Sinistra and LeGuin (was; question re little thing...)
littleleahstill
cmjohnstone at hotmail.com
Tue Jun 15 22:27:57 UTC 2004
No: HPFGUIDX 101477
Geoff wrote:
>The anomaly here is that "sinistra" is Latin for "on the left" and,
>of course, since left-handed people were considered to be odd or
>untrustworthy, it has given rise to the modern meaning of "sinister".
>Does this imply that Professor Sinistra is left-handed or has some
>connection with the left-hand. just off the top of my head, hasn't
>someone written a book called "The Left Hand of Darkness" - Ursula
>LeGuin perhaps or am I just imagining things?
Leah:
Not your imagination, Geoff. The book is set on a planet formerly the
site of genetic manipulations, resulting in a population which is
sexless in appearance,(but reads as earth male)and able to morph into
female or male form during mating (kemmer). 'Normal' individuals swap
sexual identity even in a relationship with a stable partner, but as
I recall (and I read this years ago) some people only ever took on a
male or female sexual role and this was considered slightly odd. It
is a beautifully poetic book, which like others of LeGuin's uses the
folk tales of her imaginary world to great effect. When I read it,
it appeared to me to be a way to write sympathetically about
homosexuality at a time when this was not a mainstream theme. The
title is taken from a poem in the book which has some resonances for
Harry's story and reads:
Light is the left hand of darkness and darkness the right hand of
light.
Two are one, life and death, lying together like lovers in kemmer,
like hands joined together, like the end and the way'.
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