found this site. I picked up leGuin's _Left Hand of Darkness_ a couple of years ago, started it on the plane, and never got past Chapter 2. I found it again over the holidays and gave it another go and loved it! It has been stuck in my head since New Year's and on a whim I decided ...