2013 read #10: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin.

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
387 pages
Published 1974
Read from January 14 to January 18
Rating: ★★★★ out of 5

The Left Hand of Darkness -- commonly included in lists of science fiction's best novels, often cited as proof that genre fiction can be serious literature -- was my first exposure to Le Guin, and still numbers among my personal favorite books. In fact, when I'm pressed to name favorite authors (as I've had to do in the two interviews I've given as Scareship's editor), Le Guin usually finds her way onto the list. This despite the fact that the only other Le Guin title I've read was Rocannon's World, a thoroughly forgettable Silver Age sci-fi book, so thoroughly forgettable that I haven't been able to remember a single thing about it aside from its awesomely trashy pulp cover. I've had this copy of The Dispossessed since '06 or so, but it's languished on shelves, in boxes, or in the book graveyard downstairs until now.

The first thing I took from The Dispossessed is an impression that Shevek is a familiar New Wave science fiction protagonist, an outsider accustomed to living in his own head, long of hair, functionally bisexual, a one-man embassy between cultures and reluctant revolutionary and messiah figure. Valentine Michael Smith comes to mind, though thankfully without any of Heinlein's free love and cannibalism baggage. I shouldn't complain about the protagonist's familiarity, though; writing this review, I got sidetracked into researching New Wave science fiction, which made me realize how very little of it I've read. Thanks to the library, I have two volumes of Dick at hand (eight novels all told, of which I'll probably read two or three, depending on what else grabs my interest in the meantime), but I haven't even begun to look into Ballard, Russ, Farmer, Ellison, Delany, Aldiss, or early Silverberg, and I've barely scratched the surface with Le Guin. I'm in no position to declare what's a stock New Wave character or element and what isn't. So enough about that.

I liked this book a lot, but didn't find it as satisfying as Left Hand. I suppose it's because abstractions of gender and sexuality interest me, whereas abstractions of politics and ethics -- utopian fictions -- are innately dull. I enjoyed the culture encounters, and portions of The Dispossessed were moving (anything to do with a parent having to be separated from his child touches a tender spot in my brain), but the frequent discussions of abstract philosophy and make-believe physics made my eyes slide off the page. I was somewhat mollified when the (spoilers) slow internal collapse of the anarchist utopia became a central plot point -- it was a relief to learn Le Guin was being honest and simply using the culture to tell a story, and not advocating it as an ideal option. Frankly, living the Anarres lifestyle would be a total bore, preferable though it may be to the misogynistic and exploitative capitalism of Urras.