ESSAY
The Left Hand of Darkness,
by Ursula Le Guin, can be read as an anthropological adventure into the
Science Fiction genre, where freewill and determinism are confronted.
The differences between the Earth and the Planet Winter were striking,
mainly for the fact that there was no kind of division based on sex
since the physiology of their inhabitants was duo-sex.
In this adventure, the protagonist Genly Ai realized that there was a
balance between determinism and freewill. This balance was "forced" by
both the environment, which was just an eternal freezing season, as much
as by the inhabitants of the planet, among whom there was no "he" or
"she." In one way or another, freewill and determinism, the society was
based on the individual as a whole, because male and female existed only
when there was an implicit and natural need.
The experience that Genly Ai had in Planet Winter was so deep on the
psychological level, that when he returned to Earth he realized the
importance of perspective, that in our self-view, maybe there are
examples of heroism, and life goes on.
