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The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin REVIEW
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- Опубліковано 27 січ 2023
- I purchased my copy in News from Nowhere, a beautiful left-wing bookshop in Liverpool with a curated selection of fiction, history, essays, and much more. Well worth the trip if you're ever in the English North West!
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I loved this review!! And yes I think the greatest thing about Le Guin is always that she looks at the cost of something. Because there always is one, and as you say, if you can’t see it, that blindness can cause a lot of problem. Amazing review!
this was my first Le Guin's book, so far one of the best. I liked how she didn't present Anarres as the perfect utopy.
I'd suggest next "The word for world is forest", very short one. It talks about colonialism/imperialism, and has incredible characters and world building.
I think that racism and environmental protection are the main themes of that novel. One of her best. As for colonialism, read Heart of Darkness, I just did. But first, if you haven't already, watch the movie. One of the best screen adaptations of a novel. I have to re-read The Word for World is Forest, it's been a long time since I read it. The Vietnam War, another reference that comes to mind.
I’m also a Dispossessed fan, and have read it several times over the years. I don’t share this reviewer’s views of Shevek. He is supposed to be a very forceful character, and a flawed character, a reflection of his society, and I think that works. I know there is a whole community of believers in anarcho-syndicalism out there. A couple of years ago I picked up a hitchhiker on the road to Berlin who had a quote from The Dispossessed tattooed on her arm. And I’m sure there are thousands more.
This review is timely and appreciated. Read “Left Hand of Darkness,” wasn’t something I particularly enjoyed but yet have not given up Ursula Le Guin.
I haven't read The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin yet, even though I love her work. I just wanted to comment on your video saying thanks for continuing to make videos since I first started watching your channel and keep up the great work :)
Thank you :)!!
Hi, just recently found your channel. Le Guin is my favorite author! I do think this and The Left Hand of Darkness are her masterworks. A lot of the other stuff she's written is shorter - short stories, novellas; I've loved all of them but the others don't stick out like those two; many I've read as part of collections. Another longer one that has stuck with me was Always Coming Home, but that's not really a novel but an 'archaeology of the future' in which it's actually set up like the field notes of an archaeologist that is studying a utopian post-our-society's-collapse future set in the Pacific Northwest. I'm probably one of the few people who have ever read it, lol.
Excellent review. The Dispossessed is one of my favorite novels; I've read it several times. LeGuinn's presentation of the two planets is nuanced and the flaws in each of them are presented with sympathy. I think this derives from Le Guinn's deep understanding of human nature and its limitations. (I don't feel the same way about Shevek that you do; on the other hand I can see why you came to your conclusion.) Thanks for the video.
The Dispossessed is my favorite of her sci-fi novels (though I admit that Left Hand of Darkness is superior, if we apply the criteria of the early-20th century Formalists - cleanse writing; more audacious ideas; etc). I actually do like Shevek because I’m taken by his own ambiguity about the strengths and weaknesses of the two societies. I appreciate that Le Guin, an avowed social anarchist, is willing and able to play so fair - an anarchistic society can only succeed if every generation truly commits to the ideals of the society, which might seem imposible, but she doesn’t take that as license to just give up on the dream, and that’s beautiful.
Granted, her Earthsea books are my true love. I don’t know if they’d interest you as much as her sci-fi, just because they’re don’t do as much mind-bending stuff as stuff like Left Hand. Im also extremely fond of her Orsinian Tales, and a lot of her other short fiction, also.
But for your tastes, I think Always Coming Home is the book I’d most recommend. It’s super postmodern :)
I'd recommend the short story collection "The Wind's Twelve Quarters" and the novel "Always Coming Home"
For me, this is Le Guin’s best work. Great novel and, as always, great review. I disagree with your take on the protagonist.
Great review. Just re read this last month. I def agree one of the strengths is that she doesn't shy away from pointing out that the utopia is not without it flaws
Great review.
As you have already read The Left Hand of Darkness, I recommend:
Hainish Cycle - The Word for World is Forest
Non-Hainish novels - The Lathe of Heaven (I like this one as much as The Left Hand of Darkness) and the very unusually structured Always Coming Home.
Thanks for your videos. They are very insighful.
Of the Hain cycle I liked also the short stories on "Four ways to forgiveness".
