The Nineteenth Day

I felt that reading chapter four, The Nineteenth Day, was the most interesting folktale/myth that was introduced in the book going along with the main storyline. It provided supplemental info (backstory) on the Foretellers that is spoken about in the previous chapter, chapter three, The Mad King. At first, I was very confused on how the Foreteller thing worked but I thought of the Hobbit and used that as a reference. Chapter four takes place on the nineteenth day and is the story of and Herbor and Berosty who are kemmering partners that get together to get "down and dirty." The two of them visit the Foretellers for information and are told that Lord Berosty will die on the 19th day of any month (a prophecy) and Berosty is fearful for when he was going to die. Unknowingly, Herbor goes to see the Fortellers to offer his life in exchange for Lord Berosty and the Foretellers grant his request. Once Lord Berosty finds out of the events that have occurred, the lord is then fueled with rage and becomes the Hulk and terrorizes...whoops, wrong story. Berosty actually gets angry and hits Herbor over the head with a table and he instantly dies. Once he realized what he had done and his guilt ate him from the inside out, he decided to hang himself and put an end to the pain he felt. With Lord Berosty killing himself, it fulfilled the prophecy and died on the 19th day. Prophecies are always bad, no matter the outcome. This myth tells us that Gethenian culture is very superstitious because they believe in prophecies with astronomical consequences. This myth makes direct connections with the plot because it foreshadows what happens in chapter five in regards to Genly speaking with the Foretellers and bumping into Faxe the Weaver. In chapter five, it is said that "in the end, we all die."  The idea of predicting what will happen in the future is an on-going theme throughout the book, having a premonition of an outcome when they have no idea the cause. I really enjoyed this chapter because even though it was kind of hard to follow, it was very interesting.

Isolation and Union

Gethen's frigid weather contributing to the theme of isolation and how it contradicts Gethenian Principle

In the novel, the planet, Winter, is constantly described as being "cold and frozen over." Winter wouldn't be called Winter if it was unusually hot for 90% of the time. The people of Winter, Gethenianians specifically, have adapted to the frigid weather and are accustomed to slight incremental changes but prefer their bitter-cold environment.  The constant frigid climate of Winter contributes to the theme of isolation and loneliness because, throughout the book, Genly is making it his mission to adapt to the many changes that this planet continues to throw at him, especially the weather and with this he feels alienated, as if he is a freak or "alien." When Genly came to Winter, he was afraid, afraid of all that was not normal to him.  As a whole, the principles and practices of Gethenian culture are QUITE different from our own, for example, the process of Kemmer. I bring this up because I find it very interesting how when the climate is described thoroughly, it is always sad, and depressing; this feeling of isolation because there is simply nothing you can do about how severely cold the weather is. Kemmer seems to contradict the feeling of loneliness because when Kemmer is described, it is a beautiful aspect of nature taking care of itself, even though it occurs every 3 or so weeks, everyone in Gethen participates in it. The cycle keeps going. Kemmer contributes to the theme of unity, warmth, beauty, and love which is a direct juxtaposition of the theme of loneliness and isolation presented from how cold the weather is. When the process of Kemmer takes place, two subjects (with consent) prepare for what is to occur and go from being isolated and alone to being united as one. Kemmer brings the lonely people of Gethen together. 

[KC]: LHoD WAVE THREE Discussion Question

Wave Three:

Here comes the prompt for the third wave of blogging for The Left Hand of Darkness. Wave Three Bloggers must post in response to this prompt by 6:00 p.m. on Monday, February 5.  As before, anyone can comment on any post (Wave 1, 2, or 3), so by the time the unit is complete, you should have posted once, and commented twice. Remember, we are always looking for students who are working ABOVE AND BEYOND the minimum requirements.

Reflect on the myths presented in the various chapters of Left Hand of Darkness. Consider them as little symbolic parables and consider the following: What does this myth tell you about Gethen culture? However, some of the myths do have direct connections to the plot, especially the ones about Estraven. Discuss some of the Gethenian myths and folktales. Find one to discuss—the Place Inside the Blizzard, the Nineteenth Day, etc. How do such stories function in a culture?

Reminder, your post should be between 250-300 words long. Anything shorter will not be effective. Also, include page numbers when you reference the text.

