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156-465: The Hainish novels The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) and The Dispossessed (1974) have won literary awards, as have the novella The Word for World Is Forest (1972) and the short stories " The Day Before the Revolution " (1974) and " The Matter of Seggri " (1994). Le Guin herself often discounted the characterization of a "Hainish Cycle", writing on her website that "The thing is, they aren't

312-442: A barrier of understanding for Ai. The Left Hand of Darkness was among the first books in the genre now known as feminist science fiction and is described as the most famous examination of androgyny in science fiction. A major theme of the novel is the effect of sex and gender on culture and society, explored in particular through the relationship between Ai and Estraven, a Gethenian politician who trusts and helps Ai. When

468-400: A "thought experiment" which presupposes some changes to the world, and probes their consequences. The purpose of the thought experiment is not to predict the future, but to "describe reality, the present world". In this case, her thought experiment explores a society without men or women, where individuals share the biological and emotional makeup of both sexes. Le Guin has also said that

624-438: A 100,000-tonne space vehicle able to achieve a 20,000 km/s delta-v allowing a flight-time to Alpha Centauri of 130 years. Later studies indicate that the top cruise velocity that can theoretically be achieved by a Teller-Ulam thermonuclear unit powered Orion starship, assuming no fuel is saved for slowing back down, is about 8% to 10% of the speed of light (0.08-0.1c). An atomic (fission) Orion can achieve perhaps 3%-5% of

780-549: A balance between knowing and unknowing, and focusing and unfocusing. The Yomesh cult is the official religion of Orgoreyn, and worships light. Critics such as David Lake have found parallels between the Yomesh cult and Christianity, such as the presence of saints and angels, and the use of a dating system based on the death of the prophet. Le Guin portrays the Yomesh religion as influencing the Orgota society, which Lake interprets as

936-453: A betrayal. At the end of the novel Ai calls his ship down to formalize Gethen's joining the Ekumen, and feels conflicted while doing so because he had promised Estraven that he would clear Estraven's name before calling his ship down. His decision is an example of Le Guin's portrayal of loyalty and betrayal as complementary rather than contradictory, because in joining Gethen with the Ekumen, Ai

1092-419: A brilliant editor newly in charge of an upscale Ace paperback line. His (appropriately) androgynous name led me to address him as Dear Miss Carr. He held no grudge about that and bought the book. That startled me. But it gave me the courage to ask the agent Virginia Kidd , who had praised one of my earlier books, if she’d consider trying to place The Left Hand of Darkness as a hardcover. She snapped it up like

1248-410: A candidate for becoming the 84th. The process of reaching out to potential civilizations is a tedious and sometimes dangerous one. Societies tend to use sophisticated but unobtrusive technologies. Most notable is the ansible , an instant-communication device that keeps worlds in touch with each other. Physical communication is by NAFAL (Nearly As Fast As Light) ships. The physics is never explained;

1404-442: A cat with a kibble and asked to represent me thenceforth. She also promptly sold the novel in that format. I wondered seriously about their judgment. Left Hand looked to me like a natural flop. Its style is not the journalistic one that was then standard in science fiction, its structure is complex, it moves slowly, and even if everybody in it is called he, it is not about men. That's a big dose of "hard lit," heresy, and chutzpah, for

1560-449: A central theme of Taoism. She was also influenced by her early interest in mythology , and her exposure to cultural diversity as a child. Her protagonists are frequently interested in the cultures they are investigating, and are motivated to preserve them rather than conquer them. Authors who influenced Le Guin include Victor Hugo , Leo Tolstoy , Virginia Woolf , Italo Calvino , and Lao Tzu . Le Guin identified with feminism , and

1716-422: A central theme of Taoism. The title The Left Hand of Darkness derives from the first line of a lay traditional to the fictional planet of Gethen: Light is the left hand of darkness, and darkness the right hand of light. Two are one, life and death, lying together like lovers in kemmer , like hands joined together, like the end and the way. Suzanne Reid stated that this presentation of light and dark

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1872-409: A civilization is still on an increasing curve of propulsion system velocity and not yet having reached the limit, the resources should be invested in designing a better propulsion system. This is because a slow spacecraft would probably be passed by another mission sent later with more advanced propulsion (the incessant obsolescence postulate). In 2006, Andrew Kennedy calculated ideal departure dates for

2028-426: A critique of the influence of Christianity upon Western society. In comparison to the religion of Karhide, the Yomesh religion focuses more on enlightenment and positive, obvious statements. The novel suggests that this focus on positives leads to the Orgota being not entirely honest, and that a balance between enlightenment and darkness is necessary for truth. Loyalty, fidelity, and betrayal are significant themes in

2184-517: A cycle or a saga. They do not form a coherent history. There are some clear connections among them, yes, but also some extremely murky ones." In the first three novels— Rocannon's World (1966), Planet of Exile (1966), and City of Illusions (1967)—there is a League of All Worlds. By City of Illusions , the League seems to have been conquered or fragmented by an alien race, the Shing, from beyond

2340-404: A genre novel by a nobody in 1968. The Left Hand of Darkness is set in the fictional Hainish universe, which Le Guin introduced in her first novel Rocannon's World , published in 1966. In this fictional history, human beings did not evolve on Earth, but on Hain. The people of Hain colonized many neighboring planetary systems, including Terra (Earth) and Gethen, possibly a million years before

2496-469: A habitable terrestrial planet , and advances in the field of fully autonomous mobile robots and educational robots that would replace human parents. Interstellar space is not completely empty; it contains trillions of icy bodies ranging from small asteroids ( Oort cloud ) to possible rogue planets . There may be ways to take advantage of these resources for a good part of an interstellar trip, slowly hopping from body to body or setting up waystations along

2652-421: A key engineering problem (seldom explicitly discussed) is limiting the heat transfer from the exhaust stream back into the vehicle. A type of electric propulsion, spacecraft such as Dawn use an ion engine . In an ion engine, electric power is used to create charged particles of the propellant, usually the gas xenon, and accelerate them to extremely high velocities. The exhaust velocity of conventional rockets

2808-492: A large number of stages could push a vehicle arbitrarily close to the speed of light. These would "burn" such light element fuels as deuterium, tritium, He, B, and Li. Because fusion yields about 0.3–0.9% of the mass of the nuclear fuel as released energy, it is energetically more favorable than fission, which releases <0.1% of the fuel's mass-energy. The maximum exhaust velocities potentially energetically available are correspondingly higher than for fission, typically 4–10% of

2964-565: A league of some 80 worlds at the time it was destroyed by aliens called the Shing, who are uniquely able to lie in mindspeech. After the apparent overthrow of the Shing by the descendants of marooned Terrans and the inhabitants of Alterra / Werel who have succeeded in interbreeding (as related in Planet of Exile ) and are capable of detecting Shing lies, the alliance is eventually reconstructed. A second phase begins with The Left Hand of Darkness . The 80 plus planets seem to have reunited as

3120-501: A light-year in 46 years and is currently moving at 1/17,600 the speed of light. At this rate, a journey to Proxima Centauri would take 75,000 years. A significant factor contributing to the difficulty is the energy that must be supplied to obtain a reasonable travel time. A lower bound for the required energy is the kinetic energy K = 1 2 m v 2 {\displaystyle K={\tfrac {1}{2}}mv^{2}} where m {\displaystyle m}

