An Ambiguous Utopia (Hainish Cycle Book 5) - The Dispossessed

Slow-starting, as others have said, but the writing drew me in, which was a good thing, because much of the background detail was not provided until deep into the story. Indeed, some rather crucial details did not appear until near the end.

Shevek's twin worlds are not appealing: his native planet is as socially stratified as any communist state and just as poor, while his ancestral planet is a gender-segregated hidebound capitalism that quells mass protest with helicopter gunships.

Shevek's attempt to reunite the two worlds, however unlikely, makes reading about them bearable, even compelling. This is the first Le Guin novel I've read, but if they're all this good, I will try more.

Clearly written as an allegory for the cold war, the dispossessed still resonates. Money and possessions still function as prisons, keeping people apart for fear of loss. We could stand to be more like Anarres, treating others like brothers instead of strangers.

With a lack of action and the usual pulp-sci-fi tripes, I think this one might bore a lot of contemporary readers, particularly those that don't have a strong understanding of the Cold War dynamic around which it was based.

For those who like a little philosophy in their sci-fi, however, this is a classic work that deserves some attention somewhere down your list of things to read.

Absolutely one of my favorite books of all time. The novel is very well written and tells a great story that anyone can relate to-- being out of place ideologically with your friends or family can be very discouraging, but being strong and sticking to who you are is a major theme in this book. Oh, and MOON ANARCHISTS!

The flashbacks and all the details can be tedious. I guess I'm used to shorter flashbacks, like in films, but these are all out descriptions of their society growing up, the development process, citizens' de-conditioning, adolescence, etc; it can be intense. Hmm.. great for visualizing an alternative to capitalism and tenets of communism. Great for visualizing the problems that might arise and possible troubleshooting if we could ever begin such a society (not so patriarchal, not so profit-driven). I still see some issues with the portrayals of women, but written in the past is written in the past.

I was reading a library-bound first edition of The Dispossessed, then I bought the Kindle edition.

Oh dear, what edition was used to make the Kindle version? I find in the second half of Chapter 9, jumping in mid-chapter, two errors in the Kindle version that are not present in the first edition. It's hard to believe these were scanning errors; there's one case of the non-word "princple" instead of "principle" (page 300 location 4212) and a case where the word "where" is used instead of "were".

I find that disconcerting, and it makes me wonder whether I'm reading an authoritative edition. It makes me wonder how Kindle editions are made. One wouldn't guess that a book published in 1974 would have fewer errors than its derivative Kindle version. It makes me nervous about the quality of Kindle text in general.

Your thoughts on this?

As a classic sci-fi fan reading a groundbreaking work like this is always a challenge. How do you filter out the prejudice from all of the derivative works you've consumed before getting to the original. Do the ideas seem dated because they have been done to death since?

This is deservedly a classic solely for the human tale it tells. The economics between the anarcho-socialists and the randian capitalists seems quaint to a modern reader. The total lack of modern technology is hard to gloss over in a nominally futuristic albeit alien society.

All that said, its a great story of love and alienation. The contrast between being an outcast in your own society to an alien in another is well done.

One of the most insight, thought-provoking novels I have ever read. Even four decades later, LeGuinn's exploration of anarchist and hyper-capitalist societies is full of relevance for contemporary leftist politics.

Great, dated, but still its examination of capitalism and communism of high interest to most readers.A Brilliant angle using a young girl as narrator who really reviews books of science fiction. There is no real science fiction in the book unless you consider fairies.

Yes, this book is full of thoughtful examination and critique of human societies. We have Annares which is kind of an idealized non-repressive USSR, perhaps what devotees of Trotsky might imagine the USSR should have been - the permanent revolution, and yet the novel is complex enough to recognize some of the flaws and weaknesses that would develop over time even in this perfect society. Then we have A-Io on Urrasti which seems more or less like the USA - crass capitalism and social inequality and so forth. And A-Io and its more socialist rivals on Urrasti have their proxy wars kind of like USA and USSR did. And we have examination of feminism and womens' place in society, sexual ethics, and so forth.

So in some respect this novel is a relic of its time, but in other ways it's rather telling that I, a modern reader, just kinda shrug and says "wow times have changed" when I read about Takver giving birth at home and squatting during labor. Like that was a big deal in 1973, very cutting edge, whereas now they teach that in birthing classes at your local community hospital (and probably would have been the norm 100 years ago as well...) In other words, at least in some ways, LeGuin's side won, and some of her radical views are mainstream now. Others seem silly, or worse, dangerously naive, if we look at the actual history of the USSR, or Mao's Cultural Revolution, or the Khmer Rouge (another "idealistic" "peoples' revolution" that happened just a few years after this book was published). I would also not recommend taking parenting advise from this book.