Who shall post: Cameron Minor, Jazlyn Parra, Kali Snyder, Caitlin Ramos, Joana Rodriguez, Arturo Sanchez, Kylie Sivard, Skyler Swearingen, Bryan Ta, Briauna Thompson, Andrew Venegas

#TheStruggleIsReal

The cold of Winter is a constant reminder of how isolated and lonely Genly Ai feels. Genly is alien to the planet, so his body was not made to endure its extremely low temperatures. Because of this, he is always layering up, which makes him even more noticeable to the citizens. Since Gethenian bodies are adapted to the frigid temperatures, they do not understand how severe the weather feels to him, again, making him feel like an outsider. I noticed that when writers are writing about a sad topic, they often make the setting gloomy to evoke our emotions and force us to picture said gloomy setting. To build on the theme of loneliness, Genly is, as I said, an alien to Winter; therefore, he is not accustomed to their androgynous society. To further explain Genly’s isolation, his mind is so used to the typical “male” and “female” way of life, that he never fully grasps and holds the idea that nobody he meets is specifically male or female, causing him to feel out of place in this cold society. “Cold society” referring to both the weather and attitudes of the people. Another character that adds to the theme of isolation is Estraven because he is banished from Karhide and is forced to live in isolation from his child and everyone/everything he ever knew. In chapter two, the setting, for the most part, is in the freezing cold and includes Getheran going “... alone through the storm.” and the imagery of his limbs becoming frostbitten (pg. 25)

The Attempt 

Genly Ai's struggles to see the Gethenians as they see themselves was when he went to an unknown planet that people are considered to be neither male or female. Also, Genly is used to call the Gethenians as he or she because on Genly’s planet which is basically like Earth, that is the universal law to be either male or female. On Gethan, the people are not considered female or male and Genly hasn’t really gotten over the matter of looking at Gethenians and not worrying about calling them a male or female. Genly just accept their tradition and he categorize because that’s what seems normal for him. However, for the Gethenians' point of view, they don’t see each other as female or male until their kemmer season, they see each other as just regular humans beings. They ignore their gender and focus more at each other with their souls. Not being able to accept this causes a culture board for him in a sense, but what also cause a culture board is the fact that Genly seems to be more like a real life human (like from our reality, you know from Earth) which causes Gethenians to also not accept him, they see him as a pervert because he’s a male full time. Genly’s attitudes reveal about his world is that it’s more like ours and that their used to identifying each other as male or female. When he identify a female she and a male he, Genly knows how and what to talk about with them.

To be alone

The constant cold on Gethen is something that the inhabitants of the planet have adapted and gotten used to. Since Genly is an alien, the cold affects him more than anyone else. This often serves to further how much of an outsider he is, which leads to him feeling out of place and alone. Since he does not originally come from a planet that is as cold as Gethen, he feels cold in times where others think of the weather as a nice spring day (page 20). He has no one that truly understands how much he suffers from it all. On Earth, places that are freezing cold are abandoned and undesirable, often making people think of loneliness when trying to picture it. People are miserable when they are freezing, and sometimes they can feel hopeless and all alone in certain situations. This, I believe, is how Genly feels all the time on Gethen. The cold makes him feel uncomfortable and isolated from everyone around him. No matter how many layers he puts on, the constant reminder that he does not belong there will always be present, such as when he was put in that van and the others sought him out as one of the weakest there (page 170). Another instance of Genly being treated as weak was when he arrived in Orgoreyn and was treated as if he was pregnant due to how susceptible to the cold he is (page 117). While it did help him to stay warm, it still no doubt made him even more isolated than before.

[KC]: LHoD WAVE TWO Discussion Question

Wave Two:

Here comes the prompt for the second wave of blogging for The Left Hand of Darkness. Wave Two Bloggers must post in response to this prompt by 6:00 p.m. on Monday, January 29.  As before, anyone can comment on any post (Wave 1, 2, or 3), so by the time the unit is complete, you should have posted once, and commented twice. Remember, we are always looking for students who are working ABOVE AND BEYOND the minimum requirements.

How does the constant cold of Gethen contribute to the theme of isolation and loneliness?

Reminder, your post should be between 250-300 words long. Anything shorter will not be effective. Also, include page numbers when you reference the text.

Who shall post:
Paige Foy, Valerie Gamboa, Michael Garcia, Corea Hatcher, Franqui Herrera, Jasy Johnson, Heather Laughlin, Stephen Le, Emily Martin Del Campo, Noa Melendez

Discuss Genly Ai's struggle to see Gethenians as they see themselves. What do Genly Ai's attitudes reveal about the world he comes from?

Genly Ai's struggle to see Gethenians as they see themselves stems from the fact that he comes from a world vastly different from Winter. Gethenians are genderless. Thus, Genly Ai struggles to understand and comprehend the interactions of Gethenians, because Genly Ai simply can not relate with Gethenian society. In addition, Gethenians also find it difficult to understand and comprehend Genly Ai, for he is permanently in "kemmer". Furthermore, Gethenians see him as a pervert, and as a result, both sides have difficulty understanding each other. Especially, Genly Ai, who faces culture shock, for Ai he cannot grasp how Gethenians can live in an androgynous lifestyle. Although Genly Ai has been on the planet of Winter for two years it is apparent in his narrative that he still is not accustomed to Gethenian ways, nor has tried to understand them. 

