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I thought that it is pretty sad to see Ofglen gone. I don't get what happened to her. If she knew the man, did he tell the Eyes about Ofglen. Also, I kind of thought it was ironic how the man is part of the resistance. He was part of the resistance and he was trying to save these handmaids, he was trying to free them but he gets beaten up by them. It's like doing something good and getting punished for it. Also, if there is this network of resistance and if Nick was supposedly in it, which means there are a lot of things going on. They had a whole network and everything and Ofglen even said that the resistance can save someone if they are in immediate danger, well why weren't they there to save the man or to save Ofglen herself? Were they not important enough to be saved? I also wondered what happened to Nick? Did he get caught and executed also for being in sexual relation with a handmaid? What about the commander? Did he get in trouble for harboring Nick? How high up is the Commander? Who is he in this plan of the coup? If he was really high up there, then he must have been one of the people who thought women should not be allowed to read which means he completely support the regime. Why would he goes against his belief and suddenly let Offred read?

Blog post 5

well, I just want to touch on the subject of sex AGAIN. I mean, while at the club, Offred had to have sex with the commander and she REALLY didn't like it. She showed that she was really indifferent towards him and she really thought he was disgusting. She thought he was just a dirty old man. However, the first time she had sex with Nick, she liked it. She barely knew the guy but she enjoyed having sex with Nick. Although she knew the commander before and she even said she liked him under different circumstances, why is it that she liked sex with Nick and not the commander? I thought that this just makes her more of a slut. I mean, she said that she thought the commander was old and ugly and shriveled up. She only wanted to fake it with him so that he wouldn't feel bad. However, she thought Nick was great, and she thought that he could be Luke's replacement. Obviously, her real characters is shown right at this moment. Despite her being a homewrecker before, now, she betrays the man she claimed to love and have sex with another man and enjoys it. Throughout the whole book, I kind of thought that Moira is the slutty one, or at least the one that would be deemed by society as troublesome and I thought that the main character would have been a good and pure person. After reading this part however, I thought that Moira is better than Offred because she has beliefs. She understands what she wants while Offred is someone who just goes with the flow.

Blog post

I think since the book started, the one main character i didn't pay attention to the most was the commander's wife. Now, I'm wondering about what she thinks by all this. I mean, she must be bored as hell sitting at her garden or doing nothing every day. How does she relaly feel about all this stuff? I mean, was her and her husband a happy couple before this whole thing? Does she love him? I would think that she needs to love him in order for her to feel jealousy and hatred for Offred. And I feel that she does hate Offred. Why else would she want to help Offred get pregnant? Also, this whole story have been told in the view point of Offred, a woman, someone who's not supposed to know a lot in this book. What I want to see was the big picture, the whole thing happening with society. Who control the commanders? Who control the aunts? How are people everywhere reacting to the situation? What "work" do the commanders actually do? How are the politics in this new world? Also, I wonder what is going on with the resistance? I mean, they obviously had quite a number of people, if so does it only consist of women? If there are men in the resistance, then how are they fighting against the system? This society seems really boring, and as we can see, Offred thought of suicides a few times, what keeps all the other handmaids from killing themselves because of boredom? I mean, what were their lives before? To have everything taken away from them, they must have been suffering the same way that Offred is, maybe worse. They might not live close to interesting people like the Commander or Ofglen. I could already see this system and society coming to an end very soon. People who aren't happy aren't going to be productive. All they are doing is work and no play, they will overturn this system due to growing discontent among the people

Blog Post # 4

Well, I thought the way that the people staged that coup was pretty good. I mean, aside from the fact that they gunned down the congress and everything, which sounded impossible, but how they gradually changed everything to fit their purpose. But what I wonder about is how they came to grab that power. I mean, if right now, something was to happen to the leaders of the United States, people would riot for sure. It wouldn't be peaceful. Also, they would have to put someone up as the face of their side, like a spokeperson who would stand for their government. Where is that person now? What is he doing in his position? I'm assuming that the person is a man because a woman doesn't have any power in the United States at that time. Also, how did the other countries react to what happened in the United States? Wouldn't have they tried to take advantage of the United States due to the unstability? Also, I'm sure that this kind of thing could never happen to us in real life. The main reason is the abolishment of money, the big corporations have power and they will always have power because they have a lot of money, and they will never allow that one aspect that gives them power to go away. Also, I'm sure that everything is government owned in the book, so the big corporations would fight that. Also, how come there is no resistance to this new system? I'm sure everyone is unhappy, because that's how it seems. The young Guardians can't get a wife till they are old, the commanders' wives are unhappy, most of the women are unhappy, how can they live like that?