3276-524: A major author of science fiction. The novel is set in the fictional Hainish universe as part of the Hainish Cycle , a series of novels and short stories by Le Guin, which she introduced in the 1964 short story " The Dowry of Angyar ". It was fourth in sequence of writing among the Hainish novels, preceded by City of Illusions , and followed by The Word for World Is Forest . The novel follows

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3432-425: A month, during a period of sexual receptiveness and high fertility , called kemmer . During kemmer, they become sexually male or female , with no predisposition towards either, although which sex they adopt can depend on context and relationships. Throughout the novel Gethenians are described as " he ", whatever their role in kemmer. This absence of fixed gender characteristics led Le Guin to portray Gethen as

3588-433: A more trusting relationship. The new intimacy they share is shown when Ai teaches Estraven to mindspeak, and Estraven hears Ai speaking with the voice of Estraven's dead sibling (and lover) Arek. Feminist theorists criticized the novel for what they saw as a homophobic depiction of the relationship between Estraven and Ai. Both are presented as superficially masculine throughout the novel, but they never physically explore

3744-508: A number of other human qualities, can be depicted in a fresh context". Darko Suvin , one of the first academics to study science fiction, wrote that Left Hand was the "most memorable novel of the year", and Charlotte Spivack regards the book as having established Le Guin's status as a major science-fiction writer. In 1987 Harold Bloom described The Left Hand of Darkness as Le Guin's "finest work to date", and argued that critics have generally undervalued it. Bloom followed this up by listing

3900-418: A portable power-source, say a nuclear reactor , producing only small accelerations, would take centuries to reach for example 15% of the velocity of light , thus unsuitable for interstellar flight during a single human lifetime. Fission-fragment rockets use nuclear fission to create high-speed jets of fission fragments, which are ejected at speeds of up to 12,000 km/s (7,500 mi/s). With fission,

4056-470: A preference for a "society that governs by consensus, a communal cooperation without external government". Her fiction also frequently challenges accepted depictions of race and gender. The original 1969 edition of The Left Hand of Darkness did not contain an introduction. After reflecting on her work, Le Guin wrote in the 1976 edition that the genre of science fiction was not as "rationalist and simplistic" as simple extrapolation. Instead, she called it

4212-458: A pure fusion product exhaust velocity of ~3,000 km/s. An antimatter rocket would have a far higher energy density and specific impulse than any other proposed class of rocket. If energy resources and efficient production methods are found to make antimatter in the quantities required and store it safely, it would be theoretically possible to reach speeds of several tens of percent that of light. Whether antimatter propulsion could lead to

4368-629: A robotic probe to a nearby star for exploration, similar to interplanetary probes like those used in the Voyager program . By taking along no crew, the cost and complexity of the mission is significantly reduced, as is the mass that needs to be accelerated, although technology lifetime is still a significant issue next to obtaining a reasonable speed of travel. Proposed concepts include Project Daedalus , Project Icarus , Project Dragonfly , Project Longshot , and more recently Breakthrough Starshot . Near-lightspeed nano spacecraft might be possible within

4524-400: A series of nuclear explosions. This propulsion system contains the prospect of very high specific impulse and high specific power . Project Orion team member Freeman Dyson proposed in 1968 an interstellar spacecraft using nuclear pulse propulsion that used pure deuterium fusion detonations with a very high fuel- burnup fraction. He computed an exhaust velocity of 15,000 km/s and

4680-406: A ship initial mass of ~1700 metric tons, and payload fraction above 10%. Although these are still far short of the requirements for interstellar travel on human timescales, the study seems to represent a reasonable benchmark towards what may be approachable within several decades, which is not impossibly beyond the current state-of-the-art. Based on the concept's 2.2% burnup fraction it could achieve

4836-413: A society without war, and also without sexuality as a continuous factor in social relationships. On Gethen, every individual takes part in the "burden and privilege" of raising children, and rape and seduction are almost absent. The protagonist of the novel is Genly Ai, a male Terran native, who is sent to invite the planet Gethen to join the Ekumen, a coalition of humanoid worlds. Ai travels to

Hainish Cycle - Misplaced Pages Continue

4992-561: A speed of 0.87 light years per ship-year. The universe would appear contracted along the direction of travel to half the size it had when the ship was at rest; the distance between that star and the Sun would seem to be 16 light years as measured by the astronaut. At higher speeds, the time on board will run even slower, so the astronaut could travel to the center of the Milky Way (30,000 light years from Earth) and back in 40 years ship-time. But

5148-407: A theoretical physicist, has suggested that clouds of "smart dust" be sent to the stars, which may become possible with advances in nanotechnology . Kaku also notes that a large number of nanoprobes would need to be sent due to the vulnerability of very small probes to be easily deflected by magnetic fields, micrometeorites and other dangers to ensure the chances that at least one nanoprobe will survive

5304-429: A trip to Barnard's Star using a more precise concept of the wait calculation where for a given destination and growth rate in propulsion capacity there is a departure point that overtakes earlier launches and will not be overtaken by later ones and concluded "an interstellar journey of 6 light years can best be made in about 635 years from now if growth continues at about 1.4% per annum", or approximately 2641 AD. It may be

5460-591: A war with Orgoreyn over the Sinnoth Valley dispute; as well as taking aggressive actions at the border, he regularly makes belligerent speeches on the radio. He is strongly opposed to Ai's mission. He orders Estraven to be killed at the border at the end of the novel, as a last act of defiance, knowing that Estraven and Ai's presence in Karhide means his own downfall; he resigns immediately after Estraven's death. Obsle, Yegey, and Shusgis are Commensals, three of

5616-412: A work camp. Rescued by Estraven, the deposed Prime Minister of Karhide, Genly realizes that cultural differences—specifically shifgrethor , gender roles and Gethenian sexuality—had kept him from understanding their relationship previously. During their 80-day journey across the frozen land to return to Karhide, Ai learns to understand and love Estraven. Therem Harth rem ir Estraven is a Gethenian from

5772-485: Is a "League of Worlds," but the Ekumen does not yet exist. Then you could read The Word for World is Forest , The Left Hand of Darkness , [and] The Dispossessed , in any order. In Dispossessed , the ansible gets invented; but they’re using it in Left Hand , which was written fifteen years earlier. Please do not try to explain this to me. I will not understand. Then in the collection of stories A Fisherman of

5928-430: Is able to understand Estraven's motivations, and no longer requires direct communication. The novel is framed as part of the report that Ai sends back to the Ekumen after his time on Gethen, and as such, suggests that Ai is selecting and ordering the material. Ai narrates ten chapters in the first person; the rest are made up of extracts from Estraven's personal diary and ethnological reports from an earlier observer from

6084-483: Is allowed to present his invitation to the council that rules Orgoreyn. Three members of the council, Shusgis, Obsle, and Yegey, are particularly supportive of him. These three are members of an "Open Trade" faction, which wants to end the conflict with Karhide. Estraven, who was banished from Karhide, is found working with these council members, and tells Ai that he was responsible for Ai's reception in Orgoreyn. Despite

6240-465: Is answered "yes". This leads him to muse that the Gethenians have "trained hunch to run in harness". After several months of travelling through Karhide, Ai decides to pursue his mission in Orgoreyn, to which he has received an invitation. Ai reaches the Orgota capital of Mishnory, where he finds that the Orgota politicians are initially far more direct with him. He is given comfortable quarters, and

