Graceling

After reading the assigned reading for this week, I have to say that the novel Graceling is really interesting and good. I’m only on page 80 and it is a lot better then The Left Hand of Darkness. The first chapter of Graceling was interesting and entertaining, it also really drew you in right away unlike in The Left Hand of Darkness where it took till like page 205 for me to really get into the story. In the novel Graceling, I also really enjoy the way Kristin Cashore writes. It is simple, easy to understand and she writes with subtle detail which makes sense why this book is directed to young adults or “Tweens” as they say. Another thing I love about the way she writes, is how she narrates in third person omniscient, meaning the narrator is not a character in the book but she is telling the story.     

This may be off topic and random but when I was reading about what the Council and what they do, it kind of reminded me of the movie Robin Hood. Katsa and the council helps out by kidnapping a Lienid among other good deeds. Just like what Robin Hood does by stealing from the poor and giving to the needy. I thought it was funny and interesting how these two stories sort of intertwined. 

Left Hand of Darkness (241-300)

I would like to start out by saying, that I am extremely upset with how they killed off Estraven! He was by far my favorite character in this book and they just killed him. Needless to say how upset I am by this. It made me even more upset when Argaven didn’t right away take back Estraven’s exile when Genly asked him. I mean, why would it really matter to him considering Estraven was murdered. 

Another thing that I didn’t like was, how it was so obvious that Thessicher was going to betray Estraven. When Genly was describing how he was looking Estraven and then he offered automatically to have him stay with him, that was the sign that he was going to inform Tibe. When Tibe was after him, I did not predict him killing him, only capturing him. I think that would have made a better ending.

About the ending, how disappointing was that? I mean you couldn’t have left us with a little substance or something instead of just ending it. Overall I would have to say I did not enjoy this book. I didn’t really get into it until Genly was arrested but then the whole escape scenes got a little old and boring. I really did not get the book and wanted a little bit more of an actually ending but I guess the book did make some reference to real life and how we should treat each other equally. I think the moral of this story was to first point out how we treat each and label things and second was it is possible to be friends with others who are completely different then you just like how Genly and Estraven became friends in the end.

Left Hand of Darkness (123-220)

I may be the only one who thinks this so I hope I don’t offend anyone by saying, finally this book got a little bit interesting. Before these last few chapters, I was struggling to read it because nothing was sparking my attention until recently. Le Guin gave us, I felt, too much background. She let the story drag out before really getting to the point. Once she did though, she put a nice twist to the story. 

When Genly Ai got arrested, it took me by surprise, I was not expecting that. I just assumed the story would go on how it was and he would persuade Orgoreyn to join the Ekumen and then Karhide would follow. Oh boy, was I terribly wrong! 

Let me add, that I love how Estraven had this plan to get into the jail and then to kidnap Genly and escape. This seen reminded me of other stories where a big strong man saves the damsel in distress. It brought out the prince charming, warrior type character in Estraven. If you think about it, it seems a little odd to have a character take on a role that is typically associated with a man, considering that Estraven has no gender. Or I may have just interpreted this seen wrong. What are your thoughts and feelings on this particular seen?

Left Hand of Darkness

After reading the first couple chapters of The Left Hand of Darkness, it made me question what this novel is truly about. We are told that this story is solely about a world with no gender but is there more to it than just that? I feel that creating a world with no gender will ultimately teach us, the reader, about our own views of gender and how we treat others based on that characteristic alone. Without gender we would be forced to treat people equally and not place each other into specific roles. 

Our narrator describes to us how he struggles in a world without gender. He tries to place a gender role with other characters in the book just like we do with one another.  He finds himself confused because certain emotions and actions are gender specific in his society and is believed to belong to one gender and not the other. During the dinner seen at Estraven’s house, he finds that the way dinner is presented is very womanly but the way Estraven looks gives him a sense of masculinity. A world without gender must be confusing for someone who is used to gender roles in their world. If we were to be placed in a planet, like Winter where there is no gender, would we feel as outsiders and unable to cop without our gender identity?