Monday, February 5, 2018
Wave 2
The cold weather on Gethen is one of the biggest parts of the lives of the Gethenians. It’s so unbearingly cold that it takes up most of their bodily energy just to withstand it. This kind of constant drain in energy is an undoubting way to have separation between people and emotions. If you don’t have a lot of energy and someone comes to talk to you at school, a lot of times people just ignore each other because they don’t have the patience or just out right lack of energy to converse. The same idea can be applied to the Gethenians. With their energy being drained into withstanding the harsh cold Winter, they could very well not have the energy to make close connections or conversations that we have here on Earth. One strong downside of this is it can make someone feel very alone and distant from others, due to the inability of spending time with one another and getting close. The only kind of “personal” affiliation Gethenians have with each other is the kemmering process, which is 9/10 times not a personal interaction, but just a natural part of the life on Gethen. All this leads to the people of Gethen feeling isolated. Not only does this idea apply to the regular Gethenians, but it also apples to Genly himself. With Genly being the only human being on a completely different planet that’s not even close to his home planet, there is no doubt about him feeling alone and isolated from his normal way of life and his idea of “normal” people.
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The correlation to not having enough energy to talk to someone at school is something that I relate to. For instance when it’s cold and raining at school, you just want to be at home in your bed with hot chocolate, so that’s all you’re thinking about, so when someone comes up to you go ask what you got for #7 on the stats homework, you don’t have the energy for that because you’re focused on something else and you’re too tired and cold to think about it. It makes sense, and then the lack of communication eventually leads to loneliness and isolation. This is a good post and that example made a lot of sense. I also can’t imagine how Genley feels being in a place where everyone is so different than him. He should feel the most isolated out of anyone on Gethen, and the cold probably doesn’t help with that either. Gethen just seems like a sad place that I wouldn’t really want to go. I like the cold, but not to the extent where I feel isolated and lonely constantly.
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