Genly Ai's attitudes toward Gethenians reveals how he believes in gender roles. Throughout Ai's narrative, we see how he constantly refers to masculine characters as "he", when in reality they are androgynous meaning they are not specifically male or female. Furthermore, the world that Genly Ai comes from is similar to Earth. The idea of gender roles is deeply ingrained into Ai's mindset to an extent where he tries to force the idea of gender roles onto Gethenians which can be seen when he refers to again masculine characters. This idea of gender roles reveals how Genly Ai views the world in a man's point of view believing that gender plays a significant role in society.

          Gently Ai is from a different planet, where permanent gender and clear distinction between each is the norm. When he visits the planet winter, he is shocked to find that things are completely different. The people there don’t have a specific gender, they are all androgynous, until they go into Kemmer, meaning they turn into a specific gender to mate. Genly Ai struggles to wrap around his head around the concept, placing them in female and male “boxes”, rather than seeing them as neutrality. Ai finds this strange and difficult to comprehend. He also shows his struggle because he keeps referring to Estraven as “he” and “him” which is definitely not the case. He can’t let go of the norm of where he’s from. His permanent gender appears to the others from winter as perverted. Even the Kings ask him, ‘“So all of them, out on these other planets, are in permanent kemmer? A society of perverts?”’ (36). So it shows that they both think alike, unable to accept differences and be normal about it. This is a parallel to how attitudes are back in his world,  how people are still afraid of change and things that are different. Even though things aren’t scary, they are still feared because they’re different, rather than embracing and accepting uniqueness.

The Struggle

Genly Is envoy, or first mobile sent by the Ekumen to the frozen planet of Winter for a diplomatic mission. To the genderless people of Winter he is an alien "pervert", or someone who is in permanent kemmer. He is in a new world so much more different than the others he has been to. He is not used to meeting a group of people who happen to be genderless; this for Genly is a struggle for it is difficult for him to see Gethenians the way the way they see themselves. In chapter 8 page 106, it is revealed that the king is pregnant; to him this is strange for he thinks of it to be odd, but the older clansman he spoke to "found this funny-they said he was too old to be bearing children". The kings is seen as this masculine figure especially in Genly's eyes, so hearing this is strange to him but to the clansman this is normal. It seems that Genly can't completely accept this lifestyle for he still does things such as referring to the people he meets as he or she depending on how he sees them. This reveals that the world he is from have a strong belief in their own lifestyles and that it is the only right way to live. Since Genly doesn't quite accept their lifestyle, it also shows that his world isn't the type of place that is accepting of lifestyles far more different than their own. We are able to understand how Genly must feel since we are used to only being around others who are sexually oriented, and have never been around someone who isn't sexually oriented.  

An Outsider Looking In

Genly Ai is an outsider that is trying look at Gethen and Gethenian society with an openly closed mindset. He is trying to learn about Gethenian culture but can't fully grasp the nature of things because he has never been exposed to any of it. Just like in our society, we have never been able to accept things as they are but we find ways to compromise. For Genly, that compromise is mentally associating the androgynous inhabitants of Gethen to a gendered society of his own, basing it off of their personalities and physical characteristics. By doing so, Genly thinks sexist remarks to himself and it sometimes inhibits his ability to grasp some of the simple matters that trouble him.  That being said, Genly is a foreigner that was handed the observations, uncertainties, and theories  of the investagator team which seem to cloud his judgement at times.  Genly is openly trying to adapt to the way Gethenian society is conducted but his nature is close minded but he was unconsciously transforming their society to fit what he is used to, a world that has genders, a world that has inequalities, a world in which people are in a hurry to reach new height rather than slowly improve upon what we've had. Genly won't be able to truly see the inhabitants of Gethens as they see one another because of the way he associates them to fit he's used to.

