Wave 3: Left Hand of Darkness

Here's the prompt for the third and final wave, which will be due on Tuesday, February 6:

Reflect on the myths presented in the various chapters of Left Hand of Darkness. Consider them as little symbolic parables and consider the following: What does this myth tell you about Gethen culture? However, some of the myths do have direct connections to the plot, especially the ones about Estraven. Discuss some of the Gethenian myths and folktales. Find one to discuss—the Place Inside the Blizzard, the Nineteenth Day, etc. How do such stories function in a culture?

The young writers and readers and thinkers who are posting to this prompt include Martiza, Noel, Tiara, Noel, Tiara, Bryan T, Eduardo, the other Bryan T, Alana, Sophia, Jada and Jacob.

Wave Two: Left Hand of Darkness

Wave Two:

Here comes the prompt for the second wave of blogging for The Left Hand of Darkness. Wave Two Bloggers must post in response to this prompt by 6:00 p.m. on Monday, February 5.  As before, anyone can comment on any post (Wave 1, 2, or 3), so by the time the unit is complete, you should have posted once, and commented twice. Remember, we are always looking for students who are working ABOVE AND BEYOND the minimum requirements.

How does the constant cold of Gethen contribute to the theme of isolation and loneliness?

Reminder, your post should be between 250-300 words long. Anything shorter will not be effective. Also, include page numbers when you reference the text.

Who shall post:  Emily, Jaelyn, Hannah K., Madison, Antonio, Steven, Omar, Kayla, Daniela, Hannah R., Brianna

Wave 1

Genly Ai is on the planet called Gethen, which he called Winter. In this society everyone is of a homogeneous gender, until time of kemmer. He has a hard time dealing with the fact that they are only a gender when it comes time for kemmering then after they switch back to their neutral state. Genly comes from a planet where their gender is chosen at birth. On Winter he refers to everyone as a he because its easier for him. When Gethenians become pregnant, they can be man or female which Genly finds funny because he hears that the king's son is pregnant because where he comes from, only women can become pregnant. Other gethenians find it funny but for other reasons. He can't fully grasp their culture and way of life because of gender and the roles Gethenians play. He is labeled a pervert for being one gender all the time and always in kemmer, which causes the natives to not support him and his people. Its also very cold on that planet. It is how it got the name Winter because of the harsh climate. He feels isolated and alone because it is so cold so he keeps to himself and layers up to get warm. When its summer you'd feel more free because your wearing less clothes to cool off. We can relate with him because we feel with him that we aren't that far apart from Genly Ai.

Wave 1: Getting to know Gethenians

The Ekumen consists of many different worlds that inhabits many different species of people in different conditions, yet the world of Gethen and it's inhabitants are puzzling due to their indistinguishable appearance from male or female. This gender characteristic is not applicable to the people of Gethen. The world of Gethen is very different from Genly Ai's homeworld This difference becomes a puzzle and jumble of confusion for Genly Ai to understand. As a representative and a voyager learning to study the world of Gethen, he finds it odd and difficult to adapt to the appearance of the Gethenians. This difficulty is only a natural and human characteristic. His inherent attitude to reject the differences of his people and the people of Gethen shows that the world he came from is also different. With the addition of the Gethenians being androgynous it is not surprising to see that Genly Ai only rejects their appearance and does not have the understanding that the world of Gethen is different. Genly only grasp the appearance that he is familiar with and that he grew up with. He learned that there is male and female in his world. However, he is not familiar with the idea of having no gender at all. This new information cannot be easily accepted by someone who did not grow up in the world of Winter. This intrinsic value of knowing genders is only learned through the environment he has inhabited.

Wave 1 Post

In The Left Hand of Darkness, Genly Ai faces the struggle of how to view the Gethenians. As we know, the Gethenians are without a determined sex until they enter a sort of heat known as kemmer. It isn’t until they find a partner that they are assigned a sex, and once kemmer has ended, they return to their neutral state. Genly comes from a planet in which the gender is assigned at birth, which is how our Earth is as well. Throughout the novel, we see him assign a gender to some of the people he meets. Such as the person in charge of his housing while he stays in Karhide. He considers this Gethenian to be his landlady, and when he asks how many child they have birthed, they answer none. They had actually been the male during kemmer all four times. It is this assigning of gender to certain roles in a society that has made his connections with others somewhat difficult. It is also shown that he has some sexist attitudes, as shown by his assigning of certain roles and comments. Genly’s world is one where there are two genders, and those genders are assigned to certain roles and jobs in that society.