Blog # 3

I think the commander is a very weird guy. He must be like 20 years older than her but he wants her to kiss him like she meant it. He is old enough to be her father. Another thing I'm wondering about is why are the handmaids stripped of their names? What is so shameful about keeping their old names? With their new names Offred are spelled like "of fred" and same thing with ofwarren and ofglen. Did they make up the names to refer to these women as properties? Often you hear people say that the current culture is wrong and shameful because it depicts women as properties but not as much as in this story. How could they say that they are giving the women freedom when they are counted as objects. Also, the commander is very weird, why does he want to play scrabble with her? If he wanted the kiss he should have asked for it, and if he wanted to play scrabble, he could have asked his men to play with him, less risk that way. Even if someone found out about the kiss, I don't think it would have been more troublesome for him than if they found out he let her play scrabble. The narrator mentions one of the Aunt always tell her to manipulate the men and lead them by the nose. How does that make them better than before? Stringing men along will lead to something disasterous. How can a woman not be a slut but at the same time using sexuality to manipulate men? Also, I don't understand what is their reason for doing this. If they want to repopulate, shouldn't they need to do their ceremony more than once per month? And if they want to repopulate why not let every single men get married, that way, there is a lot more chance. Why would they think that older men are more fit to reproduce than younger men?

Blog # 1

I think that the society described in the story is disgusting. People have no freedom, they are forced to do everything society tells them to do. They can't say no and run away either. It's almost like being in jail. I find it appalling how the narrator's daughter was taken away from her and she was sent away to be breeder for someone else. No one had a choice in the matter, even the commander had to follow the routine and have sex with the girl, regardless if he likes it or not. In school, the narrator was always taught that the society was created so that she could be protected, the rules were there so that she couldn't get raped, but she gets raped EVERY month, by the same person, and it's LEGAL for him to rape her. The story sounds like such a backwards society, one that was created in the past, hundred of years ago, and doesn't seem like it would be in the United States. What I'm wondering about is what made the government create these new rules and laws and this whole new society. Why didn't the rest of the world stop the US from doing this. Also, this seems like such a boring society, if you are at a high position, you get to live better than other people, but if you are not, you live like a slave. Also, it seems that the standard of living lowered too, because not even the commanders get to eat meat everyday, which seems odd. In our current society, everyone can eat meat every single day, and in that backwards society in the story, it sounds like the common people rarely gets meat. It all sounds really communistic too without any currency or anything. The tokens are like another way of saying food stamps. And what is with those aunts that teach them at the schools, they are more like witches with their beating and tortures and stuff.

BLOG # ?

The story was confusing at first, but it got clearer later. I thought the idea of the story is really interesting. The plan to intergrate men into their society will never work. The women have been living that way for as long as they remember, since thirty centuries ago, they have been accustomed to their way of life. They have been given a mating partner that is natural to them. Now, for these men to come and take that away from them is not right. I agree, that it is unnatural from our point of view, but to them, that's the way it has been. They have been living that way for thirty centuries, which are almost as long as we have had civilizations. If someone alien come from another planet forces us to mate with them, I don't think we would have been happy. I think if men did come to Whileaway, the result would be disasterous. Eithere there will be a war between Whileaway and Earth, or the people of Whileaway will become slaves to the men who come. In the end, Whileaway won't be there anymore, it will be destroyed and the way of life of the people living on Whileaway will also be destroyed.

Blog

I thought Estraven's death was somewhat heroic. Estraven is a smart person, maybe he has thought about it before. He knew about it, knew that he had to die, had to sacrifice himself at the end of the journey. Estraven is very brave, to know he was walking into his death but did it anyways because of a noble cause. Estraven was probably the most likeable character in this book. He was proud, smart, modest and resourceful. It was a waste that he went out like that. I think Genly is very selfish and somewhat insensitive. If I have spent that long of a time with someone, I would at least find out about their personality and understand them more. Genly, however, does not understand Estraven at all. He did not think about Estraven's hardships and what Estraven has to face. Genly only worried about himself most of the time, worried about his ship, the king, his mission, but he has not once thought about Estraven. Estraven did not want Genly to worry so he didn't say anything but Genly is not a good friend. However, I think justice is served cause at the end, people still knew about Estraven's heroic deeds