6396-428: Is borne out when Ai's presence in Karhide triggers the collapse of governments in both Karhide and Orgoreyn—Orgoreyn's because its claim that Ai had died of a disease was shown to be false. Karhide agrees to join the Ekumen, followed shortly by Orgoreyn, completing Ai's mission. Genly Ai is the protagonist of the novel; a male native of Terra, or Earth, who is sent to Gethen by the Ekumen as a "first mobile" or envoy. He

Hainish Cycle - Misplaced Pages Continue

6552-524: Is called "Genry" by the Karhiders, who have trouble pronouncing the sound [l]. He is described as rather taller and darker than the average Gethenian. Although curious and sensitive to Gethenian culture in many ways, he struggles at first to trust the ambisexual Gethenians. His own masculine mannerisms, learned on Terra, also prove to be a barrier to communication. At the beginning of the book, he has been on Gethen for one year, trying to gain an audience with

6708-456: Is clearly neither a political nor a sexual ideal" in the book, but that "ambisexuality is a more imaginative condition than our bisexuality. ... the Gethenians know more than either men or women". Bloom added that this is the major difference between Estraven and Ai, and allows Estraven the freedom to carry out actions that Ai cannot; Estraven "is better able to love, and freed therefore to sacrifice". The book features two major religions:

6864-467: Is comfortable for humans), the ship could reach almost anywhere in the galaxy and return to Earth within 40 years ship-time (see diagram). Upon return, there would be a difference between the time elapsed on the astronaut's ship and the time elapsed on Earth. For example, a spaceship could travel to a star 32 light-years away, initially accelerating at a constant 1.03g (i.e. 10.1 m/s ) for 1.32 years (ship time), then stopping its engines and coasting for

7020-403: Is currently practical, they offer the possibility of sleeper ships in which the passengers lie inert for the long duration of the voyage. A robotic interstellar mission carrying some number of frozen early stage human embryos is another theoretical possibility. This method of space colonization requires, among other things, the development of an artificial uterus , the prior detection of

7176-420: Is impossible. Relativistic time dilation allows a traveler to experience time more slowly, the closer their speed is to the speed of light. This apparent slowing becomes noticeable when velocities above 80% of the speed of light are attained. Clocks aboard an interstellar ship would run slower than Earth clocks, so if a ship's engines were capable of continuously generating around 1 g of acceleration (which

7332-405: Is limited to about 5 km/s by the chemical energy stored in the fuel's molecular bonds. They produce a high thrust (about 10 N), but they have a low specific impulse, and that limits their top speed. By contrast, ion engines have low force, but the top speed in principle is limited only by the electrical power available on the spacecraft and on the gas ions being accelerated. The exhaust speed of

7488-438: Is not all mine, nor told by me alone. Indeed I am not sure whose story it is; you can judge better. But it is all one, and if at moments the facts seem to alter with an altered voice, why then you can choose the fact that you like the best; yet none of them are false, and it is all one story. The myths and legends serve to explain specific features about Gethenian culture, as well as larger philosophical aspects of society. Many of

7644-422: Is said to have made a taboo kemmering vow (love pledge ) to his brother, Arek Harth rem ir Estraven, while they were both young. Convention required that they separate after they had produced a child together. Because of the first vow, a second vow Estraven made with Ashe Foreth, another partner, which was also broken before the events in Left Hand , is called a "false vow, a second vow". In contrast to Ai, Estraven

7800-411: Is shown with both stereotypically masculine and feminine qualities, and is used to demonstrate that both are necessary for survival. Argaven Harge XV is the king of Karhide during the events of the novel. He is described both by his subjects and by Estraven as being "mad". He has sired seven children, but has yet to bear "an heir of the body, king son". During the novel he becomes pregnant but loses

7956-716: Is that of being rooted or rootless in society, explored through the experiences of lone individuals on alien planets. Shifgrethor is a fictional concept in the Hainish universe, first introduced in The Left Hand of Darkness . It is first mentioned by Genly Ai, when he thinks to himself "shifgrethor—prestige, face, place, the pride-relationship, the untranslatable and all-important principle of social authority in Karhide and all civilizations of Gethen". It derives from an old Gethenian word for shadow, as prominent people are said to "cast darker [or longer] shadows". George Slusser describes shifgrethor as "not rank, but its opposite,

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8112-513: Is the commensal who first finds Estraven during his exile, and who gives Estraven a job and a place to live in Mishnory. Shusgis is the commensal who hosts Genly Ai after Ai's arrival in Mishnory, and is a member of the opposing faction, which supports the Sarf, the Orgota secret police. Although Obsle and Yegey support Ai's mission, they see him more as a means of increasing their own influence within

8268-436: Is the final mass. If deceleration on arrival is desired and cannot be achieved by any means other than the engines of the ship, then the lower bound for the required energy is doubled to m v 2 {\displaystyle mv^{2}} . The velocity for a crewed round trip of a few decades to even the nearest star is several thousand times greater than those of present space vehicles. This means that due to

8424-437: Is the idea that all humanoid species had a common origin; they are all depicted as descendants of the original Hainish colonizers. The second idea is unique to each novel. The Left Hand of Darkness takes place many centuries in the future—no date is given in the book itself. Reviewers have suggested the year 4870 AD, based on extrapolation of events in other works, and commentary on her writing by Le Guin. The protagonist of

8580-596: Is the official religion in Orgoreyn. The differences between them underlie political distinctions between the countries and cultural distinctions between their inhabitants. Estraven is revealed to be an adept of the Handdara. Le Guin's interest in Taoism influenced much of her science fiction work. Douglas Barbour said that the fiction of the Hainish Universe contains a theme of balance between light and darkness,

8736-483: The v 2 {\displaystyle v^{2}} term in the kinetic energy formula, millions of times as much energy is required. Accelerating one ton to one-tenth of the speed of light requires at least 450 petajoules or 4.50 × 10 joules or 125 terawatt-hours ( world energy consumption 2008 was 143,851 terawatt-hours), without factoring in efficiency of the propulsion mechanism. This energy has to be generated onboard from stored fuel, harvested from

8892-658: The British Interplanetary Society in 1973–1978, and Project Longshot , a student project sponsored by NASA and the US Naval Academy , completed in 1988. Another fairly detailed vehicle system, "Discovery II", designed and optimized for crewed Solar System exploration, based on the D He reaction but using hydrogen as reaction mass, has been described by a team from NASA's Glenn Research Center . It achieves characteristic velocities of >300 km/s with an acceleration of ~1.7•10 g , with

9048-687: The Ekumen – a name derived from the Greek " oikoumene ", meaning "the inhabited world", although characters occasionally refer to it as "the Household", which is in turn a reference to the Greek " oikos ", a word which developed from the same root as "oikoumene". Unexplained references are made by the protagonist from Terra in The Left Hand of Darkness to a long-past "Age of the Enemy", which presumably refers to

9204-460: The Hugo Award , determined by science fiction fans. In 1987, science fiction news and trade journal Locus ranked it number two among "All-Time Best SF Novels", based on a poll of subscribers. The novel was also a personal milestone for Le Guin, with critics calling it her "first contribution to feminism". It was one of her most popular books for many years after its publication. By 2014,

