This is an essay I wrote for Molly's English 4 class this year.

 

 

Jack Duffey

Molly Fenn

English

4/22/2014

The Left Hand of Darkness: A DIfferent Take on Aliens

            It begins as if the report was recorded hundreds of years ago. A story recorded in the archives of Hain, by the protagonist of book that is called Genly Ai. Genly is a recruiter for the Ekumen of Known Worlds, a league of 80 worlds from throughout the universe. He represents the Ekumen with the proposal for the kingdoms of Gethen to join this already massive alliance. Long before him, there was a group that arrived on the planet when it was first discovered. Genly has built a reputation with the Ekumen as being very influential, recruiting many worlds easily and without struggle. But the planet about which this report was made, Gethen, is not so easily influenced. Its four different kingdoms, Karhide, Orgoreyn, Sith, and the Archipelago, have opinions that require Genly to do more work than usual. Having Karhide and Orgoreyn be archenemies for thousands of years in the past is the basis of Genly’s struggles. Karhide is where he stops first, and Genly has no idea that this journey will be so much more complicated than he knows.

            Movies and books about aliens are most definitely not unheard of, but nobody has ever written about aliens like this. The people of Karhide have no gender, in real life we have identified this as being A-gender. Considering that this book was published about 45 years ago, the concept of this book was preposterous. Now, almost any book could get published, no matter the author or subject. The people of Karhide have a way of life. On Earth, that way of life is an option. Most portrayals of aliens cannot compare, whether it’s Star Trek, Ender’s Game, Oblivion, or Alien. The concept of an alliance that stretches to different parts of the universe can be compared to Star Wars, which the first movie was released in 1977. I think The Left Hand of Darkness was recognized like any other book because the basic population thought A-genders were classified as part the LGBT community. Aliens are almost always written off as evil, Ender’s Game being the exception because they misrepresented themselves. This book is different. As you read, you could recognize it is modeled around the modern times of the 1960s.

            Personally, I prefer science fiction movies to books. I did not really enjoy reading this book, but the different opinions purely depend on the person. Science fiction lovers find a different perspective on what aliens could be like, and we’ll have to wait and find out if we are not alone.