Wave one

The place Genly ai  comes from is completely different than Gethen.  The first thing that is completely different is the way the speak.  In Gethen they talk in a form that can be taken in multiple ways.  Genly encounters this in chapter one when talking to Tibe the king's cousin.  Genly explains that he can't understand what Tibe is trying to come across because of the way he is smiling a certain way with his teeth.  Another thing that is different are the kind of people present.  In chapter three King Argaven is surprised by the skin tone Genly because he is dark.  King Argaven asks him if the people of where he is from are as dark as him?  This leads me to believe that there are no people in Gethen with the dark skin tone Genly has.  If Genly has a dark skin tone everybody else must be the same or more people with it.  I think the difference from Gethen and from where Genly is from Ekumem is greater than if we to another country. We are shown this when King Argaven ask about the sexual perversion.  Why would he ask about the sexual perversion if they are all people?  This makes it seem like it is a different sexual perversion depending on the locations. What if there is more than just humans that look human that why the king ask Genly about the sexual perversion.  This is a possibility  because the King asks Genly is an alien Envoy.  Of course this is a zoom chance because the word alien can be used and can be interpreted in different ways.  I am just going to stick he refers an alien as someone not from around here.

Retained Accustoms

Within the novel The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, the main character, Genly Ai, has difficulty adjusting to the extremely unusual nature of this planet Winter. He particularly has a difficult time seeing the inhabitants of this planet, Gethenians, as they see themselves. This is mostly due to the home planet that he is accustomed to. One of his main difficulties is seeing the Gethenians as either male or female when they in fact have no sex until they are in the reproductive state of kemmer. In this state, the individual takes on an either male or female form in order to reproduce with one another. 

In one instance on page twelve, Genly acknowledges the fact that he cannot help but see Gethenians first as a male and then as a women. He also states that he sees Estraven as a women forcing him into categories so irrelevant to his nature only to fit into Genlys' own comfort zone. He also feels the need to mention that the femininity may have been what caused Genly to have distrust and dislike in Estraven, which is extremely sexist, but that is another topic.

This habit of placing these individuals into these categories stem from his own accustoms on his home planet. It is mostly clear that Genly is a normal human being such as ourselves. He is often referred to as a "sexual freak" or "pervert" as on page 32 by the king because the Gethenians see him as being in a constant state of kemmer. This is due to Genly actually being in the form of a man all of the time. Since the planet that Genly comes from contains human beings that are assigned a sex at birth and (it is assumed) that they continue to remain that sex for the rest of their lives, he is unable to grasp the fact that these beings do not have a gender. Therefore, he self-consciously assigns a gender to the Gethenians and is unable to see them as they see themselves or even as they see him. 

Destiny Esqueda

"Spring on Winter"

Genly Ai and the Gethenians are from different worlds- and unsurprisingly have planetary differences. Two of the most obvious differences are those of biological reproduction and social standards/ manners. In Winter, there is no determined sex or gender among the Gethenians, and their urges and reproductive parts are part of a cycle characterized by a constant state of uncertainty. Genly has a difficult time understanding Kemmer because in his home planet, sex is predetermined and lasts a lifetime. Also, gender is assumed and expected to be directly related to its respective sex. The Gethenians don’t have a concept of gender remotely close to that of Genly, therefore they don’t regard one another as female or male (except in Kemmer). This type of identification is a fundamental part of Genly’s human nature and to a certain extent has inhibited his ability of understanding their actions and way of life. He refers to almost everyone he meets, especially those in power, as males, aware that they have no such permanent label. Additionally, he reveals his sexist attitude, from a sexist world, through continually demeaning descriptions of women, such as “all charm and tact and lack of substance” (12) and with comparisons to the primitive and unintelligent. For example, he attributed Karhide’s behavior in its inability to mobilize “like animals, in that respect; or like women” (49). 

Secondly, shifgrethor, a social principle and standard of pride and prestige, is the ultimate power that few successful Gethenians have mastered (14). It is also characterized by “evasions, challenges, and rhetorical subtleties” (33) in daily conversations. To Genly, it seems unnecessary and an extra burden placed on speech, most likely because he cannot comprehend it. His frustration with this avoidant type of speech is revealed in long strings of thought and slow responses that conform to this social manner. It can be deduced that in his planet, communication is direct and straight forward with little deviations. However, his attempts to conform to this new world’s expectations, such as shifgrethor and showing respect, reflects highly upon himself and his world. This is pretty obvious, after all he is trying to help King Argaven and Winter join the Ekumen because its in their best interest.