9360-541: The ansible , a device invented during the events described in The Dispossessed . This galactic civilization is known as the "League of All Worlds" in works set earlier in the chronology of the series, and has been reconstructed as the "Ekumen" by the time the events in The Left Hand of Darkness take place. During the events of the novel, the Ekumen is a union of 83 worlds, with some common laws. At least two "thought experiments" are used in each novel. The first

9516-412: The ansible . This seems to have happened in two phases: First, the League of All Worlds was formed, as an alliance of planets, mostly descended from colonization efforts from the planet Hain, uniting the "nine known worlds" — presumably along with new colonies. By the time of Rocannon's World it has grown but is also under threat from a distant enemy. In City of Illusions it is recalled as having been

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9672-526: The 1970s the Nuclear Pulse Propulsion concept further was refined by Project Daedalus by use of externally triggered inertial confinement fusion , in this case producing fusion explosions via compressing fusion fuel pellets with high-powered electron beams. Since then, lasers , ion beams , neutral particle beams and hyper-kinetic projectiles have been suggested to produce nuclear pulses for propulsion purposes. A current impediment to

9828-481: The 2020s, interstellar spaceflight remains a popular trope in speculative future studies and science fiction . A civilization that has mastered interstellar travel is called an interstellar species. Distances between the planets in the Solar System are often measured in astronomical units (AU), defined as the average distance between the Sun and Earth, some 1.5 × 10 kilometers (93 million miles). Venus ,

9984-616: The Cetians is mentioned in The Word for World Is Forest and The Dispossessed . The Telling includes the detail that the people of Chiffewar are all bald. There are some cases of ancient biological manipulation: The Left Hand of Darkness The Left Hand of Darkness is a science fiction novel by the American writer Ursula K. Le Guin . Published in 1969 , it became immensely popular, and established Le Guin's status as

10140-773: The Domain of Estre in Kerm Land, at the southern end of the Karhidish half of the continent. He is the Prime Minister of Karhide at the very beginning of the novel, until he is exiled from Karhide after attempting to settle the Sinoth Valley border dispute with Orgoreyn. Estraven is one of the few Gethenians who believe Ai, and he attempts to help him from the beginning, but Ai's inability to comprehend shifgrethor leads to severe misunderstanding between them. Estraven

10296-605: The Ekumen, interspersed with Gethenian myths and legends. The novel begins with the following statement from Ai, explaining the need for multiple voices in the novel: I'll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination. The soundest fact may fail or prevail in the style of its telling: like that singular organic jewel of our seas, which grows brighter as one woman wears it and, worn by another, dulls and goes to dust. Facts are no more solid, coherent, round, and real, than pearls are. But both are sensitive. The story

10452-472: The Ekumen—which now includes the Gethenians, who were the subject of The Left Hand of Darkness —and not of the League. Le Guin offers the following thoughts on the order in which readers should approach the series: Rocannon's World , Planet of Exile , City of Illusions : where they fit in the "Hainish cycle" is anybody’s guess, but I’d read them first because they were written first. In them there

10608-537: The Gethen planetary system on a starship which remains in solar orbit with Ai's companions, who are in stasis ; Ai himself is sent to Gethen alone, as the "first mobile" or Envoy. Like all envoys of the Ekumen, he can "mindspeak"—a form of quasi- telepathic speech, which Gethenians are capable of, but of which they are unaware. He lands in the Gethenian kingdom of Karhide, and spends two years attempting to persuade

10764-471: The Gethenians; thus he is unable to persuade them of the importance of his mission. Ai's failure to comprehend shifgrethor and to trust Estraven's motives leads him to misunderstand much of the advice that Estraven gives him. As Ai's relationship to Estraven changes, their communication also changes; they are both more willing to acknowledge mistakes, and make fewer assertions. Eventually, the two are able to converse directly with mindspeech, but only after Ai

10920-404: The Hainish universe, recount the efforts to re-establish a galactic civilization. Explorers from Hain as well as other planets use interstellar ships traveling nearly as fast as light . These take years to travel between planetary systems , although the journey is shortened for the travelers due to relativistic time dilation , as well as through instantaneous interstellar communication using

11076-457: The Hainish universe; it really doesn’t matter. As for The Lathe of Heaven and Always Coming Home , my Terran science fiction novels, they definitely don’t exist in the same universe as the Hainish or Ekumenical books. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the people of Hain colonized a large number of worlds, including Earth , known as Terra. Most of these were similar enough that humans from one world can pass as natives of another, but on some

11232-497: The Handdara, an informal system reminiscent of Taoism and Buddhism , and the Yomeshta or Meshe's cult, a close-to- monotheistic religion based on the idea of absolute knowledge of the entirety of time attained in one visionary instant by Meshe, who was originally a Foreteller of the Handdara, when attempting to answer the question: "What is the meaning of life?" The Handdara is the more ancient, and dominant in Karhide, while Yomesh

11388-650: The Inland Sea , the three last stories are Ekumenical, and we even finally find out a little about Hain, where it all began. The story suite Four Ways to Forgiveness is part of that universe, and so is the novel The Telling. But I have to warn you that the planet Werel in Four Ways is not the planet Werel in Planet of Exile . In between novels, I forget planets. Sorry. The Eye of the Heron may or may not be set in

11544-546: The Inland Sea," all collected in A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (1994). The ansible has been adopted by other science fiction and fantasy authors, such as Orson Scott Card , Elizabeth Moon , and Vernor Vinge . The ideas of post-technological societies and social and ecological collapse are in several of the stories. These are portrayed as the end result of the wrong kind of civilizations, i.e., competitive , capitalist , patriarchal , "dynamic, aggressive, ecology-breaking cultures," while successful societies are close to

11700-471: The King, Ai learns that Estraven has been accused of treason, and exiled from the country. The pretext for Estraven's exile was his handling of a border dispute with the neighboring country of Orgoreyn, in which Estraven was seen as being too conciliatory. Ai meets with the king, who rejects his invitation to join the Ekumen. Discouraged, Ai decides to travel through Karhide, as the spring has just begun, rendering

11856-402: The League. In the fourth, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), it seems that the planets of the former League have reunited as the Ekumen , which was founded by the Hainish people. In the fifth, The Word for World Is Forest (1972), the League of All Worlds and the ansible are new creations, and the term "Ekumen" is not used; it is set before any of the first four books. It was part of

12012-407: The Sun, these risks would vary between different trajectories. Although a high density interstellar medium may cause difficulties for many interstellar travel concepts, interstellar ramjets , and some proposed concepts for decelerating interstellar spacecraft, would actually benefit from a denser interstellar medium. The crew of an interstellar ship would face several significant hazards, including

12168-461: The ability to maintain equality in any relationship, and to do so by respecting the person of the other". According to University of West Georgia Professor Carrie B. McWhorter, shifgrethor can be defined simply as "a sense of honor and respect that provides the Gethenians with a way to save face in a time of crisis". Ai initially refuses to see a connection between his sexuality and his mode of consciousness, preventing him from truly understanding

12324-505: The ambisexual Gethenians and his inability to establish a personal bond with them. Ai's preconceived ideas of how men should behave prevents him from trusting Estraven when the two meet; Ai labels Estraven "womanly" and distrusts him because Estraven exhibits both male and female characteristics. Estraven also faces difficulties communicating with Ai, who does not understand shifgrethor , the Gethenians' indirect way of giving and receiving advice. A related theme that runs through Le Guin's work

