Monday, January 22, 2018
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.
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I agree with what you said Jimwell about how it is hard for Genly to understand a concept that he is not used to. He has grown up his whole life with gender roles; therefore, I can see how he is struggling with the change. In a way it is like trying to teach an old dog new trick. Plus Genly is a male human so I could see how it is hard to seperate the people from Gethen from his old way of things, because he sees everyone just as human. Although that is not an excuse for some of the rude things he does. Genly is a sexist character and he is that way because he came from earth, yet it does not make the fact ok. However it is really interesting how the value of gender roles are learned through society and in certain environments. I like that you pointed that fact out.
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