The Left Hand of Darkness

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As a single guy that seems awash in a woman dominated corner of the blogosphere, I’m sometimes baffled by what I read and often at a loss for what to say when it comes time to comment.

Today’s reading was no different – but somehow Tori Z’s entry on Helen Keller triggered a seedling of a thought in my head. I commented saying – I am hard of hearing – you are blind - Together, like left and right hands, we can understand Helen Keller’s deaf-blind existence, to a degree.

As I walked to lunch today, the title of a book I read a long time ago popped into my head, "The Left Hand of Darkness."

The Left Hand of Darkness is a "science fiction" novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, first published in 1969.

The story is the account of the efforts of a man named Genly Ai, a representative from a galactic federation of worlds, who seeks to bring the world of Gethen into his federation.

The inhabitants of Gethen are sequentially hermaphroditic humans (having both male and female reproductive organs).

For twenty-four days of each twenty-six day lunar cycle they are sexually latent androgynes (someone that has the characteristics or nature of both male and female).

For the remaining two days they are male or female, as determined by pheromonal negotiation with an interested sex partner. Le Guin uses the word ‘kemmer’ to indicate a sort of ‘in heat’ state.

Thus each individual involved in the partnership can either sire and bear children depending on whether they become the male or the female in the current "sexual" cycle.

The book, by and large, is a thought-experiment - of how our thinking is set by our environment and biological conditions.

For instance: Genly Ai, the diplomatic envoy is viewed as a pervert on the planet of Gethen - as he is always male and always in ‘kemmer.’ There is no talk of a weaker sex - or testosterone-driven aggression. Role-models are not divided into his and hers – nor are baby room’s painted blue or pink.

Imagine if you will, waking up once a month, every month, for just a couple days, a man or a woman depending on what your pheromones negotiated with the pheromones of someone that just happened to be nearby.

This story can really make the reader contemplate the pervasiveness and duality of sexual differences and all of the human stereotypes that have stemmed from them and how they impact, color and influence every human endeavor.

The story is much deeper and broader - it becomes an epic tale of survival as Genly becomes deathly ill and one of the Gethenians must transport him by sled over 800 miles of a glacier-like planet surface.

It is definitely not something to read on the beach soaking in Pf 25.