Language usage

Now that I look over my paper, I don’t actually see a problem with my usage of pronouns, only the fact that I picked the sexes for the people involved. For my narrative, I picked the stereotypical choice of sex for each occupation. However, I think that we do need a universal pronoun for a guy or a girl. I speak two languages and I find that English does not have a universal pronoun like Vietnamese. People always say that English is the most commonly used language in the world, yet we don’t even have something as simple as that? I think there needs to be a change in our language, not just dictionary but also every day use. However, this will be hard because the fact that we have lived many years using this kind of language and people are hard to change. But I think we should still do it because sooner is better than later. I think that pronouns have a lot to do with our culture. It has an effect on how we view society and what we stereotype as roles for men or women. Because of our usage of language we often mistake police officers or fire fighters to be men. However, this is not the case, there are women working in many of these area. Things are starting to change. However, I disagree with the fact that the universal word should be used all the time. The universal word should only be used when the sex is not determined and ‘he’ or ‘she’ is not applicable. As for Le Guin’s usage of the pronoun he in the book, I think that she is right when using the word ‘he’. First reason is because Genly, who tells the story most of the time, lived on Earth for many years where people had different sexes. And like our society, they use ‘he’ dominantly so it would make sense that Genly would grow up and be affected by society and use ‘he’ in his speech and thinking. As for Estraven, who also tells the story, I think he should have a different word, this is true. Because there is no male or female in Gethen, so maybe he should have a different word to describe a person. However, maybe ‘he’ is the universal word in Gethen, because we have never seen them use the word ‘she’.

Estraven and Genly

I guess by now we know that they are pretty good friends now. I find the last part of ch 16 pretty interesting when they were talking about women. Genly said that the most important aspect of life is what sex you were born into. That's interesting, and I think it is true. Society has very different expectations and opinions about men and women. From the moment we were born, we were affected by society and our environment and change. Our parents raised us the way they thought a boy or a girl should be raised. Do I think men and women will truely be equal? no. Do I think people will gradually grow to be more equal? yes. The way that society thinks about men and women will change little by little up to a certain point. Another point I want to make is what is wrong with Genly. He hasn't seen or talked or been with a woman in years, including his time jumps, assuming that all of the other members on the ship were frozen before the trip. Yet, he does not feel lonely or anything. How does Estraven think getting into Karhide would help Genly, with Tibe at the side of the king, wouldn't he try to silence Genly too, to keep his power? From what I could see, Tibe has much more risk than the Sarf in Orgoreyn. With Tibe, he has to answer to the King. If the king changed his mind, Tibe cannot do anything, while the Sarf has absolute power, and nothing can stop them from harming Genly, so the Sarf is a little more relaxed about matters regarding Genly. If I was Tibe, however, I would fear that Genly could persuade the king and it could be very disasterous for Tibe. If I was Tibe, I would kill Genly right away, to protect myself, for the longer Genly lives in Karhide, the higher the chance for an alliance and the higher the risk for Tibe

Who knows what they think?

Why does Estraven think the way he does? I mean, from what we have seen, a lot of the Gethenians are very simple, like the mad king who just wants to keep the status quo and wants to remain in power, and fear anything that might threaten his place. Then we have Tibe, who is just a power hungry politician. We also have a lot of the Orgoreyn officials, like Obsle, who are just afraid for their own lives and position and would do anything to save themselves. These characters, as we can see are simple, and they always show what they are thinking and their actions say it all. However, we have Estraven, who is a complex character. Estraven is always very secretive and subtle about everything that he does. He never shows anyone his true motives. Also, his way of communicating with others just seem out of place. If most Gethenians are just like the other ones, then where does Estraven get the idea that his way of communicating was clear. He said that he was being very clear with Genly the time in the palace, but compare to other Gethenians, he is a closed book. Also, I just realized something about Genly. In the book, we always see him so careless about other people's actions and so naive and trusting. I even thought of him as stupid. As I read along, I see that Genly does not fear death, however. He has been in a lot of dangerous positions and situations but he has never thought of death. Like when he was facing the king, or when he was in that burnt village, or when he is at the prison. He came very close to facing death but he never thought about dying or never fears it. I think he actually wants to die, because Genly knows that if his mission does not succeed, he will have to do time jumps again for the next generation. Maybe he doesn't want to live longer than other people. Maybe he doesn't want to time jump, so he just wants to die. He knows how lonely it is in space now, so maybe he does not want to go back to space, so he is probing Gethen at every place, not caring if he died or not. Estraven just plots way too much and he is out of place in his own world and Genly just seems too indifferent, how could these two work together to bring up an alliance?

Genly and Estraven

Genly is an envoy, I would think that he should know about these people inside out. He is the only one who has to deal with negotiations and stuff ( apart from the other people on the mothership, since they aren't doing much) so I would think that he is very good at diplomacy and persuasion. Why does Genly seem so naive to me? He never realizes anything is going down until half way through, like when he was having lunch with people from Orgoreyn, he didn't realize they were mocking him, trying to prove he was a hoax until half way through lunch. He should have always assumed that these people are onto him, assumed that they are hostile against him because he came from the unknown. Genly does not suspect anything beforehand, which is what happened with Estraven, he didn't suspect Estraven until Estraven betrayed him. Seems to me Genly is a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, or maybe he just hasn't received much training for the job. Maybe the Eukumen really does not care about having such an underdeveloped world in the alliance because they would only be a burden, that's why they only sent one person. Also, when Genly was talking about the other Envoys to other worlds, way back in the first few chapters, how they were captured or killed, but then he said there were investigators coming to Gethen before he came, so what happened to the investigators on those other worlds? Were there none? or were they killed or captured too?

