Ursula K. Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness - Extra Sci Fi 

Don't worry everyone, it's not a time warp, just a reupload episode with fixed art! Mistakenly whitewashing Genly Ai was the result of a few miscommunications in our pipeline, and we've taken steps to lessen the chance something like this happening again. Thank you to everyone who caught the error. We greatly appreciate it, especially the folks who drew our attention to the essay Ursula herself wrote about whitewashing (you can find that essay here: slate.com/culture/2004/12/ursula-k-le-guin-on-the-tv-earthsea.html ) PS, while the Gethenians are described as Le Guin as Inuit or Tibetain, we kept them as multicolored aliens to help distinguish them from Ai in our simple art style and to emphasize how different Ai feels in the novel, and how strange the civilization comes across to him.

“The uselessness of knowing the answer to the wrong question” = 42

Omg this is the first time I’ve seen anyone talk about Ursula K. le Quin. No one ever talks about her, but her stories are amazing. “The word for world is Forrest” and “The ones that walk away from Omela’s” are my favorites

Ursula was one of those rare authors that was not only a great genre author, but also a great literary author in general. She was a very literary writer, who loved filling her books with challenging ideas, but she also was unpretentious enough to say that she was a science fiction and fantasy author (though she wrote quite a bit outside of those genres). She's also one of a few great literary authors to also be highly respected in the world of children's literature.

Okay, God, I get it. I've got the book down from my shelf now. I'm gonna start reading The Left Hand of Darkness tonight. You didn't have to send TWO extra credits episodes on the same day. Okay, maybe you did. But I'm reading the book now!

Ursula's Mother's books about Ishi are beautifully written and heartbreaking. For those looking for Ishi and background on Le Guin's family, the Ishi books are published as by Theodora Kroeber. There is also a non-fiction book about the relationship her Father had with Ishi.

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin

Thanks for a great video. I believe the character Ai was a bit less clueless than the video made him seem though. From the beginning of his story, he knew that he needed much to learn before being able to convince the planet to join their confederation of planets. He understood the importance of being open minded, even if he couldn't understand the values and culture, which had been the strategy to bring in other worlds to share knowledge, instead of taking them by force. I think this is part of le Guin's message too: people need to be open minded even if they don't understand or agree. That's how we learn to respect and maybe even appreciate our differences.

Part of her family background was a routine reading of the Tao Te Ching. Her resulting translation is really an interpretation but it is quite enlightening.

You don´t mention Estraven, the other fundamental part of the book. The Yin for the Yang that is Ai. The Yin Yang is incomplete, as is your explanation. Good video anyway.

I've been waiting for this for so long! Thank you guys! I always pictured the Gethenians as Inuit-coded, based on Ursula Le Guin's descriptions, but it's still a welcome addition to the series, and one of my lifelong favourite novels!

I remember reading this book in... high school, maybe even earlier, and having such a deep connection with it. I genuinely believe this was my first exposure to the idea of gender fluidity and it played a big role in discovering my gender identity down the road. It still stands as one of my all time favorite novels.

I also love her Earthsea books. She was one of the greats

It's been over half a lifetime since I first experienced "The Left Hand of Darkness" - not even slightly preachy but mind expanding in a way that only the very best SF can be.

Pity you guys didn’t mention the Dispossessed, but I guess there’s only so much time.

Random question: would Terry Pratchett be a valid author to talk about on Extra SciFi? I generally lump him in with fantasy writers but I also remember at least a few occasions where he posed these kinds of questions (particularly in "Nation") and I imagine that'd be pretty interesting to cover.

I read the Ursula K. Le Guin short story "The Word for World Is Forest" in high school and remember it affecting me profoundly. It's a story that really hit me hard and stuck with me more than most. This video has got me thinking about revisiting it, and although i can't remember all the details about it at this point, I would wholeheartedly recommend it (on behalf of my younger self, at least). And if I do end up digging it up, i'll edit in my current thoughts in it here.

Great book! The themes explored in Lefthand of Darkness definitely left a lasting impressionon me. One of LeGuin's best.

Thank You! I literally went back to my copy of the book because I was *CERTAIN* I remembered the Gethen commenting on his dark skin, *MULTIPLE* times. And, I know have read that book at least as many times as Dune. I thought I was going crazy from a lack of sleep.

Extra Sci Fi has given me a lot of books to read, but I think this is the one I most eagerly look forward to. Thanks!