12480-570: The anthology Again, Dangerous Visions , and only published as a separate book in 1976. The sixth, The Dispossessed (1974), is the earliest novel chronologically in the Hainish Cycle. The Cetians have been visited by people from other planets, including Terra (Earth) and Hain. The various planets are separate, though there is some talk of a union. The idea of the ansible is known but none yet exists. The seventh and final novel, The Telling (2000), and later short stories speak only of

12636-410: The attraction between them. Estraven's death at the end was seen as giving the message that "death is the price that must be paid for forbidden love". In a 1986 essay, Le Guin acknowledged and apologized for the fact that Left Hand had presented heterosexuality as the norm on Gethen. The androgynous nature of the inhabitants of Gethen is used to examine gender relations in human society. On Gethen,

12792-512: The book in his The Western Canon (1994) as one of the books in his conception of artistic works that have been important and influential in Western culture . In Bloom's opinion, "Le Guin, more than Tolkien, has raised fantasy into high literature, for our time". Critics have also commented on the broad influence of the book, with writers such as Budrys citing it as an influence upon their own writing. More generally it has been asserted that

12948-459: The book was first published, the gender theme touched off a feminist debate over the depiction of the ambisexual Gethenians. The novel also explores the interaction between the unfolding loyalties of its two main characters, the loneliness and rootlessness of Ai, and the contrast between the religions of Gethen's two major nations. The Left Hand of Darkness has been reprinted more than 30 times, and received high praise from reviewers. In 1970, it

13104-468: The book, explored against the background of both planetary and interplanetary relations. Genly Ai is sent to Gethen as an envoy of the Ekumen, whose mission is to convince the various Gethenian nations that their identities will not be destroyed when they integrate with the Ekumen. At the same time, the planetary conflict between Karhide and Orgoreyn is shown as increasing nationalism, making it hard for citizens of each country to view themselves as citizens of

13260-487: The camp, but to Ai's great surprise, Estraven—whom Ai still distrusts—goes to great lengths to save him. Estraven poses as a prison guard and breaks Ai out of the farm, using his training with the Handdarata to induce dothe , or hysterical strength , to aid him in the process. Estraven spends the last of his money on supplies, and then steals more, breaking his own moral code. The pair begin a dangerous 80-day trek across

13416-472: The character of Genly Ai, whose behavior shifts away from the "masculine" and grows more androgynous over the course of the novel. He becomes more patient and caring, and less rigidly rationalist. Ai struggles to form a bond with Estraven through much of the novel, and finally breaks down the barrier between them during their journey on the ice, when he recognizes and accepts Estraven's dual sexuality. Their understanding of each other's sexuality helps them achieve

13572-458: The characteristic velocity available as a function of exhaust velocity and mass ratio, the ratio of initial ( M 0 , including fuel) to final ( M 1 , fuel depleted) mass. Very high specific power , the ratio of thrust to total vehicle mass, is required to reach interstellar targets within sub-century time-frames. Some heat transfer is inevitable, resulting in an extreme thermal load. Thus, for interstellar rocket concepts of all technologies,

13728-570: The charged particles range from 15 km/s to 35 km/s. Nuclear-electric or plasma engines, operating for long periods at low thrust and powered by fission reactors, have the potential to reach speeds much greater than chemically powered vehicles or nuclear-thermal rockets. Such vehicles probably have the potential to power solar system exploration with reasonable trip times within the current century. Because of their low-thrust propulsion, they would be limited to off-planet, deep-space operation. Electrically powered spacecraft propulsion powered by

13884-422: The child soon after it is born, triggering speculation as to which of his sired children will be named his heir. His behavior towards Ai is consistently paranoid; although he grants Ai an audience, he refuses to believe his story, and declines the offer to join the Ekumen. The tenure of his prime ministers tends to be short, with both Estraven and Tibe rising and falling from power during the two Gethenian years that

14040-530: The closest planet to Earth is (at closest approach) 0.28 AU away. Neptune , the farthest planet from the Sun, is 29.8 AU away. As of January 20, 2023, Voyager 1 , the farthest human-made object from Earth, is 163 AU away, exiting the Solar System at a speed of 17 km/s (0.006% of the speed of light). The closest known star, Proxima Centauri , is approximately 268,332 AU away, or over 9,000 times farther away than Neptune. Because of this, distances between stars are usually expressed in light-years (defined as

14196-419: The colony planets (including Earth) forgot that other human worlds existed. The Ekumen stories tell of the efforts to re-establish a civilization on a galactic scale through NAFAL (Nearly As Fast As Light) interstellar travel taking years to travel between stars (although only weeks or months from the viewpoint of the traveler because of time dilation ), and through instantaneous interstellar communication using

14352-543: The council; thus they eventually betray him to the Sarf, in order to save themselves. Their Open Trade faction takes control of the council after Ai's presence in Karhide becomes known at the end of the novel. The Left Hand of Darkness has received highly positive critical responses since its publication. In 1970 it won both the Nebula Award , given by the Science Fiction Writers of America , and

14508-412: The craft. Various shielding methods to mitigate this problem have been proposed. Larger objects (such as macroscopic dust grains) are far less common, but would be much more destructive. The risks of impacting such objects and mitigation methods have been discussed in literature, but many unknowns remain. An additional consideration is that due the non-homogeneous distribution of interstellar matter around

14664-424: The development of any nuclear-explosion-powered spacecraft is the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty , which includes a prohibition on the detonation of any nuclear devices (even non-weapon based) in outer space. This treaty would, therefore, need to be renegotiated, although a project on the scale of an interstellar mission using currently foreseeable technology would probably require international cooperation on at least

14820-463: The distance that light travels in vacuum in one Julian year ) or in parsecs (one parsec is 3.26 ly, the distance at which stellar parallax is exactly one arcsecond , hence the name). Light in a vacuum travels around 300,000 kilometres (186,000 mi) per second, so 1 light-year is about 9.461 × 10 kilometers (5.879 trillion miles) or 63,241 AU. Hence, Proxima Centauri is approximately 4.243 light-years from Earth. Another way of understanding

14976-416: The effects of differing social and political systems. Le Guin believed that contemporary society suffered from a high degree of alienation and division, and her depictions of encounters between races, such as in The Left Hand of Darkness, sought to explore the possibility of "improved mode of human relationships", based on "integration and integrity". The Left Hand of Darkness explores this theme through

15132-437: The end of long trips, at least according to the Shing, whose information may be suspect. It is also lethal if the traveler is pregnant. City of Illusions mentions automatic death-machines that work on the same principle as the ansible and can strike instantly at distant worlds. Such a device is clearly used in the events of Rocannon's World . The weapons are not mentioned again in later books. Churten theory, as developed by

15288-429: The end of the journey. From the perspective of an onboard observer, the crew will feel a gravitational field opposite the engine's acceleration, and the universe ahead will appear to fall in that field, undergoing hyperbolic motion. As part of this, distances between objects in the direction of the ship's motion will gradually contract until the ship begins to decelerate, at which time an onboard observer's experience of

15444-515: The energy output is approximately 0.1% of the total mass-energy of the reactor fuel and limits the effective exhaust velocity to about 5% of the velocity of light. For maximum velocity, the reaction mass should optimally consist of fission products, the "ash" of the primary energy source, so no extra reaction mass need be bookkept in the mass ratio. Based on work in the late 1950s to the early 1960s, it has been technically possible to build spaceships with nuclear pulse propulsion engines, i.e. driven by

