#423

Books

This week I read:

• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

  This came up in conversation, so I decided to re-read this. The thing that really stood out to me is that the ideas of gender and sexuality seem incredibly dated now, even though this is obviously a very feminist story. We certainly haven’t conquered sexism as a society, far from it, but I don’t think if this novel were written today the protagonist would comment on how he distrusts the feminine nature of the people of Gethen, or make comments like “he had a girl’s quick delicacy in his looks and movements, but no girl could keep so grim a silence as he did”. Yes, the alien nature of the world and difficulty the protagonist has adapting to it (and how weirded out he is at the end by the arrival of his companions from the ship, thrusting him once more into a world of binary sex) is the point, but I just feel it would be less overt if written today. We have nonbinary people on Earth now.

  I do like the gradual shift we get over the book from Genly wanting the world to welcome the Ekumen before he will call the ship, to calling the ship because it is the right thing to do on a personal level for Estraven, who is just one man. It mirrors the visit from Estraven’s kemmer-mate who calls Genly’s mission immoral because Genly says it is greater than any one man or any personal obligations. Sometimes it is worth changing a whole world just to (try to) save one man.

Roleplaying Games

Another session of D&D 4e this weekend. The last session, as it turned out. We spent about two hours on a single combat, and at the end the other player broached the subject that it was a bit dull. So we’re just going to be playing Traveller from now on.

Akkadian

It’s been quite a while since I last studied Akkadian properly, but I have this week picked up a couple of books on Sumerian which I intend to work through.

Miscellaneous

The hedgehog may have moved out.

I checked the box on Saturday—first time I’ve opened it since I saw it move in at the beginning of October—and, alas, it was not there. Nor on Sunday. The food is still disappearing (from its little bowl outside the box) so it’s around somewhere, but might be living elsewhere.