Question Paper

Question Paper
When reading the book “Left hand of Darkness”, I was very intrigued by the fictional physiology of the Gethens, or the technology of the Eukumen. Nonetheless, I found the story to have little character development so far. The characters throughout the stories are very different from each other and they have their own motives, past, and feelings. We have yet to see much though. The first question I want to say is: What are the motives of all the characters in the book? So far, I found Genly and Estraven the most interesting. To me, I feel like Genly’s motives are nonexistent, or at least, his real motives for finishing the job is not based on this “alliance” and “education” and “communication” that he thinks could be achieved if Gethen entered Eukumen. I think that Genly does not care what happens to this world called Gethen, he only wants to return home sooner. Genly is alone on a distant planet with no loved ones around him, the others around him are all alien to him, literally and figuratively. They don’t understand how he feels or the way that he acts and he does not understand them either. He probably dreads those long time jumps that make him travel forward in time. We know that he has been alone for at least seventeen years he has spent time jumping. It made me wonder what could have happened in his past to make him sign up for this job. Did he not have any loved ones or anything to live for in his home world? Or maybe something traumatic happened to him and he felt wrong living in his home world. I have two guesses. My first is that someone he loved died and he could not take the pain. He felt the need to isolate himself from society and he chose to be an envoy. My second is that when he grew up, he realized the humans in his home world were cruel and evil people. He felt rejected and disgusted from such a society and decided to leave, to travel somewhere else, where he would not have to live in such a society. This would explain his reasons for leaving, also, it would explain why he did not trust Estraven in the first place. Because he could not trust anyone back at home, he is less likely to trust a stranger in a new land. Yes, I believe only this way could Genly isolate himself years from any civilization.
As for Estraven, I’m still wondering about his motives also. His past is somewhat clear to us now. He was in his second kemmer, unofficially, when his kemmering partner left him for three years. Maybe what happened in his first kemmer was that his partner died. All I can understand about Estraven at the moment is that he was deeply hurt and betrayed. This could somewhat explain his actions at the capital. Since he is betrayed, he does not trust anyone else in the world. He doesn’t trust Genly, but tried to use him anyways. As for the king, Estraven tried to control him, because he felt the need for power to fill the void that his partner has left. To Estraven, power was probably the only thing keeping him together. However, what I wonder about is Estraven’s motives towards telling the King not to see Genly, at the same time contradicts himself by telling the King to join an Alliance. For this, I have two guesses also. The first is that Estraven was a good person, and he wanted the King to accept the idea of an alliance before letting Genly meets him. By doing so, he could avoid any dangers for Genly if the King violently resisted the idea. Maybe he also believes that he could be a better talker, and he could sway the King better than Genly. My second guess is Estraven is actually a bad person, a traitor to the king. There could have been another alliance which the Eukumen did not know about, and Estraven is somehow involved with the other alliance. Maybe he wanted to push the King to join the other Alliance instead of the Eukumen. Also, it could be that he knows the King is stubborn and he wants the King to make a decision so that his home world would not be caught in a war between the worlds of the universe.
This book is certainly interesting. I hope that the author will answer my questions and possible situations later in the book.

Randomness

I thought this whole story is pretty interesting. The first thing I want to say is about the parralellism. I like how they made a parallel of the past and the present, and through the stories of the past, you could kind of see more insight into the lives of the Gethenians. Genly said they don't believe in wars, yet they have a word for everything but the word war. If there was no war, it would mean there was no revolution? no overthrowing of the king or any such events? If there weren't any such events, why would Estraven be considered a traitor to his country. After all, he was not fighting against the king's power and authority, he only adviced the king. Also, why did Estraven do what he did? Why did he tell the king not to see Genly but on the other hand asked the king about joining an alliance. The king is a coward. He listens to other people's opinions and are bent on the wills of others, like Estraven and the newly appointed minister(?). He does not have a mind of his own, he was a puppet. He was also afraid of Genly, what king would be afraid of a man entering his country, alone offering peace and alliance? Also another point, I think Genly really does not care if Gethen becomes part of Eukumen, he is only doing his job. He dreaded the fact that he has to do time jumps and come back here. He does not care about this whole alliance, he is only trying to finish his job and return to his family and friends. Afterall, Genly's past has been hidden from us. What person, in their right mind, would want to grow up and isolate themselves, spending years in space alone. I hope we get into a litte more insight into Genly's life.