Harvard Book Club
Discuss The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
Date: Tuesday, January 12th, 2021
Time: 7:30 pm Minneapolis Time
Title: The Left Hand of Darkness
Author: Ursula Le Guin
For catalog purposes Left Hand is classified as Science Fiction (SF), but please read on.
Originally published in 1969 and with numerous printings, Le Guin wrote in the 1976 edition "..... Left Hand is a "thought experiment" meaning it is not to predict the future, but to describe a reality, in this case a society without men or women, a world where individuals share the biological and emotional makeup of both sexes ..., and sometimes not....Left Hand uses imaginary situations to comment on human behaviors and relationships." Again to quote L Guin upon hearing that the book would be issued in hardcover and questioning that decision......."Left Hand looked to me like a natural flop, its style is not the journalistic one, its structure is complex, it moves slowly, and even if everybody is called he, it is not about men, .....that's a big dose of hard lit, heresy and chutzpah..."
In that regard Le Guin significantly underestimated the critical reception,
"Left Hand" has been the recipient of numerous awards in the SF category as well in general categories recognizing "......aesthetic connoisseurship."
The critic Professor Harold Bloom included Left Hand in his "Canon of Western Literature" much can be written about that book as well.
Questions? marden@umn.edu
Noteworthy, the Classic Fiction Book Club has expanded to include non-classics and non-fiction and is now called the Harvard Book Club.
E-mail admin@harvardmn.org or phone 612-871-2914 to register. Zoom info will be given when you register.