Gethen

Last updated
Gethen
' Ekumen' location
Created by Ursula K. Le Guin
Genre Science fiction novel
Information
Type Ice planet
Notable locations
  • Karhide
  • Orgoreyn
Moon(s)1

Gethen, also called Winter, is a fictional planet in Ursula K. Le Guin's Ekumen universe. It is the setting for her science fiction novel The Left Hand of Darkness . [1] [2]

Ursula K. Le Guin American author

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the Earthsea fantasy series. She was first published in 1959, and her literary career spanned nearly sixty years, yielding more than twenty novels and over a hundred short stories, in addition to poetry, literary criticism, translations, and children's books. Frequently described as an author of science fiction, Le Guin has also been called a "major voice in American Letters", and herself said she would prefer to be known as an "American novelist".

Science fiction Genre of speculative fiction

Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction that typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life. It has been called the "literature of ideas", and often explores the potential consequences of scientific, social, and technological innovations.

Novel Narrative text, normally of a substantial length and in the form of prose describing a fictional and sequential story

A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, normally written in prose form, and which is typically published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the Italian novella for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the Latin novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of novellus, diminutive of novus, meaning "new". Walter Scott made a distinction between the novel, in which "events are accommodated to the ordinary train of human events and the modern state of society" and the romance, which he defined as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents". However, many such romances, including the historical romances of Scott, Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, are also frequently called novels, and Scott describes romance as a "kindred term". This sort of romance is in turn different from the genre fiction love romance or romance novel. Other European languages do not distinguish between romance and novel: "a novel is le roman, der Roman, il romanzo, en roman." Most European languages use the word "romance" for extended narratives.

Contents

The planet

Gethen appears to have a surface gravity more or less similar to Earth and a human-compatible atmosphere (the Earth envoy sent there shows no sign of discomfort). [3] Because of its cold climate, the planet is sometimes called "Winter". [4]

Gravity Attractive force between objects with mass

Gravity, or gravitation, is a natural phenomenon by which all things with mass or energy—including planets, stars, galaxies, and even light—are brought toward one another. On Earth, gravity gives weight to physical objects, and the Moon's gravity causes the ocean tides. The gravitational attraction of the original gaseous matter present in the Universe caused it to begin coalescing, forming stars—and for the stars to group together into galaxies—so gravity is responsible for many of the large-scale structures in the Universe. Gravity has an infinite range, although its effects become increasingly weaker on farther objects.

Earth Third planet from the Sun in the Solar System

Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. According to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence, Earth formed over 4.5 billion years ago. Earth's gravity interacts with other objects in space, especially the Sun and the Moon, which is Earth's only natural satellite. Earth orbits around the Sun in 365.26 days, a period known as an Earth year. During this time, Earth rotates about its axis about 366.26 times.

Gethen's axis is not tilted (as is the case with Earth), but a relatively high orbital eccentricity produces global seasons. [5] At the time of the story, Gethen is in the midst of an Ice Age. The poles and a large portion of the land around them are permanently covered with glaciers, and even in the inhabited areas the climate can be extremely cold. In some places, it is impossible to travel in winter, since the snow covers all roads.

In astronomy, axial tilt, also known as obliquity, is the angle between an object's rotational axis and its orbital axis, or, equivalently, the angle between its equatorial plane and orbital plane. It differs from orbital inclination.

Glacier Persistent body of ice that is moving under its own weight

A glacier is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. Glaciers slowly deform and flow due to stresses induced by their weight, creating crevasses, seracs, and other distinguishing features. They also abrade rock and debris from their substrate to create landforms such as cirques and moraines. Glaciers form only on land and are distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water.

The people

Gethenians are physically and culturally adapted to cold; they tend to be of robust build and short stature, and they are familiar with the caloric yield of many different types of food. (The physical adaptations might be a product of genetic manipulation by the Hain, the species that "seeded" many worlds in the Ekumen with humanoid lifeforms.)

Gethen has no large land animals, and Gethenians do not farm animals for meat or milk; most are essentially pescetarians. They farm crops, gather eggs, fish, and hunt land animals for their skins and fur. [6]

The inhabitants of Gethen are androgynes, biologically intersex humans; for approximately three weeks of each month they are biologically neuter, and for the remaining week are male or female, as determined by pheromonal negotiation with an interested sex partner. Thus each individual can both sire and bear children. [7] [2]

Androgyny is the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics into an ambiguous form. Androgyny may be expressed with regard to biological sex, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual identity. The different meanings of androgyny point to the complex interrelationship between aspects of sex, gender, and sexuality.

