So this week, we finally had finished reading Le Guinn's, Left Hand of Darkness. in the class discussions, we came up with many points, one being Le Guinn's stress in gender. I've discussed with my classmates on how men are addressed as "people" and women objects. For example, if we were to name a boat, we name the boat a girl name, in most cases instinctively, and refer to it as "her" or "she". Even up to this day, although years before the whole situation of being sexist was more drastic, women today are still treated as "objects" by some men.

When we dicussed the book, an interesting topic came up, the relati0nship between Estraven and Genly. I thought, that throughout the whole book, Estraven and Genly were kind of dating. Both, evidently, were very suspicious and unsure of each other, just like how two people dating would feel before they get to know each other. then later on, Estraven protects Genly from suffering, just like a "knight in shining armor", and saves him. they both grow a closer relationship in terms of learning to trust each other (Genly also teaches Estraven to talk through their minds). Estraven dies in the end, and my inference from reading, i believe that Genly would be terribly heartbroken and sad because as soon as he and Estraven became more comfortable, he die :[

Estravn's death seems very ironic to Le Guinn's title, The Left Hand of Darkness. referring again to p. 233, that specific quote, I feel that the whole idea of Yin and Yang parallels with Estraven's death (Yin) and how his death was beneficial to Genly's mission (Yang).

Today in class, I'd have to say Saruul, Amy, and Catriona, had, by far, the most creative class discussion ever. I love love loooooved the whole pairing up and rotating inner/outer circle concept!
Also, I'd like to add that their discussion questions were very open-ended and had came up with many interesting opinions as well.
The question i had was a quote from p.233, about the "left hand of darkness" and its "right hand" which was light. I interpreted this quote as two factors, light and darkness, two of which work hand in hand and need each other for existence. For example, how we do know what light is? In order for us to really know what light is, we have to know what darkness is. And same goes for darkness; we need to know what light is to experience what darkness is. One of my partners, Paula I believe was her name, had mentioned that this particular quote was similar in the concept of the Yin and Yang.
I personally, loved the discussion i received because i was able to recall a poem i once had read in my sophomore year in Ms. Innis' 10th grade english class. I can't recall completely the title of this poem or who wrote it but I do remember that it had the same concept of the quote on p. 233, that one needs the opposite in order to exist. My own example: how would you know if you are healthy or not? You'd have to hav been sick at least once before in order to know your state of health.

The past chapters were extremely long and also was not easy to understand.
In the beginning, King Argaven was very unsure of Estraven and seemed to not trust him at all. later on, it was revealed why King Argaven had thought of Estraven as a traitor, Estraven wanted to share/give land? to its neighboring countries to avoid war, but Argaven was against it and sent him to leave.

In a class discussion this week, I can't recall what chapter, but the question of Estraven being a traitor (or not) came up. I personally don't believe that Estraven is a traitor and I disagree with King Argaven for thinking that he had committed treason. Estraven only wanted peace, and he thought that by sharing/giving territory to their neighboring countries, will help prevent war. But Argaven thought differently. He thought that Estraven was betraying him by wanting to give land and totally missed his whole point of sharing land to prevent war.

Since Estraven was exiled from Gethen, which i just found out was aka Winter -_-, he traveled around, just like Genly (how ironic!), and kept a diary of the place he stayed in. This chapter, the chapter of Estraven's journal entries, confused me a lot. But after having group discussions, it was clarified that it WAS Estraven narrating, and it was him writing in his journal.

Today was an inetersting discussion. The group i was in had discussed the parallelism of the Commensal to communsim and King Argaven and Tibe's control, as monarchy ruling. The Commensals left out information from their citizenz, kind of like the Communsists, in means of "protecting" them.

From chapters 6 through 7, it was packed with a lot of information that clarified a lot of unanswered questions i had. for example, kemmering and the process of kemmering was revealed in ch7. my hypothesis was correct! Kemmering is their way of sexual contact. it was actually really weird reading it, but what was more weird was when i found out that one of the male partner morphes in and out as a female. that's different. anther fact i'd like to address is, also in ch.7, when the narrator says, "you cannot think of a Gethenian as 'it'. they are not neuters. they are potentials, or integrals."(p94), I strongly agree! but i feel that Le Guin making the male gender dominant and addressing the characters as men, in a way, contradicts the whole idea of kemmering because during kemmering one out of the two males become a FEMALE. also, the book is interesting but what makes it hard to understand and to read is Le Guin's way of writing the chapters. she doesn't always give clues to what her made up words mean, for example, shethgrythor. i still have no idea what that means.

throughout chapters 8-10 a lot of things also was revealed. like the king, argaven was pregnant and was made fun of for being old and bearing a baby. and that Estraven is not a traitor for wanting to give away land. his reasons were to prevent war and create peace, but the king totally misinterpreted it.

The Left Hand of Darkness

When i had first read The Left Hand of Darkness, it was really confusing to understand. it's a book that is kind of out of my element, but it is pretty interesting. i really don't get much of what is going on and with whom. But i know it's definitely a story out of the ordinary. Gen li is a foreigner? and is somewhat being questioned by the mysterious Estraven. The group project we've done in class has helped me understand most of what is happening. talking with my group mates and discussing the events taking place in the story has clarified many of the questions i had. I find it interesting that kemmering in the book is a vow that two brothers make to each other to be together forever, well only up until one bears a child! Wow! that was something i definitely did not see coming. another event that i thought was also surprising, was when the brother that did not bear a child, would commit suicide. omg. that also was unexpected. getheren was mentioned to have seen his brother, which by the way had killed himself, in an all white scenary. i'm interpreting this all white scenary to be the snow and blizzard that this book describes as the story goes on. but im still also kind of confused, does it mean the blizzard, because in ch. 2 that's what it's titled, or does it mean heaven? because its where getheren saw the ghost of his dead brother, hode.