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Title: The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin ISBN: 0-06-105488-7 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 01 September, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.32 (73 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Ursula's Utopia
Comment: I read this book years ago and have re-read it many times. It and Left Hand of Darkness are my favorite novels by LeGuin. Both books start with a what-if premise. In Lefthand of Darkness the premise is what if there is no separation of the sexes. In The Disposessed the premise is what if there were a truly communistic society. What would it be like? How would it compare or hold up to a capitalist society? What impact would it have on the people that live in that society? She explores these questions through the life of the main character, Shevak. Shevak is a brillant physicist (akin to Einstein) who grows up on the communistic moon of Annares and later travels to the capitalistic parent world of Urras. Although LeGuin obviously favors the commmunistic world of Annares, she does not hesitate to fully explore its weaknesses. She also shows how difficult it is for a truly visionary human such as Shevak to live comfortably in either world. I found The Dispossessed to not only be a thoughtful examination of a philosophical premise but to also be a beautifully written novel and a pleasure to read.
Rating: 5
Summary: Remember, this is fiction, not a political text!
Comment: This was one of LeGuin's earlier works and still one of her best -- second only, in my opinion, to _The Left Hand of Darkness._ Shevek is a once-in-a-century theoretical physicist and also an Odonion -- an anarcho-syndicalist on the world of Anarres, which is a satellite of the thoroughly capitalist-imperialist planet of Urras, from which the Odonians had removed themselves two centuries before. But Anarrian society is becoming infected with egoism and bureaucratic attitudes, and Shevek finds himself to deal any longer with the jealous resistance his theories have created among his scientific colleagues. Shevek and his friends undertake the necessity of rebelling against the permanent anarchist rebellion, and this involves Shevek making the journey to Urras, both to pursue his research and to attempt to communicate with the anarchist underground there. It's a fascinating story with very fully realized characters, both in their human personalities and in their sociopolitical attitudes. The Urras-Anarres dichotomy, of course, is a straw man LeGuin has set up for the purposes of exploring how a true anarchist society might function, and she succeeds admirably. This book won both the Hugo and the Nebula, and for good reasons!
Rating: 5
Summary: Eternal Revolution?
Comment: Shevek is a physicist from a world of anarchists who finds the only way to spread his revolutionary ideas of temporal physics is to visit the world who exiled his culture nearly 200 years ago. In this act and in those leading to and from it, he brings a reexamination of the revolutionary anarchy of the desolate moon Anarres as well as casts a gaze on the stratified capitalist world of Urras.
Set in the same universe of LeGuin's other space stories, _The_Dispossessed_ critiques the capitalism of late 20th century Western culture, with its proxy wars and gender inequities, the failings of idealized communist societies which succumb to human drives for power through buereacracy, as well as the drive in both to maintain a status quo.
In addition, Shevek's struggle to unify linear and circular views of temporal physics parallels Einstein's (or Ainsetain's (sic))and modern physics struggles to unify general relativity with quantum mechanics. This, along with insights into the perils of dual career families and academic politics round out the tale.
Shevek, is perhaps the only fully realized character and he serves as the readers eyes onto the two Cetian societies and thus the aforementioned critique of our own. So, while I did identify and feel empathy for Shevek, it was the social descriptions and plot which kept me from putting the book down more than once to sleep, over the course of 24 hours.
Are you possessed by your possessions? by your ideas?
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Title: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin ISBN: 0441478123 Publisher: ACE Charter Pub. Date: 01 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin ISBN: 0380791854 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 01 March, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin ISBN: 0441008631 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: 09 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin ISBN: 044100993X Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: 07 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman ISBN: 0486404293 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $2.00 |
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