I think I’ve seen this somewhere before

So some gentle criticism, there actually were a number of female sci fi writers prior to le Guin (as many as 15% of published sci fi authors prior to the 60s were female) but they faced significant challenges getting accepted by "prestige" sci fi editors like Campbell, and so tend to be much less remembered today. Wired does a pretty good write up on the subject (www.wired.com/2019/02/geeks-guide-history-women-sci-fi/). Other peers of le Guin would also include cj cherryh, Anne McCaffrey, Andre Norton, among others. Cherryh and McCaffrey in particular are big shots among 60s and 70s writers, even if McCaffrey tends to be a little schlockier and hasn't aged well.

I was hoping this title would be covered! (And props for reuploading after feedback, even though I had to rewrite this entire comment, heh.) I first read Left Hand of Darkness when I was in college. Needed to take an EFL course to fulfill a Gen Ed requirement and decided to take The Literature of Science Fiction instead of a foreign language class, and I ended up being very happy with that decision. I had an excellent professor who chose titles outside of what were then considered "The Classics" (probably mostly covered by Extra Sci Fi's season on the Golden Age titles). She oriented the entire class towards the core idea of science fiction: use literature based in science to answer a question that culture has not yet solved or is still in the process of solving. Left Hand was our first title that term, and hoo boy, it was something of a rough read. As has been noted by other comments on this video, LeGuin was somewhat dry on plot pacing, but EXCELLENT at character studies. It was easy to grasp the moods that the characters were in... even if you didn't quite understand the meta-conversation that influenced why the characters were WHO they were. Specifically, in Fall 2006 I was only just starting to learn about and understand other kinds of sexualities (G and L were the only letters I knew about, and those not by much either), and gender discussions weren't even ON the radar yet, unless one was an EWS major at the time. So I'm pretty sure I didn't understand the full depth of the story or her points she was making back then. But I definitely do now. Maybe I'll go back and reread it again soon (if my reading list wasn't already over 2 feet deep). We also read Le Guin's "Lathe of Heaven" in that course, which I found far more fascinating. An exploration of how the world could be LITERALLY influenced and changed by people's dreams and a machine that makes it possible, for better or for worse... or even out of our control once it passes a certain usage limit. Definitely worth an episode if you want to visit her writing again. Fun fact about Le Guin's stories: she used many place names and/or places from the American Northwest in her writing. For example, the term "kemmerer", used as a relationship word in Left Hand, is actually the name of a real town in southwestern Wyoming. And Lathe of Heaven is almost entirely set in Portland, Oregon! I also wonder if Extra Sci Fi will cover some of the other titles we read in the class: -The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester: published in 1956, so not likely THIS season, but I'm not sure I'd call it a true child of the Golden Age either, as it explored the more dystopic side of interplanetary travel and exploration) -Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson: published in 1992, so maybe NEXT season if you guys are going chronologically? I know the book has a lot of fans because of its worldbuilding and plot pacing, and it ALSO has a film adaptation that's somewhere in development hell (fingers crossed)... -Johnny Mnemonic, by William Gibson: I'm aware that you guys already covered Gibson's catalog broadly in an earlier episode, but untangling the complexity of this story and tying it into Neuromancer would be awesome...

3:14 There's a room at the top of the stairs Every night I'm drawn up there There's a girl in the mirror Her face is getting clearer Young child, won't you tell me Why I'm here? Wait frick this is a sci-fi video not something about music... But Hear me out: what if they created a "Extra Music" show about the history of music and even specific albums with a huge impact on music as a whole? Hell even gaming music should be apart of it.

This review made me download an audiobook app and listen. And I'm so glad! What a great author and thought provoking book

Deja vu I've just been in this place before

I'm a huuuuge fan of Sci Fi! Have never read this book, but definitely intend to! From your dialogue, I read so much more into it... at 1:40ish, "in a society you don't understand and that doesn't understand you" (or something to that effect), heck, you may as well be talking about AUTISM! Am I the only one seeing this?

the intro still blows my mind and while the rest of the video still helps me come to terms with it I am kind of also blown away by the fact that changing a man's race does re-contextualize the story of the book in a way I didn't think it would so I'm glad it was fixed

I commented this in the previous version and I'll say it again: You HAVE to talk about Earthsea

You keep posting videos about books in writing my thesis on!