15600-439: The energy required, however, would be prohibitively expensive with current technology. From the perspective of a planetary observer, the ship will appear to accelerate steadily at first, but then more gradually as it approaches the speed of light (which it cannot exceed). It will undergo hyperbolic motion . The ship will be close to the speed of light after about a year of accelerating and remain at that speed until it brakes for

15756-471: The genre in general allows exploration of the "real" world through metaphors and complex stories, and that science fiction can use imaginary situations to comment on human behaviors and relationships. In her new introduction to the Library of America reprint in 2017, the author wrote: Up until 1968 I had no literary agent, submitting all my work myself. I sent The Left Hand of Darkness to Terry Carr ,

15912-413: The gravitational field will be reversed. When the ship reaches its destination, if it were to exchange a message with its origin planet, it would find that less time had elapsed on board than had elapsed for the planetary observer, due to time dilation and length contraction . The result is an impressively fast journey for the crew. All rocket concepts are limited by the rocket equation , which sets

16068-415: The higher speeds (>90% that of light) at which relativistic time dilation would become more noticeable, thus making time pass at a slower rate for the travelers as perceived by an outside observer, is doubtful owing to the large quantity of antimatter that would be required. Speculating that production and storage of antimatter should become feasible, two further issues need to be considered. First, in

16224-492: The interior of the frozen country accessible. Ai travels to a Fastness , a dwelling of people of the Handdarata, one of two major Gethenian religions. He pays the fastness for a foretelling, an art practiced to prove the "perfect uselessness of knowing the answer to the wrong question". He asks if Gethen will be a member of the Ekumen in five years, expecting that the Foretellers will give him an ambiguous response, but he

16380-429: The interstellar medium, or projected over immense distances. A knowledge of the properties of the interstellar gas and dust through which the vehicle must pass is essential for the design of any interstellar space mission. A major issue with traveling at extremely high speeds is that due to the requisite high relative speeds and large kinetic energies, collisions with interstellar dust could cause considerable damage to

16536-442: The journey and reach the destination. As a near-term solution, small, laser-propelled interstellar probes, based on current CubeSat technology were proposed in the context of Project Dragonfly . In crewed missions, the duration of a slow interstellar journey presents a major obstacle and existing concepts deal with this problem in different ways. They can be distinguished by the "state" in which humans are transported on-board of

16692-409: The king, and persuade the Karhidish government to believe his story. He arrives equipped with basic information about the language and culture from a team of investigators who had come before him. In Karhide, the king is reluctant to accept his diplomatic mission. In Orgoreyn, Ai is seemingly accepted more easily by the political leaders, yet Ai is arrested, stripped of his clothes, drugged, and sent to

16848-439: The king. Ai begins to doubt Estraven's loyalty because of his strange mannerisms, which Ai finds effeminate and ambiguous. The behavior of people in Karhide is dictated by shifgrethor , an intricate set of unspoken social rules and formal courtesy. Ai does not understand this system, thus making it difficult for him to understand Estraven's motives, and contributing to his distrust of Estraven. The next day, as he prepares to meet

17004-486: The land, peaceful, non-authoritarian, non-competitive, static, communitarian , with the holistic outlook of Eastern religions . The Earth, called "Terra" in the Cycle, is mentioned as one of the failed civilizations. Most of the people in the tales have a common descent from the planet Hain, whose people settled many worlds. Some of them are genetically similar enough to produce children together. The unusual hairiness of

17160-530: The language of the novel. In the afterword of the 25th anniversary edition of the novel, she stated that her opinion on the matter had changed, and that she was "haunted and bedeviled by the matter of the pronouns." Le Guin's works set in the Hainish universe explore the idea of human expansion, a theme found in the future history novels of other science-fiction authors such as Isaac Asimov . The Hainish novels, such as The Dispossessed , Left Hand , and The Word for World Is Forest , also frequently explore

17316-500: The members of its government of the value of joining the Ekumen. Karhide is one of two major nations on Gethen, the other being Orgoreyn. The novel begins the day before an audience that Ai has obtained with Argaven Harge, the king of Karhide. Ai manages this through the help of Estraven, the prime minister , who seems to believe in Ai's mission, but the night before the audience, Estraven tells Ai that he can no longer support Ai's cause with

17472-641: The most significant calculation for competing cultures occupying the galaxy. There are 59 known stellar systems within 40 light years of the Sun, containing 81 visible stars. The following could be considered prime targets for interstellar missions: Existing astronomical technology is capable of finding planetary systems around these objects, increasing their potential for exploration. "Slow" interstellar missions (still fast by other standards) based on current and near-future propulsion technologies are associated with trip times starting from about several decades to thousands of years. These missions consist of sending

17628-466: The near future built on existing microchip technology with a newly developed nanoscale thruster. Researchers at the University of Michigan are developing thrusters that use nanoparticles as propellant. Their technology is called "nanoparticle field extraction thruster", or nanoFET . These devices act like small particle accelerators shooting conductive nanoparticles out into space. Michio Kaku ,

17784-498: The next 17.3 years (ship time) at a constant speed, then decelerating again for 1.32 ship-years, and coming to a stop at the destination. After a short visit, the astronaut could return to Earth the same way. After the full round-trip, the clocks on board the ship show that 40 years have passed, but according to those on Earth, the ship comes back 76 years after launch. From the viewpoint of the astronaut, onboard clocks seem to be running normally. The star ahead seems to be approaching at

17940-425: The northern Gobrin ice sheet back to Karhide, because Estraven believes that the reappearance of Ai in Karhide will convince Karhide to accept the Ekumen treaty, knowing that Karhide will want the honor of doing so before Orgoreyn. Over the journey Ai and Estraven learn to trust and accept one another's differences. Ai is eventually successful in teaching Estraven mindspeech; Estraven hears Ai speaking in his mind with

18096-520: The novel had sold more than a million copies in English. The book has been widely praised by genre commentators, academic critics, and literary reviewers. Fellow science fiction writer Algis Budrys praised the novel as "a narrative so fully realized, so compellingly told, so masterfully executed". He found the book "a novel written by a magnificent writer, a totally compelling tale of human peril and striving under circumstances in which human love, and

18252-431: The novel made it initially confusing to reviewers, before it was interpreted as an attempt to follow the trajectory of Ai's changing views. Also in contrast to what was typical for male authors of the period, Le Guin narrated the action in the novel through the personal relationships she depicted. Interstellar travel Interstellar travel is the hypothetical travel of spacecraft between star systems . Due to

18408-415: The novel spans. Argaven eventually agrees to join the Ekumen due to the political fallout of Estraven's death and Ai's escape from Orgoreyn. Pemmer Harge rem ir Tibe is Argaven Harge's cousin. Tibe becomes the prime minister of Karhide when Estraven is exiled at the beginning of the novel, and becomes the regent for a brief while when Argaven is pregnant. In contrast to Estraven, he seems intent on starting

18564-465: The novel, the envoy Genly Ai, is on a planet called Winter ("Gethen" in the language of its own people) to convince the citizens to join the Ekumen. Winter is, as its name indicates, a planet that is always cold. The inhabitants of Gethen are ambisexual humans; for twenty-four days (a period called somer in Karhidish, a Gethenian language) of each twenty-six-day lunar cycle , they are sexually latent androgynes . They only adopt sexual attributes once