Hermaphrodite organism with both male and female reproductive organs

In biology, a hermaphrodite is an organism that has complete or partial reproductive organs and produces gametes normally associated with both male and female sexes. Many taxonomic groups of animals do not have separate sexes. In these groups, hermaphroditism is a normal condition, enabling a form of sexual reproduction in which either partner can act as the "female" or "male." For example, the great majority of tunicates, pulmonate snails, opisthobranch snails, earthworms, and slugs are hermaphrodites. Hermaphroditism is also found in some fish species and to a lesser degree in other vertebrates. Most plants are also hermaphrodites.

As for their appearance, Le Guin explains;

In my first big science fiction novel, The Left Hand of Darkness, the only person from Earth is a black man, and everybody else in the book is Inuit (or Tibetan) brown. [8]

Calendar and timekeeping

Gethen orbits its primary star once every 0.96 Earth years (8401 Earth hours). The planet rotates around its axis in 23.08 earth hours, so a Gethenian year consists of 364 local days. [9]

The only natural satellite of the planet revolves around it in 26 local days, which constitutes a month. The year is divided into 14 of these lunar months. By fortunate coincidence, the deviation between this lunisolar calendar and the true solar year is small enough to require a correction only once every 200 years. Thus the days are synchronized with the moon phase every month. [10]

Each day in a month has a unique name. Days are not grouped in weeks, but the month is evenly divided in two halves of 13 days each (the names of the days in the second half are derived regularly from those of the first half). [10]

Gethenians further divide each day into ten parts or "hours", the first one starting at noon. [11]

A very curious concept of dating is employed in Gethen, though this is only explained briefly in the book: the years are not numbered sequentially in increasing order, but the current year is always referred to as "Year One", and the others are counted as years before or after this standpoint. Historical records employ well-known events to mark (fixed) past dates. [9]

Cartography

Gethen has four continents and an archipelago. Two of the continents, Orgoreyn and Karhide, are connected. The action of the novel takes place here. The other continents are Sith and the Antarctic continent, Perunter. The planet is covered with ice everywhere beyond 45 degrees, and often down to 30 degrees.

Appearances in Le Guin's fiction

The main description of the people and culture is The Left Hand of Darkness , published in 1969. It gives their myths and legends, set amidst the story of a visitor from Earth. [1]

Winter's King is a short story written earlier, first published in 1969, and appearing in revised form in the 1975 collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters . It tells the story of Argaven, a Gethenian who visits another planet. [12]

Coming of Age in Karhide , first published in 1995, appears in the 2002 short story collection The Birthday of the World . It takes place after the events of Winter's King. It is mostly about an ordinary Gethenian discovering sex. [13] [14]

Another short story, The Shobies' Story , appears in the 1994 collection A Fisherman of the Inland Sea . Here, Gethenians are part of a mixed Ekumen expedition to a new planet. Since they are now integrated into the Ekumen, it must take place after the other tales. [15]

Sources

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 Le Guin 1969.
  2. 1 2 Sarah LeFanu (January 3, 2004). "The king is pregnant". The Guardian . Retrieved December 20, 2016.
  3. ↑ Le Guin 1969, p. 121.
  4. ↑ Le Guin 1969, p. 6.
  5. ↑ Le Guin 1969, p. 213-214.
  6. ↑ Le Guin 1969, pp. 10,214.
  7. ↑ Le Guin 1969, pp. 89-91.
  8. ↑ Ursula K. Le Guin (December 16, 2004). "A Whitewashed Earthsea". Slate . Retrieved December 20, 2016.
  9. 1 2 Le Guin 1969, p. 302.
  10. 1 2 Le Guin 1969, p. 303.
  11. ↑ Le Guin 1969, pp. 303-304.
  12. ↑ Le Guin 1975, pp. 85-108.
  13. ↑ Le Guin 2002, pp. 1-22.
  14. ↑ Ligaya Mishan (July 24, 2009). "First Contact: A Talk with Ursula K. Le Guin". The New Yorker . Retrieved December 20, 2016.
  15. ↑ Le Guin 1994, pp. 81-113.
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