Anyway, as for the novel itself, it's pretty boring. The plot such as it is basically serves to drive the commentary. I kept wondering if something interesting was going to happen. OK, Shevek goes here, Shevek goes there, gets shafted here, gets a bum deal there. People don't appreciate him here, people want to use him there. Life's hard when you're the smartest guy in the room and somehow society doesn't quite manage to live up to its ideals, in little ways or in big ways. So this was an easy book to put down. I contrast this with LeGuin's masterful "The Left Hand of Darkness" which was dense and thoughtful and complex but also a page turner - once I got into that I literally could not tear myself away until I was finished. That had action, suspense, intrigue. "The Dispossessed" is just a bunch of stuff that happens.

The action is set on two sister planets, with alternating chapters on each. The hero, a brilliant mathematician/physicist/philisopher, explores the nature and consequences of two political systems, their good and bad points - Capitalism and true 'Communism' verging on anarchy; there is even a brief, chilling view of our own future world in which the consequences of unrestrained consumerism has left a drastically reduced society ruled by an autocracy in a landscape become hopelessly degraded.
In my opinion "Dispossessed", written in 1974, should be 'up there' amongst the great satires of our literature (Gulliver's Travels, Animal Farm and 1984)instead of stuck away with poor science fiction as implied by the cover. My enjoyment of the text was seriously impeded by poor editing, horrible type face/page layout and misleading cover. Maybe I should have gone for the hard-cover version.

Superb story. Gentle. Inciteful. Thought provoking. Science fiction with an educational purpose - exploring political and cultural values we all think about on our own world. Another le Guin quidt masterpiece.

A tour de force documenting the avant garde art scene in the last century and one man’s journey through it. James Broughton’s lust for life is readily apparent here, and his connections with some of the greatest artists of the twentieth century range from the collaborative to the sensual and everything in between. I often got the sense that he must have slept his way through most of the major artistic circles of his time, men and women alike. While James’ talents are much stronger in his poetry (his prose can sometimes actually fall short in communicating the excitement of his adventures; those sections that read more like poetry are unsurprisingly the more enjoyable to read), his was truly a unique life. I often got the sense though of someone who excelled at living the fantasy but who struggled greatly with the mundane; in talking for instance about how he and his wife to be were attempting to ground themselves in something serious: “the only way either of us could accept the marriage was to think of it as a major performance piece embellished with enough flair to impress ourselves that it was for real.” Indeed, the overall impression of James was of someone always trying to descend from the clouds long enough to touch the ground, yet his zest and zeal for the erotic was wonderfully grounded, gritty and lustful. He was in many ways a study in opposites. And if you are interested in the scuttlebutt and gossip about many of the famous people from those times, then this is definitely a good book for you; he doesn’t pull a lot of punches, seeming to relish in exposing things for the enjoyment of all. Glad I read it.

I love Ursula K LeGuin, but I struggled with this one. I simply could not immerse myself in the characters and situation. I finally gave up and abandoned the book. I'm sure it's my fault, but this one didn't speak to my condition.

I read with great enjoyment her "Left Hand of Darkness," and had high hopes for more of the same. While both build slowly, "The Dispossessed" was teeth-grindingly slow and after half the book I gave up on it ever going anywhere. The protagonist is dull and somewhat unpleasant, and if the hero is going to have those kind of flaws he or she'd better be doing some pretty interesting stuff. Well, he is, sort of. He is trying to bring together the Lunar people and their Earth kin, or the Soviets and the west, or the environmentalists and the capitalists, or some such metaphorical split. Mostly the communists and the capitalists, and one is reminded how defining the cold war was to that era. How quickly we forget. However most of the action takes place in his head, in his own bare and spartan thoughts, and the heroic nature of his "betrayal" of his country in the interest of unity and truth is never really conveyed to the reader on any kind of emotional level.

The writing itself is splendid, the Sci Fi is only a context, but if you've read her stuff you know what you're getting into there, but again there is no action, no real tension, at least not in the first half. It may turn out great, I'll probably finish it eventually, but the author shouldn't demand of the reader that they endure 200 pages of prose just on the hope that it might get better later.

The author leads the reader through communism and capitalism showing the inherent problems of both and the struggles of a true believer both to stay faithful and convert others to see the world through his eyes.