18720-531: The old Hainish 'colonisers' used genetic engineering . At least one of the various species of Rocannon's World are the product of genetic engineering, as are the "hilfs" ("highly intelligent life forms") of Planet S(whose story has not been told), and probably the androgynous humans of Gethen in The Left Hand of Darkness . The Ekumen do not know whether the colonisers sought to adapt humans to varied worlds, were conducting various experiments, or had other reasons. Hainish civilization subsequently collapsed, and

18876-485: The permanently male Genly Ai is an oddity, and is seen as a "pervert" by the natives; according to reviewers, this is Le Guin's way of gently critiquing masculinity. Le Guin also seems to suggest that the absence of gender divisions leads to a society without the constriction of gender roles. The Gethenians are not inclined to go to war, which reviewers have linked to their lack of sexual aggressiveness , derived from their ambisexuality. According to Harold Bloom, "Androgyny

19032-560: The physicists of Anarres, should allow people to go instantly from solar system to solar system. It is a development of the work of Shevek, whose tale is told in The Dispossessed . Shevek's work made the ansible possible—it is mentioned in his tale that engineers decided they could build it once the correct theory was found. Churten theory offers a way to move people and spacecraft instantaneously, but there are side effects. These are described in three short stories, " The Shobies' Story ," "Dancing to Ganam", and "Another Story, or, A Fisherman of

19188-467: The planet. These conflicts are demonstrated by the varying loyalties of the main characters. Genly Ai tells Argaven after Estraven's death that Estraven served mankind as a whole, just as Ai did. During the border dispute with Orgoreyn, Estraven tries to end the dispute by moving Karhidish farmers out of the disputed territory. Estraven believes that by preventing war he was saving Karhidish lives and being loyal to his country, while King Argaven sees it as

19344-455: The propulsion system accelerates the ship at a constant rate for the first half of the journey, and then decelerates for the second half, so that it arrives at the destination stationary relative to where it began. If this were performed with an acceleration similar to that experienced at the Earth's surface, it would have the added advantage of producing artificial "gravity" for the crew. Supplying

19500-608: The psychological effects of long-term isolation , the physiological effects of extreme acceleration, the effects of exposure to ionising radiation , and the physiological effects of weightlessness to the muscles, joints, bones, immune system, and eyes. There also exists the risk of impact by micrometeoroids and other space debris . These risks represent challenges that have yet to be overcome. The speculative fiction writer and physicist Robert L. Forward has argued that an interstellar mission that cannot be completed within 50 years should not be started at all. Instead, assuming that

19656-515: The relationship between Genly Ai and Estraven; Ai initially distrusts Estraven, but eventually comes to love and trust him. Le Guin's later Hainish novels also challenge contemporary ideas about gender, ethnic differences, the value of ownership, and human beings' relationship to the natural world. A prominent theme in the novel is social relations in a society in which gender is irrelevant; in Le Guin's words, she "eliminated gender, to find out what

19812-404: The roots of the Yomeshta cult; a third is an ancient Orgota creation myth; a fourth is a story of one of Estraven's ancestors, which discusses what a traitor is. The presence of myths and legends has also been cited by reviewers who state that Le Guin's work, particularly Left Hand , is similar to allegory in many ways. These include the presence of a guide (Estraven) for the protagonist (Ai), and

19968-484: The scale of the International Space Station . Another issue to be considered, would be the g-forces imparted to a rapidly accelerated spacecraft, cargo, and passengers inside (see Inertia negation ). Fusion rocket starships, powered by nuclear fusion reactions, should conceivably be able to reach speeds of the order of 10% of that of light, based on energy considerations alone. In theory,

20124-425: The setting of the novels. Some of the groups that " seeded " each planet were the subjects of genetic experiments , including on Gethen. The planets subsequently lost contact with each other, for reasons that Le Guin does not explain. Le Guin does not narrate the entire history of the Hainish universe at once, instead letting readers piece it together from various works. The novels, and other fictional works set in

20280-402: The ship vanishes from where it was and reappears somewhere else many years later. The trip takes slightly longer than it would to cross the same distance at the speed of light, but ship-time is just a few hours for those on board. It cannot be used for trips within a solar system. Trips can begin or end close to a planet, but if used without a "retemporalizer", there are drastic physical effects at

20436-536: The spacecraft as it approaches its destination has been discussed as an alternative to using propellant, this would allow the ship to travel near the maximum theoretical velocity. Alternative designs utilizing similar principles include Project Longshot , Project Daedalus , and Mini-Mag Orion . The principle of external nuclear pulse propulsion to maximize survivable power has remained common among serious concepts for interstellar flight without external power beaming and for very high-performance interplanetary flight. In

20592-569: The spacecraft. A generation ship (or world ship ) is a type of interstellar ark in which the crew that arrives at the destination is descended from those who started the journey. Generation ships are not currently feasible because of the difficulty of constructing a ship of the enormous required scale and the great biological and sociological problems that life aboard such a ship raises. Scientists and writers have postulated various techniques for suspended animation . These include human hibernation and cryonic preservation . Although neither

20748-404: The speed according to Earth clocks will always be less than 1 light year per Earth year, so, when back home, the astronaut will find that more than 60 thousand years will have passed on Earth. Regardless of how it is achieved, a propulsion system that could produce acceleration continuously from departure to arrival would be the fastest method of travel. A constant acceleration journey is one where

20904-423: The speed of light. A nuclear pulse drive starship powered by fusion-antimatter catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion units would be similarly in the 10% range and pure matter-antimatter annihilation rockets would be theoretically capable of obtaining a velocity between 50% and 80% of the speed of light. In each case saving fuel for slowing down halves the maximum speed. The concept of using a magnetic sail to decelerate

21060-804: The speed of light. Collisions with cosmic dust and gas at such speeds can be catastrophic for such spacecrafts. Crewed interstellar travel could possibly be conducted more slowly (far beyond the scale of a human lifetime) by making a generation ship . Hypothetical interstellar propulsion systems include nuclear pulse propulsion , fission-fragment rocket , fusion rocket , beamed solar sail , and antimatter rocket . The benefits of interstellar travel include detailed surveys of habitable exoplanets and distant stars, comprehensive search for extraterrestrial intelligence and space colonization . Even though five uncrewed spacecraft have left our Solar System , they are not "interstellar craft" because they are not purposefully designed to explore other star systems. Thus, as of

21216-518: The speed of light. However, the most easily achievable fusion reactions release a large fraction of their energy as high-energy neutrons, which are a significant source of energy loss. Thus, although these concepts seem to offer the best (nearest-term) prospects for travel to the nearest stars within a (long) human lifetime, they still involve massive technological and engineering difficulties, which may turn out to be intractable for decades or centuries. Early studies include Project Daedalus , performed by

21372-408: The story of Genly Ai, a human native of Terra , who is sent to the planet of Gethen as an envoy of the Ekumen, a loose confederation of planets. Ai's mission is to persuade the nations of Gethen to join the Ekumen, but he is stymied by a lack of understanding of their culture. Individuals on Gethen are ambisexual , with no fixed sex; this has a strong influence on the culture of the planet, and creates

