The Dispossessed (Paperback)

Whilst I needed tremendous concentration reading Ursula Le Guin’s dense, descriptive prose I stuck at it (I confess to having awfully low concentration when reading). I was well rewarded. The story is of Shevek, a physicist whose theory and science I found to be more of a vehicle to tell a story of differing utopias (or is that dystopia?) Many reviewers have compared the two worlds offered (Annares and Urras) to Cold War-influenced versions of America and Soviet Russia. I disagree with this. I found it much more believable if one took Shevek’s Annares as more of a hippie commune of the late 1960’s rather than an ideal paradise envisaged by Lenin whilst Urras acts more of a (slightly benevolent) host community than an ideological enemy.

What really has stayed with me through the reading Ringworld is the choice that Le Guin presents at the end of the novel. Is repressive, class-driven A-Io the place you would rather call home or is Annares where there is no formal government yet is staid and strangely enough incredibly intolerant (as demonstrated through Sheveks’s scientist colleagues who refuse to allow him to conduct research he thinks necessary) a better example? Normally I would choose the capitalist-pig option because I would want the mere opportunity to be rich – I might never get it but I’d know that I always had the chance. However on Urras I could exist in a sparse environment where work directives mean I could be separated from my family for a long time but it would be a place with no crime, in particular theft, and have a far larger sense of well-being. I have never read a novel that has actually made me think that the other way of living which has been constantly berated in the Western press over the years had actual merit behind it.

A book that presents its two cases very well. (Just let it sink in!)

Along with "Tractatus Logico Philosophicus" this book has to be a front runner for one of the greatest works of art I have ever come across. LeGuin writes with style, grace, delicacy, and superbly communicates the difficulty of a community so far removed, as to be considered alien.

There's something for everyone here, but for me this was all about the direct restriction of thought via the restriction of language. On Anarres, where certain concepts have been obliterated, we find an intrigueing fascination with incarceration, something so foreign, so unimaginable it becomes a experiment of children... a simple play-thing to try and glean understanding. What other mysterious concepts are there on Urras which Anarres has forsaken?

For a review of the story, you can read Amazon's snip above which is pefectly fine. As far as being a diffucult read, I wouldn't agree. It is most certainly thought-provoking, but suitable for all ages, and ultimately self-rewarding if you can appreciate the depth this book reaches. Surely one of LeGuins greatest works, if not also one of humanity's. A must read.