By Le Guin but out of the Hain cycle I also enjoyed "The lathe of heaven" very much.
Cheers.
Your review has inspired me to buy this book sounds very interesting
Edit 4 months later - got around to reading it and loved it, thank you for this recommendation
Must put this on my to read list. Left Hand of Darkness was my stand out read of 22.
Imagine reading that novel as a thirteen-year-old! I thought to myself, what the hell is this!
I just re-read Hard to Be a God by The Strugatsky Brothers. A very interesting novel, one of the classics of the SF genre.
I mention this because that novel clearly influenced Ursula K Le Guin a lot, especially Left Hand of Darkness. I'm glad you like her novels. Reading them as a child really opened my eyes and gave me a new perspective on society. You probably won't believe it, but the novel The Dispossessed was greatly influenced by her reading the novel The Joke by Milan Kundera. 😊
Great review! Always love to see insightful thoughts on le guin
You should check out:
*Voyage from Yesteryear* by James P Hogan
Another economic dichotomy story but it has a resolution. I suspect Hogan knew more about economics and technology than Le Guin.
Hi, I love your reviews - I think they're very insightful and concise at the same time! ☺I've just started reading Le Guin's work, but so far I've loved it! I've read her essay From Elfland to Poughkeepsie about language in fantasy and I can't wait to read the rest of them. Also, I've read Always Coming Home and I think it's a beautiful and poetic novel with a very unusual structure and perspective. Her short story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas also deals with flaws and the price we pay for living in 'Utopia'. I'm truly looking forward to reading her other work.
This is my first book by ursula. I loved all of it. The protagonist did feel like he was divergent. I don't think it gave him a "chosen one" trope, though. I feel like Shevek is an anomaly. He is a genius which comes with its own qualities that are by definition outside the bell curve but do exist, and geniuses are often near madness relative to their society. At the same time, he is torn between his passion for his people and his passion for his work, it's the tension between the two that drives him. I did find him sort of dull, but I felt like for once, it made sense, he was from a planet that did nothing in excess because excess is excrement. From the start of his youth he had always been sort-of pushed to the side and to me that implied a fault in the culture which we see although is beneficial and made sense for its success is xenophobic and self righteous in ways that can be oppressive to the individual even though it's supposed to be community in support of the individual. In all I enjoyed your review and agree it's an amazing book but disagree with your stance on the protagonist.
Thank you for this insightful review. I really love this book.
Please do more DeLillo, McCarthy and Coover. Also please do Thomas Bernhard and Peter Handke.
Oh, yes! I'd love to see a review of "Essay on tiredness", "On a dark night I left my silent house", "History of the pencil", or "Crossing the Sierra de Gredos".
Le Guin does not come up with a resolution for these economic dichotomies.
Check out:
Voyage from Yesteryear by James P Hogan
I suspect that Hogan knew more about technology and economics than Le Guin.
Le Guin's writing is better but Hogan's story is more interesting.
I would suggest the first three books of the Earth Sea cycle. Very good and they tell a complete story. I read the fourth book and I didn't like it.
This book is the only sci-fi book I "can" read from start to finish, but I cannot talk about it to people I know.
Read The Shell novel by Mostafa Khalifa.
Great review!
I like LeGuinn but to be honest, besides the Disposessed and The Left Hand of Darkness, her other work is more mediocre. Maybe The Lathe of Heaven is one more book that is almost up to that standard.
Throwing my hat in the ring for this as Le Guin's masterwork - the way she balances both societies, playing each off the other is brilliant. My favorite novels however are her Fantasy works in Earthsea - don't be put off by them being labelled as YA, they're very much not, and are generally much more emotionally complex than adult SFF today. If you want her best characters, that's where to look.
Otherwise, I'd suggest The Lathe of Heaven, if you haven't gotten to that one - It's the last of her main 3 sci-fi novels, and probably the weirdest of the three.
Any direction you go though, I think there's good stuff to find, she's a fantastic author.
I actually tried to read the Earthsea novels many (10?) years ago, but gave up almost immediately. I am, however, curious to give them another try, as I suspect I could really appreciate them if I got into them with the right spirit ;)
Extrimism is bad- the book
Pithy but wrong.
@@richardrose2606i was being glib