The Left Hand of Darkness and Ideas

This week I read  the beginning of The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin. This novel obviously has a lot to do with the idea of war and "modernization". The main character, Genly Ai wants to bring the Gethenian people to join Ekumen, which is a group of planets that talk peacefully with each other, kind of like the League of Nations. However, the culture of the Gethenians is confusing to the people who want them to join their organization. This is a example of how colonizing countries will always have different cultures and is hard for them to understand. It is also very cool to see a book from the late 60's talk about gender and lack of gender as that is now something becoming very prevalent in our culture today. 
Another thing that so far seems to be a pretty important idea in the book is the idea of monarchies and how kings don't see things from a rational perspective. He even fires his Prime Minister because he trusts neither the Prime Minister, Therem Harth rem ir Straven, nor Ai. He doesn't want to listen to why Ai wants his planet to join Ekumen and just distrusts him off the bat. It shows how people of power lose a sense of humanity and human interaction because they are so far separated from everyone else. 




The readings for this week emphasize the fiction of ideas. What ideas or mind experiments were explored in the works you read for this week? What were some of the implications or consequences of those ideas for those of us living today? Remember to add a comment to another student's blog.