The Dispossessed (1974) by Ursula K. Le Guin, is an utopian SF novel. It belongs to the same fictional universe of the Left Hand of Darkness, where the Principle of Simultaneity makes possible instantaneous communication among interstellar systems, and it explores a series of themes – anarchism, individualism and the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis among them. Theoretically complex and beautifully written, as most of Le Guin’s books are. Winner of the Nebula, Hugo and Locus Awards.
I could never tell if it was meant by the author to be a utopia or a dystopia. I very much hope the ‘no one owns ANYTHING, even their bodies’ was NOT meant to be interpreted as ideal toward which we should strive, but it just wasn’t clear to me when I read this novel. (IMO, sharing with one’s community is good, but not being allowed even to say “my hand” or “my face” because that’s ownership and therefore bad seems horribly wrong.)
Interesting question – I imagine that the utopia of somebody is the dystopia of someone else, in the sense that everybody has his/her own vision of paradise (whilst almost all of us agree about certain descriptions of Hell)… On this specific case, I’m certainly with you, even though I would love to spend some years in Le Guin’s fictional universe. You can tell she is the daughter of one of the most famous anthropologists of the XX century! 😀
An unsettling novel which I must get down to rereading soon, as with all her Ekumen works I’ve already sampled.
I certainly recommend it, especially if you have enjoyed the Left Hand of Darkness 🙂
I still haven’t read any LeGuin – I really have to work on that.
I like your new look btw – I saw you were moving – how did that go??
Thanks Lynn -it was complex and I had a few issues but now things are back to normal. I’m going to write a post about that shortly. Hope you’re enjoying your break, I’ll wait for your stories back from the wormhole 😉