Le Guin & Duality, The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed.

“Our curse is alienation, the separation of yin from yang. Instead of a search for balance and integration, there is a struggle for dominance. Divisions are insisted upon, interdependence is denied [...] dualism of value [...] destroys us [...] superior/ inferior, ruler/ruled, owner/owned [...]’ (Le Guin, “Is Gender Necessary......” 42).

The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed are set in the same universe. Both are concerned with “dualism[s] of value” (172). The above quote is taken from a paper Le Guin wrote in response to critiques of The Left Hand of Darkness. Themes of balance, integration and interdependence run throughout both texts. The title “The Left Hand of Darkness” is taken from a fictional adage within the text, that highlights the message of the above quote:

“Light is the left hand of darkness, and darkness the right hand of light” (Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness 252).

Light and dark are the Ur-imagery of yin and yang. Light is imagined as the one hand and darkness as the other. These opposing concepts are necessarily part of a whole, which is the person. The person is yin and yang. Each concept forms part of a pair. Left and right, dark and light, the two hands are mutually exclusive yet mutually necessary for the whole.

“Is the book a Utopia?” Le Guin says of The Left Hand of Darkness. Her answer is no, she says it “poses no practical alternative to contemporary society” (Le Guin, “Is Gender Necessary......”, 171). This is in contrast to The Dispossessed, which was conceived as a utopia. While perhaps not practical, Anarres does offer an alternative. Especially the Anarres Shevek seeks on his journey. The Left Hand of Darkness is, however, a radical rethinking of binary opposition. Like The Dispossessed, it too is a practice in “both/and” rather than “either/or”. Each inhabitant of the planet Gethen is both male and female. Androgenous most of the year, each month each Gethenian becomes either male or female, the gender alternating monthly for each person at random. Gethenians are the physical embodiments of the yin yang symbol.

The Left Hand of Darkness, published slightly earlier than The Dispossessed, targets the specific binary of gender. The Dispossessed published as a utopia, targets binary divisions in general. Perhaps her comment here is we will not have a utopia until all binaries are deconstructed.