LeGuinn Chapters 11-End

     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 Similarly, Genly did not understand Estraven's devotion to his mission and how it superceded his devotion to any one Gethenian nation.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 long journey back to Karhide, they develop an intimacy and understanding between each other that helps Genly see Estraven as a full complex person and vice versa. Genly's return prompts a Karhidish response, and Estraven's attempts to cross back over the Orgoreyn due to his exile land border results in his death. Genly is taken back to King Argraven, who agrees to the Ekumen pact but refuses Genly's request to have Estraven's exile revoked. Upon returning to his ship, Genly notes the difference in which he sees his shipmates; Terran and gendered, he remarks that seeing them is like seeing two different species.

The parallel development of Estraven and Genly is perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of this novel. Genly's own perception of Gethenian culture is developed through the honest and intimate conversations he and Estraven have as they grow to trust each other. Moreover, Estraven's own detached attitude when it came to Genly changes drastically; where he believed in his mission but was willing to leave Genly at the Volutary Farm if he was brain-dead, by the end of his story he has developed an intimacy and a deep friendship with Genly as shown through their honest discussions about his kemmer, Gethenian culture, and through their mindspeak.

Do Estraven and Genly mirror the religious dichotomy present in Handdara?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bloodchild, Butler

 Very rarely have I read pieces which evokes such simultaneous discomfort and intrigue as with Butler's short work Bloodchild. The thematic lengths to which Butler stretches the thought experiment of a symbiotic relationship between two species is staggering and impressive. A young boy has been chosen by a member of a race of insects called Tlic, to bear her eggs until they are removed by caesarean section. The young boy witnesses this procedure first hand, a neighbor who's Tlic abandoned him is left writhing in agony as the plump red maggots are plucked from his veins by Gan's Tlic, Gatoi, and Gan is ordered to slaughter an animal to provide a new source of food for the freshly plucked eggs. Witnessing this event leaves the boy, Gan, understandably scarred and for the first time is confronted with the reality of what comes from this interspecies partnership. Eventually Gan chooses to end his own life with the rifle used to slaughter the animal at the beginning, but not bef...
Read more

Moore, Jackson, Oates Blog

 Moore, Jackson, and Oates     The literary canon owes much to Mary Shelley for her seminal work on Frankenstein, possibly the first real science fiction story to come into the Western Literary canon. Shelley's work represented an elevation in complexity related to the literature of the day, blurring the line between man and monster. The stories of Moore, Jackson, and Oates all bear this complexity of ideas and willingness to explore ideas within a genre to their furthest extent. Moore presents in her story, Black God's Kiss,  the warrior-woman Jirel of Joiry; one of the few female protagonists within the sword-and-sorcery genre. After a vicious warlord overtakes her kingdom Jirel vows to journey into a hellish underworld to gain her revenge, risking the loss of her soul for vengeance against the tyrant. Shirley Jackson of Haunting of Hill House  fame, masterfully brings readers a social horror story about an annual ritual of mob sacrifice. One of several famili...
Read more

Frankenstein Blog (9/10/2020)

 Frankenstein     Frankenstein is Mary Shelley's seminal work that inspired horror and science fiction novels to come. Opening with letters from Walton, a ship captain searching for a northwest passage who discovers first traces of a large creature, and then an emaciated man adrift on the ice. Walton was curious and questioned the stranger after he settled on the ship, and he told Walton that his name was Victor Frankenstein. After becoming acquainted with each other, Victor tells Walton about his life and why he came so far north. Victor lost his mother at an early age, but as he grew older he became more and more enamored by the natural sciences. Eventually going to college to become a natural philosopher, he began to study what was considered to be "forbidden knowledge", including what he claims to be some essential truth or property of life. A property which gave him the ability to reanimate dead flesh and create new life; he completed his creature after months of iso...
Read more