Having finished my first semester in graduate school I noticed a discrepancy in my daily routine. I would awaken early in the morning, perform hygienic necessities and eat breakfast. However once those few tasks were accomplished I realized I did not know what to do with the remainder of my day. During the academic calendar, my primary focus would be school. It was the entire reason I woke up in the mornings and the reason why I would sleep relatively early at nights. And while yes, I could continue to study (catch up on the current epidemiologic literature) without the motivation of grades it just isn't the same.
So I decided to foray into the city and explore. But for all my hopes and dreams of epic adventures I ended up at the downtown branch of the Chicago public library system. I haven't really read for pleasure since school had started. Oh sure, I read a couple novels here and there but these were the fantasy novels I had brought from home and had already read through them. I enjoy rereading books because each time you do so you pick up or understand something different. Little nuances you wouldn't have understood reading them the first time through. But there is nothing like reading a great book for the first time.
I wandered up to the 7th floor, fiction, and started to browse. I ended up selecting several novels written by Ursula K. Le Guin. I started with The Left Hand of Darkness, a short book in comparison to the epic tomes I usually read. I read it in one sitting, paused to think about it and then read it again straight through. To be perfectly honest, it wasn't that great of a book. It wasn't particularly engaging and I didn't find myself clutching my chair eager to turn each page. It read almost like a documentary with several different character views and a smattering of 'historical narrative'.
But when I stopped to think about it, this book was a doozy. It brings up the idea of gender roles. In this setting, the native people of Gethen (the world where most of the events transpire) are androgynous. Normally in a state of neutral gender they shift into male or female roles during their sexual period which happens every 26 days. This is further complicated by the fact that the main perspective in this book is from a male from Terra (what is alluded to as Earth). This character Genly is the representative of a planetary collective which desires to bring Gethen into its membership. Given this sexual neutrality, the books explores gender roles both in their biological and cultural imposed forms. I'm not going to get into it but it essentially boils down to Nuture (people of Gethen) vs Nature (everyone else). Le Guin also deftly brings up the idea of belief systems and mythologies and the influences they bear on individual action. Gethen is a fragmented world meaning that there is no unified body. There exists, multiple nations, cultures and religions. Our main character Genly goes from one nation to another, an alien yet desperately struggling to gain an emic perspective. This is incredibly difficult as the differences within the world are exemplified to one who comes from the outside. Genly is forced to react differently to different people and you can feel the his frustration as actions are interpreted differently by people he considers to be the same. You also get a sense of perspective while reading this book. The nations of Gethen are in tension with one another yet the emergence of 'aliens' forces them to realize that they are not alone in the universe. And in order to respond to Genly and the worlds he represents they must unify and stand together.
I realize that this book is entirely fictional yet it causes me to reflect upon reality. I don't understand why people tend to disregard fiction. Often times I find fiction/fantasy novels are better written, more thought provoking and thus more educational than 'classic' literature.
Fiction is a metaphor, but to what purpose? Why do people choose to write countless pages of made up nonsense? If you stop and think about it, sometimes only in the nonsense can we achieve clarity.
