The Dispossessed: A Novel

Le Guin's idealism is exhilarating and inspiring and *real* despite the completely fantastic setting and situation. She shows the hardships of her utopia, and her perspective of a stranger being introduced to decadent capitalism is so astute. One of my favourite books ever. Everyone with left-wing progressive politics should read it.

All of the high praise I have seen on Litsy about this one is well deserved. I don't think I've read a sci-fi book before that made me think about things as much as The Dispossessed did. LeGuin managed to say a whole lot about a wide range of sociopolitical issues while also telling a compelling and exciting story in two worlds.

This was a very slow read for me, and I'm not sure I can articulate why. It may be that there's very little plot to the novel, and also relatively little science fiction -- this is a book of philosophy in which the other pieces are scaffolding and that made it hard to pick back up each day, in some ways.There's a lot to chew on in this novel -- I liked engaging with the philosophical ideas about social structures, political structures, the role of women, the use of constructed language to reinforce social ideas. The subtitle "ambiguous utopia" fits well since what we are supposed to take from the different societies of the two planets is ambiguous.

I liked this. I know I didn't get everything out of it on the first reading. I'll definitely read other books in the same universe.

This is a classic SF novel. It won the Hugo and Nebula awards in 1974. It's a tale of two worlds which have been out of contact with each other for centuries. Shevek is a physicist from Anarres who travels to Urras to learn and teach and try to repair the rift.

I checked this one out now just because it was right there on the shelf at the library, but I'm starting to think I should read the Hainish books in order, even though they aren't technically a series. I just suspect I would enjoy them better that way.

It's been a few weeks, but I'm still not sure I've got enough distance to talk about this book. Shevek, a physicist, was born and lived his whole life on a moon, a moon where millions were resettled as a result of a revolution on the main planet. Life on the moon is austere, but peaceful -- the entire society is socialist anarchist. The planet, by contrast, is rich and lush, and defined by capitalist excess and want. Those brought up on the moon are taught to judge/fear their parent civilization as "propertarian." Since the settling of the moon, contact between the two societies has been strictly limited. Shevek is the first to leave the moon.

Clearly this book is set up to compare two different societies/governments/economic principles. Most of the judging is done directly through the eyes of Shevek, so you expect it to come out pro-socialist/anarchist, which it largely does, but really, no person, rule, or principle comes off as entirely enlightened in this book. If there is any one theme in this book, it is that freedom is hard work, and it must be tended to vigilantly.

A bit of a slow read, but not necessarily in a bad way. Deep, and thoughtful.