Great episode! Ursula K Leguin is one of my favorite sci-fi authors, in great part because of these kinds of questions, ones in which the main character grows as they grow to understand another people. My favorite novel of hers is The Telling, partly because it flips the script of religious conservativism.

I read this book for an eco-feminist science fiction theory class I took in college and wrote a whole paper about it. Absolutely wild to see it pop up on EC

It's hard to imagine anyone reviewing "The Left Hand of Darkness" without mentioning winter.

No mention of her explorations of politics? Especially of socialism, and anarchy?

The ones who walk away from omelas by ursula le guin is my favourite short story of all time

3:33 he did have a name they called him ishi his peoples word for man. His birth name he could not say as you cannot ask for someone’s name in his culture

Ursula's Mother's books about Ishi are beautifully written and heartbreaking.

Can we have one on, 'The dispossessed' please?

Hey, I'm just wondering if we could get an episode on Terry Pratchett. I have long contested that Pratchett was not just a fantasy writer, and his works are some of the truest examples of Science-Fantasy, evoking much thought as if they were sci-fi, just not in the usual settings of blaster pistols, warp drive, and robots, nor the world of today, nor the near-future, but a world apart from all that. As an example, Hogfather very much delves into the nature of belief and its relationship with humanity, and how it makes us us.

Estreven the realest homie in all of scifi. What a chad.

Left Hand of Darkness is my favourite book and I strongly recommend reading it.

These are always so serious, deep and forboding. Genuine question: Are there any fun/funny Sci-fi stories, other than The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (my favorite), of course? Or does actually having humor in it take it out of the "Science Fiction" genre?

And now I finally understand that Ian M. Bank's book, The Player of Games, is basically inspired by, and probably an homage to, this novel. I feel like it took me so long to really find and get into sci-fi as a genre, but now that I have, it's almost like coming home. Thanks for the awesome series!

I just finished this book this morning. I thought it was pretty good, although I think the description on the back was a little misleading. The description claims the people of Winter were able to CHOOSE their gender whenever they want to. However, unless I missed a detail somewhere, when Gethenians enter Kemmer they don't know which gender they'll end up until they're in it. I got the impression that when they enter Kemmer is similar to an ovulation cycle and turn "female". I thought it was a good book but I feel like how kemmer works was not adequately explained. This could just be because Genly didn't fully grasp it either, or maybe my brain is just melted from working a graveyard shift. 🤷‍♂️ I really loved the world building and how the Eukemen operate though.

I have several friends who defy traditional gender roles and the premise of this novel sounds extremely interesting to me as a cis male supporter of LGBT rights. I wonder if there is an audio book of this... Audio books are easier for me to consume as my ADHD makes reading for long periods of time difficult

What a fascinating sci-fi book. Pretty creative alien species, honestly.

Spiritual ideals has the benchmark of a society, if the society is worried about that then it goes straight into the garbage can thanks.

Okay but. Can I just say that the world in this book is probably a godsend for nonbinary/agender/genderfluid folk? Because I would LOVE to be able to choose how I identify physically as well as mentally with so much ease.

That correction was really fast! I'm gonna share this video with my friendos

This book deserves a resurgence. Its themes deal with gender flexibility. Up to date a half century after publication

I read this book a year ago. I like it. The jail escape scene and ending was touching.

I was at a talk LeGuin gave once where someone asked her about being a "sci-fi" author. She replied, "Sci-fi? I've never written any sci-fi, but I have written quite a lot of science fiction."

Do one on Anne McCaffery! I mean she got a Hugo Award!

Finally, someone is talking about Comrade Le Guin in an easy and accessible manner. FFFFINALLYYYYYY! \o/

Interesting topic, I’m going to question things now

Love you guys keep it up

Will miss you forever, Ursula.

Le Guin was an awesome and awe-inspiring author.

I hope they eventually do Cyteen or one of Cherryh's other works.

margaret atwood is most known as being the author of the dystopian novel handmaids tale.

Couple of suggestions for future vids: Greg Egan's Distress. Iain Banks Consider Phlebas.Though writing a background on Egan could be hard, the man is notoriously private (He's quite noisy on Twitter though, however its very much peak-Egan. Its almost all him talking about advanced maths)

Ishi died about 15 years before Ursula K. LeGuin was born actually

There's also a lot of snow and traveling through cold mountains.

Thanks to Ursula K. Le Guin for introducing me to anarchism

I should re-read this. I remember enjoying it quite a bit!

Lol the bathroom that just says "bathroom" amuses me. Who cares who you are or what your business is, just wash your hands when you're done.