21528-565: The stranglehold of liberal individualism , act as a dead weight at the center of the novel". Le Guin, who identifies as a feminist , responded to these criticisms in her essay "Is Gender Necessary?" as well as by replacing masculine pronouns with feminine ones in a later reprinting of " Winter's King ", an unconnected short story set on Gethen. In her responses, Le Guin admitted to failing to depict androgynes in stereotypically feminine roles , but said that she considered and decided against inventing gender-neutral pronouns, because they would mangle

21684-502: The support, Ai feels uneasy. Estraven warns him not to trust the Orgota leaders, and he hears rumors of the "Sarf", or secret police , that truly control Orgoreyn. He ignores both his feeling and the warning, and is once again blindsided; he is arrested unexpectedly one night, interrogated, and sent to a far-northern labor camp where he suffers harsh cold, is forced into hard labor, and is given debilitating drugs. He becomes ill and his death seems imminent. His captors expect him to die in

21840-422: The tales used in the novel immediately precede chapters describing Ai's experience with a similar situation. For instance, a story about the dangers of foretelling is presented before Ai's own experience witnessing a foretelling. Other stories include a retelling of the legend of the "place inside the storm" (about two lovers whose vow is broken when societal strictures cause one to kill themself ); another retelling

21996-495: The term Ekumen for her fictional alliance of worlds, a term coined by her father, who derived it from the Greek oikoumene to refer to Eurasian cultures that shared a common origin. Le Guin's interest in Taoism influenced much of her science fiction work. According to academic Douglas Barbour, the fiction of the Hainish universe (the setting for several of Le Guin's works) contain a theme of balance between light and darkness,

22152-626: The thirty-three councillors that rule Orgoreyn. Obsle and Yegey are members of the "Open Trade" faction, who wish to normalize relations with Karhide. Obsle is the commensal of the Sekeve District, and was once the head of the Orgota Naval Trade Commission in Erhenrang, where he became acquainted with Estraven. Estraven describes him as the nearest thing to an honest person among the politicians of Orgoreyn. Yegey

22308-455: The time that the Shing controlled Terra, portrayed in City of Illusions . The Ekumen (or the League of All Worlds, though that is also believed to be the previous planetary coalition, before some sort of galactic crisis) contains a very large number of planets and is continually exploring new ones. Genly Ai in The Left Hand of Darkness explains that there are 83 planets in the Ekumen, with Gethen

22464-558: The use of masculine "he/him/his" gender pronouns to describe its androgynous characters, and called the novel a "flat failure". Other feminists maintained that the novel did not go far enough in its exploration of gender. Criticism was also directed at the portrayal of androgynous characters in the " masculine " roles of politicians and statesmen but not in family roles. Sarah LeFanu , for example, wrote that Le Guin turned her back on an opportunity for experimentation. She stated that "these male heroes with their crises of identity, caught in

22620-402: The use of myths and legends to provide a backdrop for the story. The heterogeneous structure of the novel has been described as "distinctly post-modern ", and was unusual for the time of its publication, in marked contrast to (primarily male-authored) traditional science fiction, which was straightforward and linear. In 1999, literary scholar Donna White wrote that the unorthodox structure of

22776-483: The vast distances between the Solar System and nearby stars , interstellar travel is not practicable with current propulsion technologies. To travel between stars within a reasonable amount of time (decades or centuries), an interstellar spacecraft must reach a significant fraction of the speed of light , requiring enormous energy. Communication with such interstellar craft will experience years of delay due to

22932-483: The vastness of interstellar distances is by scaling: One of the closest stars to the Sun, Alpha Centauri A (a Sun-like star that is one of two companions of Proxima Centauri), can be pictured by scaling down the Earth–Sun distance to one meter (3.28 ft). On this scale, the distance to Alpha Centauri A would be 276 kilometers (171 miles). The fastest outward-bound spacecraft yet sent, Voyager 1 , has covered 1/390 of

23088-439: The very first science fiction novel. Suzanne Reid wrote that at the time the novel was written, Le Guin's ideas of androgyny were unique not only to science fiction, but to literature in general. Left Hand has been a focus of literary critique of Le Guin's work, along with her Earthsea fiction and utopian fiction . The novel was at the center of a feminist debate when it was published in 1969. Alexei Panshin objected to

23244-427: The voice of Estraven's dead sibling and lover Arek, demonstrating the close connection that Ai and Estraven have developed. When they reach Karhide, Ai sends a radio transmission to his ship, which lands a few days later. Betrayed by a friend with whom the two were hiding, Estraven tries to cross the land border back into Orgoreyn, fearing pursuit, but is killed by border guards, who also capture Ai. Estraven's prediction

23400-474: The way. If a spaceship could average 10 percent of light speed (and decelerate at the destination, for human crewed missions), this would be enough to reach Proxima Centauri in forty years. Several propulsion concepts have been proposed that might be eventually developed to accomplish this (see § Propulsion below), but none of them are ready for near-term (few decades) developments at acceptable cost. Physicists generally believe faster-than-light travel

23556-419: The work has been widely influential in the science fiction field, with The Paris Review claiming that "No single work did more to upend the genre's conventions than The Left Hand of Darkness ". Donna White, in her study of the critical literature on Le Guin, argued that Left Hand was one of the seminal works of science fiction, as important as Frankenstein , by Mary Shelley , which is often described as

23712-524: Was fulfilling the larger purpose that he shared with Estraven. Donna White wrote that many of Le Guin's novels depict a struggle between personal loyalties and public duties, best exemplified in The Left Hand of Darkness , where Ai is bound by a personal bond to Estraven, but must subordinate that to his mission for the Ekumen and humanity. The theme of loyalty and trust is related to the novel's other major theme of gender. Ai has considerable difficulty in completing his mission because of his prejudice against

23868-452: Was in strong contrast to many western cultural assumptions, which believe in strongly contrasted opposites. She went on to say that Le Guin's characters have a tendency to adapt to the rhythms of nature rather than trying to conquer them, an attitude which can also be traced to Taoism. The Handdarrata represent the Taoist sense of unity; believers try to find insight by reaching the "untrance",

24024-481: Was interested in non-violence and ecological awareness. She participated in demonstrations against the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons . These sympathies can be seen in several of her works of fiction, including those in the Hainish universe. The novels of the Hainish cycle frequently explore the effects of differing social and political systems , although according to lecturer Suzanne Reid, Le Guin displayed

24180-438: Was left". In her 1976 essay "Is Gender Necessary?", Le Guin wrote that the theme of gender was only secondary to the novel's primary theme of loyalty and betrayal. Le Guin revisited this essay in 1988, and stated that gender was central to the novel; her earlier essay had described gender as a peripheral theme because of the defensiveness she felt over using masculine pronouns for her characters. The novel also follows changes in

24336-922: Was voted the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel by fans and writers, respectively, and was ranked as the third best novel, behind Frank Herbert 's Dune and Arthur C. Clarke 's Childhood's End , in a 1975 poll in Locus magazine . In 1987, Locus ranked it second among science fiction novels, after Dune , and literary critic Harold Bloom wrote, "Le Guin, more than Tolkien , has raised fantasy into high literature, for our time". Le Guin's father Alfred Louis Kroeber and mother Theodora Kroeber were scholars, and exposure to their anthropological work considerably influenced Le Guin's writing. The protagonists of many of Le Guin's novels, such as The Left Hand of Darkness and Rocannon's World , are also anthropologists or social investigators of some kind. Le Guin used

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