The Left Hand of Darkness

[Drashner1]

I just finished listening to The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. For those unfamiliar, this well regarded sci-fi novel is set on a planet where humans have become ambisexual, becoming either male or female for a few days each month in order mate. I found this 1969 novel very good and extremely well written. Anyone else read it?  Any lessons or cool themes we have/could explore in OA?

I haven't read this particular book, but have read some of the other works by Le Guin set in the same universe. By and large they aren't overly to my taste, but the books/stories are well done and Le Guin is one of the giants of the SF field.

In terms of lessons that OA might learn - Given that OA genetic tech could potentially produce something like the sex/gender changes described, we might use this book for inspiration in exploring that sort of thing within OA more fully. Also, SF that has different nation-states on the same planet (and therefore some form of politics) is relatively rare. While OA says that some places have multiple nation-states in the same system/on the same planet we don't generally explore those things in much depth, either in the EG or in fiction. So room to play there as well and possibly some lessons to be learned from Le Guin's work.

My 2c worth,

Todd