Wave 1: Genly sees how He sees

Genly Ai, a Mobile from the Ekumen on a diplomatic mission, displays his struggle to see Gethenians as they see themselves within the very first chapter, where he had supper with Estraven at his house. During the moment Ai addresses his subconscious behavior of “forcing him into those categories so irrelevant  to his nature and so essential to my own” (12). This one experience illustrates Genly’s premature behaviour to instinctively label the people of Winter as some gender. As being from another world and coming from Terran, a world of perverts, or rather permanently gendered people, the idea of being genderless is unfathomable. Especially to an Investigator who's only knowledge of genders revolve around male and female, never once considering the possibility of androgynous beings. Moreover, where he comes from the people have a sexual drive daily, whereas the people in Winter have a cycle where their sexual drive kicks in. Also, Gethenians have “no division of humanity into strong and weak halves” (94). Where as all the other beings from the other worlds have a division between the roles of men and women. These few differences illustrate the vast difference between Terran and Winter, and being a foreigner it makes sense why Genly struggles to wrap his mind around their gender orientation. In addition, his ignorance is further displayed throughout the book as he constantly refers to the natives as “he”. Nonetheless, despite the natives alien like nature to Genly they too see him as an alien, or Envoy; and his tallness and dark complexion sets him apart from the Gethenians, so although Genly may see them as strange and his perception of them is challenged, Gethenians may too have the same attitude towards him.

Genly Ai struggles to understand how Gethenians see themselves because of how different Gethen is compared to where he’s from. He comes from a planet where everyone is known by their gender, and is seen as male or female where in Gethen, there are no genders. They only become male or female when in kemmer, a term Gethenians use when they’re sexually active. It’s completely different to what Genly understands because in his world, the people know what gender they are and don’t go through kemmer. Genly may feel unusual about everything because he’s not like everyone else around him. All the things on Gethen is normal for Gethenians except for Genly. The Gethenians think of him as a pervert, judging him for having a permanent gender. The king asks him, ‘“So all of them, out on these other planets, are in permanent kemmer? A society of perverts?”’ (36). It shows that when Genly thinks that everyone else is strange, he’s actually the strange one to them all. He doesn’t mean to be a pervert or to upset anyone. Genly also struggles with not knowing what to refer Gethenians as because of them being genderless. His attitude reveals that the world he comes from is just like our world. We can relate to Genly by understanding how he feels because we’re more like him. With his struggle of not fitting in makes him feel different from everyone else. People judge others by how they look and not accepting them for who they are.

Since Genly Ai is from a different planet where a human is categorized as male or female, he faces many  challenges being on the planet Winter. Genly is so used to looking at someone and calling them he or she because on his planet, that’s normal. On Winter, they aren’t male or female. For Gethenians, they don’t see each other as male or female until their kemmer season, which is when they see each other as humans. They look pass their gender and look more at each other, like looking at a soul. Not being able to accept this causes a culture board for him in a sense, but what also causes a culture board is the fact that Genly seems to be more like a real life human which causes Gethenians to also not accept him, they see him as a pervert because he’s a male full time. Genly’s attitude reveals that his world is more like ours and that they're used to identifying each other as male or female. Calling a male he and female she, identifying them so Genly knows how and what to talk about with them.

Genly's Struggle to See Others.

Genly struggles to see the Gethenians in the same way as they view themselves because he cannot completely accept that they are different then him. He has become so used to everyone being the same as him. Although he doesn't oppose the way the Gethenians live their life, but he also can no fully accept it. This has many similarities to the controversies that we face in our world. There are many times of people being angry that someone does not look like them or think in the way they do. This causes many problems to arise in society, which is what has been happening lately. Even during the time Ursuala wrote this book, the same single minded idea was being thought. Genly cannot grasp that the Gethenians live a life so different then his. For example, throughout the book, Genly is constantly referring to the Gethenians he meets with pronouns such as he or she even though he is aware that they have no gender for the majority of their lives. Genly struggles to accept their lifestyle and because of that he can't see them in the same way they view themselves.  This tells you that the world he lives in has a superior complex. That they believe their way of life is better and that everyone who is different from them should transform their lifestyle so that it is the same. As I had mentioned earlier, this type of superiority complex is still in our world today. We are not accepting of the differences, in fact we are scared of them because we don't understand them. The same goes for Genly and his world. Which is why he is on this mission in the first place. To better understand the Gethenians, as well as get them to join a neighboring country.

[KC]: LHoD WAVE ONE Discussion Question

WAVE ONE:

Discuss Genly Ai's struggle to see Gethenians as they see themselves. What do Genly Ai's attitudes reveal about the world he comes from?

Reminder, your post should be between 250-300 words long. Anything shorter will not be effective. Also, include page numbers when you reference the text.

Wave 1 responders, you have until 6:00 pm Monday, January 22nd to post your response to this question. All other students in the class may comment on any of the LHoD posts at any time.

Who shall post:

Summer Almond, Jasmine Apodaca, Joyce Asombrado, Gaby Bayani, Caitlyn Carstens, Haley Davis, Kameron Drew, Sydairee Dudley, Chris Esparza, Eli Figueroa

Remember, anyone can comment on these posts.  The total requirement for this novel is ONE blog post and TWO comments, and as always, I hope some students will EXCEED EXPECTATIONS and go ABOVE AND BEYOND this 1:2 minimum requirement.