LHoD: Wave One

We all know that Gethen is very different from the way our world works so as readers so we can only imagine what it must be like for someone like Genly Ai experiencing it all first hand.
His attitude towards the people of Gethen is very understandable seeing as how he's trying his best to comprehend the fact that these people are not only neither gender but can be either gender and it's just so different from what he knows that even though he tries he best to view them as they are, he can't help but give them a gender. It's hard to really lock into the brain. Even as I read now I can't help but subconsciously give the characters genders by the smallest details about them. It's something that takes practice I guess. Although.. I'm not sure practice will even work for this situation because Genly has been on that planet for two years now.  On top of that, not only is Genly having trouble with understanding the Gethenians and the way they are but he also has to deal with them not completely comprehending the way that he himself is. They not only think it's strange but also look down upon the way he is by the way they just refer to people like him as perverts. I can imagine this adds frustration to everything else that's already going on with him on that planet seeing as how he is making an effort to understand and respect the way that Gethenians are while they just label him negatively and go from there. Overall I feel like Genly is just doing the best he can to try and see the Gethenians the way they see themselves even if its still a process going on after two years. It kind of shows that he can more patient than the people of Gethen when it comes to this at least which is also ironic considering how slow everything else is on that planet.

The Left Hand of Darkness; Wave 1

       Genly Ai struggles to understand the Gethenians as they see themselves when he describes them as being either a man or woman because in Winter gender isn't important. In chapter 8, Genly hears that the king's son is pregnant which he finds funny because the world he comes from women can only get pregnant. Other men on Winter found it funny also but for a different reason which was because the king's son is too old to be having a kid. Also when Genly is talking to Shusgis for the first time, Shusgis mentions how he was once pregnant which causes Genly to be confused because he couldn't picture him being a pregnant woman because of he was a "hard shrewd jovial politician" . This reveals that gender plays a big role in what Genly thinks about the Gethenians. He automatically judges them for being a man and pregnant because it's not normal for Genly to see or hear that since he comes from a place where men don't have babies. There are more parts as to where Genly doesn't understand the Gethenians as they see themselves but that just reveals the differences between his world and Winter.

Wave 1

As Genly Ai continues to live on, Gethen, the planet he once called Winter, he has a hard time seeing the Gethenians as they see themselves. For one, the Gethenians don’t have a gender up until their time of kemmer. As a human this is hard for Genly to grasp, mainly because on earth we say “he, she, him, her” opposed to the Gethenians who call everyone “he”. When Genly was talking to Estraven he was thinking how “it was impossible to think of him as a woman, that dark, ironic, powerful presence [...] and yet whenever I thought of him as a man I felt a sense of falseness” (pg 12). He seems as confused as we probably all are just because this isn’t life as we know it. Although Genly may be confused he is willing to learn about how the Gethenians live their life by reading up on their culture, as well as actually living among them. He stated in chapter one that he feels “[...] alone, with a stranger, inside the walls of a dark place, in a strange snow-changed city, in the heart of the Ice Age of an alien world”, even though he has been living on this planet for two years now, no matter how long he has been on Gethen, Genly still feels like an outsider. This is understandable, being that he is from earth, and how different the two worlds are from each other.

The Left Hand of Darkness : Wave 1 Response

Genly Ai comes from a planet where humans are labeled as female, male, he, or she.  As he visits the planet called Winter, where it's people are called Gethenians, he soon discovers the difficulty of how "they" live, and how odd it is for them to be neither male nor female most of the time, only during the time of kemmer.  Once he is on this planet, Genly decides to call them "he" because it seems easier that way for him. Like, when he goes to go speak with his "landlady" or when he sees Faxe more as a woman, all of that made it hard for him to fully understand why they are so different, including the cultures, and way of life generally. For the time being of Genly being there, he is labeled as a pervert because Genly is always male and is always in kemmer, which also causes the Gethenians to not support his culture either.   Despite the oddness of this place,  Genly is actually open to learning about their culture, which reveals how from where he comes from, they are always curious and nosy.  How they think it might be weird for them to be more passive towards gender.  He also makes it clear on how Winter is always cold, whereas to Earth, it can be warm or cold. We as readers can connect on what Genly feels because in a sense, we are actually like him, more than Gethanians. 

The Left Hand of Darkness, Wave 1

WAVE 1:  Rachel A, Bria A, Cynthia A, Toni C, Juliet C, Melanie C, Katelyn C, Jimwell D, Valerie D, Kai E, Damien F, Sebastian F, Austin G.  

Remember, these are the students who will be posting this first week, but ANYONE can respond.  Before the unit is over, you should have posted once, responded twice.

The Prompt:

Discuss Genly Ai's struggle to see Gethenians as they see themselves. What do Genly Ai's attitudes reveal about the world he comes from?

This wave of blogging will be completed by Monday, January 22, at 6pm.