The Dispossessed

Magisterial, beautifully written, challenging and dense, yet also somehow approachable, welcoming, and warm. I have to imagine that this is Le Guin at the height of her powers, because it really can't get any better than this, right?

The Dispossessed follows Shevek, a politically active physicist who grew up on the planet Anarres. Anarres, a desolately dry planet akin in many ways to Mars, was settled several hundred years prior to Shevek's birth by anarchist refugees fleeing persecution and injustice on the neighboring planet Urras, whose multiple nation states are politically diverse but lean towards versions of capitalism. The comparison between life on Anarres and Urras is where Le Guin fixates her attention the most. Where as life on Anarres is lean and sometimes desperate, requiring an emphasis mutual aid in order to survive, Urras is a planet of plenty, with massive oceans, forests, and other resources to exploit. As Shevek struggles to develop a new theory of physics and time, he discovers a wall of hidden bureaucracy and socially enforced rules that he didn't believe existed in his planned utopic society. Fighting against these stigmas, he more-or-less forces his way to Urras in the hopes of diversifying his intellectual knowledge base and finally finishing his theory on faster than light travel, while simultaneously breaking a moratorium on interplanetary travel. Shevek sacrifices comfort, saftey, and stability in order to be a wall-breaker, and finds out firsthand just how difficult it is to be a revolutionary.

Science fiction often gets laden with the stereotype as a "genre of ideas", de-prioritizing characters and narrative in favor of scientific musings. The Dispossessed does fit that generalization, but in perhaps the best way possible. Le Guin is able to balance a metric fuck load of philosophy and political ideas with characters that I cared deeply about and a plot that, while sometimes dry, managed to keep me near the edge of my seat. Shevek's tender and nuanced relationship with Takver and his childhood friends are memorable and serve to humanize a work that could otherwise get bogged down with the weight of it's philosophical ambitions.

The Dispossessed could've also easily come out as a top-to-bottom polemic, but Le Guin's nuanced perspective allows the reader to develop their own conclusions. Even on the idealized Anarres, there are plenty of internal problems that threaten the personal freedom of it's citizens. We are left to ask which parts of both systems serve to benefit the individual, the stability and equity of society, the planet itself, and the progression of our sphere of knowledge. How can we find the strength and resolve for the revolution to be unending?

There is a distinct humanity to Le Guin's work that elevates it to a level often above her peers. Her prose is often sublime, even when she takes pauses for longer passages of exposition. This is the type of work that could easily be discussed for hours on end. Suffice it to say that it more than lived up to it's singular reputation. Even if you find yourself at odds with its occasionally dry intellectualism and narrative, I still think there's enough here to sink your teeth into.