Left hand of darkness
I think that the book The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula Le Guin, should be a book that everyone at ETHS should read. This book is a classic science fiction book with many added advantages. The book is about a man who is trying to peacefully convince a new world of people to join in a trade agreement with his home word as well as many others. The book promotes peace and peaceful discussions over war, which has no place in the book at all. It also forces the reader to look at sex in a different way. The inhabitants of this planet do not have a gender most of the time, which makes open thinking a necessity. Science fiction books can be wonderfully exciting and fun to read, but many kids in our school today do not know that. Many students are simply not exposed to science fiction, and think that science fiction is only for science people and dorks. This is obviously not true, but how would they know? They have never read any science fiction in school, and if they do not read it on their own, they may never read science fiction. This would be a tragedy, for there are so many books that are so engrossing that they could really bring out the reader in students. For example, Dune, by Frank Herbert, is
Interspersed in the book The Left Hand of Darkness, there are chapters which are simply stories that help the plot along. One example is chapter 12 on page 162. This chapter is about Meshe who has been to the center of time and therefore knows everything that has, is and will happen. This immediately brings forth a barrage of questions and concepts that may not have been uncovered by other books in school. These chapters are helpful because they get the reader thinking in the right mindset. The reader has to understand that this planet is unlike any planet that they have ever encountered. The land is different, the history is different and the people are simply not like anything that most people have ever even thought about. The people of this planet are not distinct genders. They are all somewhere in the middle about 21 or 22 days then they are in kemmer and become one sex, as described on page 90. This is a hard concept to understand, and even Genly had some trouble dealing with it when he was alone with Estraven on page 233 and 234. Also, on page 248, Genly must do what is right when Estraven is in kemmer. Le Guin does a good job of making this planet and other world complete. She makes up small differences in this distant planet that make it seem whole, and that there actually is a well developed world like this out there. On pages 303 and 304, there is a short list of many
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Approximate Word count = 934
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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