i've recently finished reading
the dispossessed by
ursula le guin, and have thoroughly enjoyed. having come across le guin whilst just a little nipper, reading the
earthsea books, i was reunited with her work through the enthusiasm of my girlfriend a few years back, and discovered that they're still great. a far cry from the brashly macho world of many fantasy novels, the books explore the subtle psychological terrains of their characters*. le guin's writing often emphasises deep yearnings, subconscious fears, and a deep sense of otherness. the main characters of both the
earthsea novels and
the dispossessed are people who are deeply rootless and alienated from the societies that surround them, something that is easy for me to empathise with.
the dispossessed is set across two worlds: the materially barren, yet philosophically rich world of anarres, and the materially rich yet morally bankrupt world of urras. anarres is the moon of urras, inhabited by settlers from urras who have created an anarchist society there. these odonians (their philosophy derives from the teachings of odo, a revered thinker and revolutionary) are deeply communistic and their society has no gods and no masters (in theory). work is voluntary and individuals are expected to spend a certain amount of their time engaging in manual work, such as farming and construction. whilst there are no rules regarding interpersonal relationships, it is frequently the case that 'pairings' of adults will occur to produce offspring. most activities are communal, however, including child rearing and mealtimes. the peoples' principles are revealed in the types of behaviour they class as undesireable: propertarianism, profiteering, and egoising.
shevek, the main character, despite his apparent love of many aspects of the society, is always an outsider within it. his troubled relationship from his mother who showed little 'propertarian' behaviour towards him as a child, and his classmates dislike of his 'egoising' intellectualism, stand him apart from his peers. he grows up to become a brilliant physicist, but is troubled by the relative luxuries enjoyed by fellow academics, which contrast with his beliefs in an egalitarian society. he is soon preyed upon by sabul, a parasitic colleague who takes credit for shevek's work, in return for clandestine access to communications with the planet urras. despite the odonians' despisal of profiteering urras, their much larger population and superior facilities mean that their physics is of a much higher standard than that on anarres. unable to stand the eploitation of sabul for long, shevek soon becomes involved with the syndicate of initiative to engage in their own clandestine radio communications with urras, seeing themselves as true revolutionaries, unbound by what they see as the tyranny of social norms on their planet. in a move deeply unpopular with most of his peers, shevek ends up deciding to travel to urras, in an attempt to engage in dialogue between the two worlds.
well, that's not quite how the book runs. the first chapter details shevek's exit from annares and travel to urras, and his first experiences of urrasti values. his bemusement with their wastefulness, religion and patriarchy. thereafter, the book tells two stories in parallel, in alternative chapters: the story up til that moment on anarres, and the story after on urras. shevek is initially insulated in high class urrasti society. he has his own servant, spends time with urrasti intellectuals and samples the delights of urras' material bounty. it's not long, however, before he comes across dissidents. first, chifoilisk from thu, an agent of the communist government of one of urras' provinces, who tries to persuade shevek that they have more in common with eachother than with a-io's profiteers. later, as shevek's realisation of his separation from the poor and disadvantaged of urras grows stronger, he escapes the clutches of his hosts and joins a mass demonstration of anarchists and socialists in solidarity, and delivers a rousing speech extolling values of freedom, solidarity and egalitarianism. the demonstration is brutally suppressed by armed security forces, but shevek escapes to the embassy of an alien planet, where he seeks immunity. the story ends with shevek returning home.
the dispossessed works due to both the compelling vision of a free yet principled society it sets out, and the fact that the story of shevek reinforces these ideals, whilst critiquing them at the same time. i would highly reccommend this book to anyone with an interest in how an anarchist utopia might look, and what the pitfalls might be with such a society. le guin's writing makes the values she obviously deeply believes in become realisable through the experiences of her characters. i'm often struck by the beauty with which she describes male-female relationships outside of the realms of male domination and tired gender stereotypes. le guin is particularly inspired by taoist ideas which may explain her knack for balancing yin and yang. according to her it's a natural complement to pacifist anarchism:-
"I read Lao-tzu and the Tao Te Ching at 14. My father had it around the house in the old edition with the Chinese text. I sneaked a peek and was and remain fascinated. Taoism is still an underlayer in my work. It begins talking about what we can't talk about--an old mysticism that intertwines with Buddhism and is practical and not theistic. Before and beyond God. There's a humorous and easygoing aspect to it that I like temperamentally and that fits in with anarchism. Pacifist anarchism and Lao-tzu have a lot of connection with each other, especially in the 20th century."
the dispossessed is obviously a book that has been taken seriously be academic anarchist studies, as a quick internet search will reveal. it's well worth a read.
whilst on the topic of anarchist sci-fi (arcane i know), i should mention some rather different but no less compelling material i've been reading in the compilation
sf published by
semiotext(e). whilst the collection is certainly patchy and rather too biased towards the excessive-references-to-robotic-phalluses school of sci-fi for this reader's liking, there are some gems in there. one that springs to mind is the anonymously-penned
visit port watson! (which can be read in full
here). despite the anonymous tag, i assumed that this was the work of
hakim bey, pseudonym of co-editor and anarchist thinker peter lamborn wilson. the piece is written in the style of a travel guide detailing a utopic tropical island, sonsorol, where society runs on distinctly libertarian principles. it fits in well with bey's idea of a
temporary autonomous zone, inspired by a similar brand of 18th century piracy found in some of william burroughs' later novels (
cities of the red night,
the place of dead roads,
the western lands). check it.
* whatever you do, however, avoid the tele adaptation of earthsea i had the deep misfortune of witnessing over easter. myself and t. were aghast at the total misrepresentation of the complexities of the books in this blockbusterisation of the novels (
as was le guin). sacrilege!