Oh, a remake thingy

Aren't Gethennians supposed to be a human offshoot and look mostly human? I mean, the protagonist can pass off as a local in kemmer

Question about the book: so the protagonist, being unique in a society didn't force he's views upon the rest?

I love The Left Hand of Darkness so much. My favourite book by my favorite author.

Whoa... groundhogs day...

Again, super good about the fixed representation. Good on you guys. DO HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY!!!!

Thanks. Read this last Summer and was totally lost. Some good angles to think about.

Interesting. Might have to pick this one up sometime and give it a read. Thanks for sharing something I never would have heard about otherwise!

I forgot about this author! My dad recommended her to me.

Wow! Being a fantasy guy, I have only read her Wizard of Earth Sea books. But this looks really interesting.

Thank you for finally touching on the women among the greats. To be fair, I see the path you've taken, and because the series is loosely sequential, I even see why. Are we looking at a season of "feminist sci-fi," as some have called it, or will you be approaching it as part of the New Wave, even though it extends into the 90s? Have all the brief mentions of authors I've seen make cameos in previous episodes been telegraphing your intentions? I hope so; McMaster Bujold is often underestimated in her contributions to the genre and I would love to see her get her due. Same with Joanna Russ and Connie Willis. I know you won't miss Octavia Butler because you've mentioned her many times, and I am glad you'll be mentioning Atwood, although I am sure she'd hate that. Very excited to see what future episodes will bring! Thank you and please keep up the good work!

Now threre's a book that really needs a modern movie adaptation.

I really appreciate this detailed analysis and deconstruction of why this book is so loved by so many and considered a classic. Now it makes sense as to why so many in my book club gushed over it while I was very much meh and shrugging my shoulders, even irritated at it. It is now clear it's moral and themes concern subjects very important to many, especially in our contemporary times; even if I consider it a naïve overemphasis on values that will not age well over the millennia it will take to build an interstellar society. I get it now that UKLG was trying to show how alienation can feel when the situation is reversed, rather than illustrate any sort of plausible unfolding of events on the planet she created that was far too simplified and small, let alone large enough to retain a breathable atmosphere or gravity anywhere near that of Earth's. I suppose the most regrettable thing of all is in the centuries to come how poorly this novel's moral will age, as as any society that eschews technological upgrades and see no need to move at a faster pace will be outrageously vulnerable to those who do. It is much more likely that the agents of any interstellar empire that arises will come to strip mine the solar system surrounding the planet; at best forcing the natives to pay for the privilege of getting off planet and enjoying their own solar system's bounty; but more likely threatening annihilation by rocks dropped on their planet and thus demanding total submission. To be fair to UKLG, she wasn't the only author of her time period to lack the foresight to see such a scenario play out.

This one hits differently in hindsight.

With you guys getting closer and closer to her writing time, you really should talk about Sherri S. Tepper. So many of her books are great, but my family has the True Game trilogy of trilogies as a reading requirement.

You need to do an Extra Fantasy series just so you can talk about her other work on Earthsea I mean that stuff is the true inheritor of Tolkien no this Georgie Martin crap

Yes. Its time to understand this

Just read her “The Wife’s story” for English class. Amazing use of perspective and mind trickery.

Ishi died 13 years before LeGuin was born

Excellent video! I'd love to see one of these on CJ Cherryh.

I read this book in middle school and I remember liking it. Apparently I missed the vast majority of the subtleties and need to reread it.

how did i not know about this?? i just *have* to read it now, ty!

It's rewind time.

One of my favourite books, one of my favourite authors :)

The changing gender thing made me think of Iain Banks' Culture novels. Will you cover them one day? I just love them.

I’m pretty sure that every single story discusses in this series was adapted into *at least* one Star Trek episode.

Extra Sci-Fi suggestion: StarCraft.

The native American man you refer to did have a name "Ishi" they made a movie about Ishi.

Oh Extra Credits, how far you have fallen. The article is fine. The presentation is beautiful. The narrator needs a good slapping.

Can make a video on the ink spots plz

Its amazing what people can do with sci fi books

Hey guys that me!!!

Why are they portrayed as green skinned people with antenna here? I thought they looked like regular humans?

This is why there are other groups. If you find yourself alienated and marginalized, you have a choice: Adapt or Escape. One is not obligated to remain in a terrible situation. Take responsibility and make the choice to better your situation.