Perth’s Queer Book Club have announced that Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness will be their book of the month for January.
A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilisation. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.
Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.
Published in 1969 its considered one of the first works of feminist science fiction and is one of the famous explorations of androgyny in the genre. It was the winner of Nebula Award in 1970, and has often been listed as one of the greatest science fiction works of all time.
Over her long literary career author Ursula K Le Guin published over twenty novels and throngs of short stories. She died in 2018.
Over the years Le Guin’s approach to sexuality and gender in the novel has been criticised, particularly her use of male pronouns for genderless characters. In 1988 she made an apology for her portrayals of sexuality in the book.
Everyone is welcome at Queer Book Club
Perth’s Queer Book Club is an initiative of GRAI: GLBTI Rights in Ageing, and was established after years of members of Perth’s LGBTIQA+ communities expressing a desire for a book club.
Each month a different selection of people turn up to the discussion, and it’s a welcoming space where people aren’t compelled to speak if they go along.
It starts of with everyone introducing themselves and sharing their pronouns, and everyone is asked to describe the book in just one word. Then a moderator starts the discussion with a few provocations, and you can chime in with your thoughts, or just listen to what everyone else has to say.
At the end of the session everyone rates the book using a unicorn scoring system, one unicorn means you weren’t a fan, while five unicorns shows some serious love.
Find out more about the group at their Facebook page. The meeting will be on the 28th January last Wednesday of the month, and will be held at Pride WA, 142 James Street, Northbridge.
