Ian Burke Senior Seminar Blog

    Often times science fiction stories amount to something as simple as a thought experiment; for example, what if a trio of male astronauts became lost in space, and returned to find Earth entirely devoid of the males and populated entirely by females. That simple thought experiment kickstarts what becomes a complex and decisive take on issues related to gender and toxic masculinity. The crew of a NASA solar mission, the Sunbird , takes a hit from a solar flare and is sent careening through space. After drifting for some time, a transmission is picked up by the ship. The communique had all female voices discussing strange slang terms; at first thought to be a hallucination brought on by deep-space isolation, they soon realize that they are being offered rescue by these interstellar strangers. The captain of the mission is initially dubious of their potential rescuers, however the entire crew is shocked to hear off their own mission being referenced as being lost for quite a ...

      Estraven continues to try and champion Ai's mission from behind the scenes of the Orgoreyn political leadership, but comes to see that they either do not trust or do not care about Genly's mission. Soon enough, Genly is taken to a political prison called a Voluntary Farm where he is given drugs to make him more agreeable and pliable to questioning. These drugs almost ruin Genly, and as Orogoreyn's doors shut on Estraven, he journeys to the prison disguised as a guard and frees Genly. Throughout these chapters, where Estraven was insulted by Genly, he has come to realize that it was a result of his ignorance of Genly's lack of true understanding of Gethenian culture and social rules. Similarly, Genly did not understand Estraven's devotion to his mission and how it superceded his devotion to any one Gethenian nation. Estraven remarked "what does it matter which country wakens first, so long as we waken"(LeGuinn, Chapter 14)? As they embark on an 80 day...