The Left Hand of Darkness was the first book I've read this semester that I've had very mixed feelings about. For a number of reasons, I found this book to be successful, but to an equal degree, found it lacking. One thing that I do adore about this book is the bold exploration of gender and sexuality. Written during a time where anyone not straight and cisgender was likely to be ostracized, The Left Hand of Darkness stands in contrast. To allow even closed minded readers to undestand, Le Guin places you into another planet, as a foreigner. You are a human from Earth, dropped in the middle of a new world and struggle to interact with other beings that are entirely new to you. She does this purposefully, to place you into an entirely new frame of mind and rid you of your preconceptions about what a person is and what their gender and sexuality might be. In many ways, this was very successful, but in some ways I found this to falter. While I adore that the creatures are ase...
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