(Title inspiration is direct quote from chapter 1, page 10. In this post context, Genly is spring on winter.)

Patricia Cuarenta

Left Hand of Darkness Response to Wave 1

Genly's character in Left Hand of Darkness is, in my opinion, not likeable. In fact, genly comes off as a mysoginic and closed minded person. Although he is trying to open the mind of gethenians and persuade them into being more open to new ideas of living, it's contradictory to his judgements and is more according to his way of life on ekumen. I can see that going into a world with no gender roles can be very complicating. In fact, i feel his struggle in determing the feminity or masculinity of each gethenian. That being said, it becomes clear that we are so used to putting categories and certain roles on living beings that we do not focus on the importance of their actual character. For example, in Chapter 7's explanation of kemmer and how the process works, genly says "There is no division of humanity into strong and weak halves, protective/protected, dominant/submissive, owner/chattel, active/passive"(94). There, we see how Genly is not only confused by the equality on karhide but how he is so accustomed to putting roles on genders. This kind of mindset reveals a lot about himself, his home planet, and also us as human beings. Reading this book, we are befuddled by the absolute equality in gender and class. There is not one being on karhide that is of higher power than the other. Therefore, we can relate to Genly's way of living on ekumen, because like us they categorize and places certain characterstics on men and women. Let alone, they assign gender roles. In addition, his  way of thinking that females are of low standard and can't be dominant like men show another kind of relation to us. Because women as a whole still have trouble to this day to be looked and treated as equals to men. With his discrminative thoughts on women, it reveals the truth of how the people on ekumen perceive the woman. However, we cannot fully assume that all men are discrimanating to women in the way that Genly is. Though Genly respresents his planet, he is still only one being with this mindest coming from ekumen. He still does not think for everyone on ekumen. We can't be certain that all men on Genly's home planet share the same way of thinking that he does until we find more evidence to prove it so.

[KC]: Wave 1 Discussion Question

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?

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.

Wave 1 responders, you have until 6:00 pm Wednesday, January 13th to post your response to this question. All other students in the class may comment on any of the LHoD posts at any time.

Who shall post:
Ryan Salcido, Izzy Batres, Andrew Navarro, Patty Cuarenta, Destiny Esqueda, Adrian Roque, Mary Muro, Daryl Chit, Ashlee Snyder, Brenden Pollard, Melissa Valenzuela, Cierra Pin

[KC]: Left Hand Of Darkness Vocabulary: The First Batch

[KC]: LHOD Blog Instructions

Hi students! Here's the formalized posting for this unit on the blog ...

The class will be divided into thirds; three groups of responders: Wave 1, 2, and 3. For this blog session (meaning, by January 25th) each student will be expected to post 1 response and 2 comments total. -- Of course, you are always welcome to comment more than the required amount :]

Each wave of blogging will involve responding to a thought- provoking question that I will post to the blog related to LHoD. The students assigned to that group are expected to respond before the deadline, which will be posted along with the question. Everyone else is expected to comment twice over the entire blogging period for this unit.

Here are the deadlines:

The first question--the one that Wave 1 participants will be expected to respond to--will be posted to the class blog by Saturday afternoon, January 9th. Wave 1 responders will be required to post their responses by Wednesday, January 13th.

The second question--the one that Wave 2 participants will be expected to respond to--will be posted to the class blog on Wednesday, January 13th. Wave 2 responders will be required to post their responses by Tuesday, January 19th.

The third question--the one that Wave 3 participants will be expected to respond to--will be posted to the class blog on Tuesday, January 19th. Wave 3 responders will be required to post their responses by Friday, January 22nd.

When it is not currently your wave, you should be reading responses and commenting along the way.

Wave 1 Participants:

Ryan Salcido, Izzy Batres, Andrew Navarro, Patty Cuarenta, Destiny Esqueda, Adrian Roque, Mary Muro, Daryl Chit, Ashlee Snyder, Brenden Pollard, Melissa Valenzuela, Cierra Pin

Wave 2 Participants:

Zenna Delgado, Tony Gonzalez, Joseph Briseno, Jessica Padron, Stephanie Cuevas, Gonzalo Maldonado, Eryka Springer, Visoth Lim, Jenna Terry, Trever Hairston, Danielle Parra

Wave 3 Participants:
Sharissa Robins, Noelle Huynh, Mercedes Padilla, Joshua Luciano, Charmaine Williams, Keila Amavizca, Eve Mendoza, Kumpol Homwongpanich, Sebastian Rogers, Kyle Goerlitz, Alexus Guzman, Taureece Wilson