Ursula K. Le Guin's Left Hand Of Darkness

In 1969, Ursula K. Le Guin penned the novel known as Left Hand of Darkness. Not only is the novel an excellent example of science fiction, it also provides a fairly revolutionarily view on gender relations for the time. While the science-fiction novel utilizes its pages as a platform for a treatise on gender relations and traditional power structures, it also comments on the structure of power and violence itself by framing the alien culture as at first completely counter to our own but at the a deeper level sharing many similar traits with each other underneath the surface.
Due to the fact that science-fiction mirrors reality, and that this work does so by showing a culture that on its surface is a polar opposite to ours, aspects of the counterculture

of the time appear within the novel, particularly in regards to gender relations, the concept of power, and the idea of “the other.” In the 1960s, despite the growing LGBT and feminist movements, many people still believed in traditional gender roles and the concept of heterosexuality as the norm. These beliefs are originally held by the main protagonist, at least until he visited the planet of Winter. The planet, almost always populated entirely by androgynies has no concept of only being one gender or the stereotypes which accompany the two genders. On this planet “there is no division of humanity into strong and weak halves,” as when the inhabitants of winter do occasionally split into two distinct genders during kemmer “individuals have no predisposition to either sexual role” (Le Guin 100; Le Guin 97). This circumvents any predisposition towards viewing certain members of society as weaker, or trying to pigeonhole them into distinct roles as anyone has the possibility to both mother and father future generations. The novel shows how the ambassador to Winter was at first thrown by how different their society was, at times floundering because his “entire pattern of socio-sexual interaction [had become] non-existent” and “forcing [people] into those categories so irrelevant to his nature and so essential to [his] own,” but the ambassador was eventually able to embrace the new concept, similar to how counter-cultures of the 1960s hoped to one day become embraced as part of the mainstream culture (Le Guin 100-101; Le Guin 11). In both the eyes of the ambassador and in 1960s America, it had been the experience that anyone different was rejected as “degrading” and a form of “lower mammal,” but Winter was a culture counter to all others, allowing for everyone to be considered equal (Le Guin 101). The protagonist describes a lifestyle extremely similar to 1960s America, calling the previous time of violence and distrust the “Age of the Enemy,” however the peaceful Winter knew of no such horrors (Le Guin 147). While the societies of Winter and of 1960s America seem to hold little in common, further inspection shows that all societies within the novel hold similarities to America.
Despite the differences between Winter and 1960s America, Winter does exhibit some traits that American counter-cultures railed against in the 1960s. While traits differ according to which country on Winter is being discussed, all countries ultimately place an inordinate level of importance on the importance of citizenship, immigration, and the identification of all individuals (Le Guin 84). Sadly, the more the ambassador interacted with the seemingly idyllic governments of Winter, the more he realized that, like many other governments, including that of 1960s America, “[they] don’t mean love, when [they] say patriotism. [They] mean fear. Fear of the other” (Le Guin 20). Although structural differences between genders did not exist on Winter, differences in social standing were still highly relevant. Poverty was a cycle of no escape within the different countries on the planet, and the rich of the countries lorded themselves over everyone else (Le Guin 86-87). The countries had even built up the same rhetoric of “us versus them,” echoing the views of various opposing groups in 1960s America (Le Guin 108). Despite the fact that science fiction novels generally take place decades, centuries, or even thousands of years in the future, the societies they show still share characteristics of the society in which they were written.
In 1960s novels, as with many others from the genre, science fiction mirrored reality.

Its main trait is to be “not predictive, [but] descriptive,” showing society in a light that hopes to make its audience contemplate things from a different point of view (Le Guin xiv). Science fiction does its best to portray societal issues and possible solutions to them within the premise and societal conventions set up within the novel. The genre is important to the 1960s, as it was able to take the various countercultures and emphasize the problems they address and their hopes for the future. The genre also challenges current societal structures and norms of the time, as “the soundest fact may fail or prevail in the style of its telling” (Le Guin 1). Science fiction novels will also emphasize patterns the authors find worrisome within modern society, in this case, stereotypes of gender and power structures, as well as to a lesser extent various social ills.
In Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula Le Guin was successfully able to mirror 1960s society and its countercultures in a country thousands of years in the future. She highlighted the lows as well as the possible highs humanity could reach. The novel not only highlighted how different the future was from 1960s America, but how things were still similar as well. It also used science fiction as an important vehicle to show issues in a different

light.