What differentiated these new utopias was their attempt to evade the traditional criticisms of the old utopias like Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward: that they were static, boring, and unattainable. After all, utopias are not required, by definition, to be perfect. There seemed no reason to believe that all of humanity’s problems could be solved through improved social organization; but it seemed possible that some of them might be.
It is important to understand that one of the main functions of utopias, since Plato and Thomas More, has been to function as a critique of existing society, providing a kind of benchmark against which the flaws of real cultures can be more clearly revealed. Their proposals for reform have not always been seriously meant.
The original paperback edition of The Dispossessed bore on its cover this description: “The magnificent epic of an ambiguous utopia!” This description struck so many readers as apt that An Ambiguous Utopia became thought of as a subtitle for the work, and in recent printings it has even been adopted as the official subtitle. Le Guin has said she was attempting to work out how an anarchist society would function in reality. She was particularly inspired by the work of American pacifist/anarchist/reformer Paul Goodman.
Anarchism, which grew out of French social philosophy of the eighteenth century, posits that many of humanity’s problems come from living under governments. Jean-Jacques Rousseau had begun The Social Contract by writing “Man is born free, and is everywhere in chains.” One solution to this paradoxical situation was to inaugurate representative democracies; but the anarchists found even this solution too confining, for they argued that all governments, whatever their official form, quickly become plutocracies (societies governed by the rich). Many socialists and communists argued that the path to reform lay through collective ownership of the means of production to ensure that there would be no rich. The transition to full economic democracy would be managed by a centralized, all-powerful government. Anarchists argued that such centralization could never lead to the hoped-for decentralized egalitarian society: centralization leads only to more centralization, they claimed. If people want freedom, they must claim it directly.
Anarchists differ a good deal among themselves, but they tend to share a high regard for voluntary cooperation, local control, and mutual tolerance. Sharing is promoted as a social ideal, but only on a voluntary basis. All of these are values much promoted in the counterculture of the “Sixties” (which lasted from approximately 1967 to 1974); and the novel is clearly a product of its time. In many ways, Anarres is an idealized hippie commune.
But Le Guin deliberately chose to depict Anarres as flawed, for two main reasons: 1) It made her novel more credible: everyone objected to the perfectionism of the old-time utopias; and 2) by focusing on Anarres’s flaws, its ideals were made all the more apparent. When Shevek goes to Urras, he learns how deeply he has absorbed the values of the society he has rebelled against. How one reacts to Anarres will depend powerfully upon one’s own social background and values. To many of its earliest readers, Anarres, however flawed, clearly presented a preferable ideal to contemporary American society. Its stress on sharing, on volunteerism, and on tolerance was highly attractive. To some contemporary readers, Anarres seems rather like a nightmare. While it is crucial to understand that Le Guin did not expect or want this reaction from readers, it is interesting to explore why it developed. What values in current American society run counter to the ideals of Anarres? Keep trying to answer this question as you explore the novel.
Le Guin often presents an Anarran value by showing its limits. She is not saying these values are undesirable or cannot be attained, but that there are human tendencies which may frustrate their full realization. Sometimes the “flaws” she presents are so minor as to constitute merely a clever way of avoiding the criticism of perfectionism. It is as if someone were to describe a world in which AIDS had been conquered by complaining that other, less threatening diseases had become more frequent as the result of people abandoning “safe sex” practices: one would have to be very naïve not to realize that the real point of such a description is to praise the conquest of AIDS, though in a back-handed way.
The philosophy of Anarres was provided by the philosopher Laia Odo, the founder of Odonianism. Le Guin later wrote a remarkable story about her entitled “The Day Before the Revolution.” She was an anarchist philosopher and rebel in the dictatorial state of A-IO on the planet of Urras. Her most influential book is called The Analogy. Beginning the day after her death, her followers led a revolution against that state which eventuated in their settlement of a neighboring planet, poor in agricultural resources, but rich in ore, named Anarres. The two worlds are of approximately equal size, but each regards the other as its “moon.” The symbol of Odonianism is the circle, which encloses all individuals within the group and which also emphasizes a holistic approach to life. Avoiding pyramidal hierarchy, the circle promotes the view that “true departure is return.” How is this slogan illustrated by Shevek’s story as told in this novel? But the circle can also be limiting. What circle at the very beginning of the novel indicates the limits of Odonianism?
The form of the novel is also circular. It ends where it began. Starting at mid-point in the plot with Shevek’s departure for Urras, the next chapter describes his childhood. The chapters alternate from that point on in describing events before and after his departure, each strand of chapters progressing in its own chronological order.
Le Guin has sometimes been severely taken to task for choosing a male protagonist. Her initial, rather flip defense was to say that as a science fiction writer she enjoyed trying to enter alien minds, so she was naturally drawn to portraying men. In fact, most of the protagonists of her early novels are male. But her critics overlooked the fact that The Dispossessed incorporates many feminist values, even if it is not a radical feminist utopia. In some ways, it is especially revealing to have these values reflected through a masculine consciousness.
Unfortunately, many contemporary readers have only vague or distorted notions of what the feminism of the ’70s was all about, so here is a checklist of views commonly asserted by at least some feminists during that period, and which Le Guin is being influenced by or reacting to in her novel:
1. Men and women should not be stereotyped by their gender roles.
2. One branch of feminism argued that there are no innate psychological or social traits associated with being a man or woman; another argued that there are, but that the ones associated with women have been devalued and distorted by patriarchal culture.
3. Men think in a linear fashion; women tend to think more holistically (the circle is a female symbol suggesting this idea).
4. Men define themselves by what they own and control; women by their relationships to other people.
5. Jobs should be done by whoever can do them, and gender is largely irrelevant to this.
6. Women should have equal access to jobs.
7. Marriage and motherhood should not prevent women from having careers any more than it prevents men from doing so.
8. Women should be able to pursue their careers without having where they live determined entirely by their husbands’ jobs.
9. The social emphasis on physical beauty depersonalizes and dehumanizes women.
10. Language oppresses women: terms associated with them often create a presumption of passivity and weakness. New ways of using language to make men and women more equal are needed.
11. Capitalism is a patriarchal institution which oppresses women.
12. Women should not have to reshape and decorate themselves (removing body hair, for instance) to be accepted and loved.
13. Homosexuality and bisexuality should be just as socially acceptable as heterosexuality—as should celibacy.
14. Sex should be a matter of intimate sharing, not of conquest or trophy-hunting.
15. Rape is a crime of violence which should be punished much more severely than it usually is.
16. W
omen should not be defined by their childbearing abilities. Men can and should raise children.
17. Men strive to compete, but women prefer communal decision-making in which all aspects of a problem are discussed until a consensus is arrived at so that the group is not divided into winners and losers.
18. Modern childbirth techniques common in hospitals are dehumanizing and dangerous. Women should be able to give birth at home, without drugs, using such traditions as giving birth in a squatting position.
19. Childbirth is a natural phenomenon, not a disease. Women should be able to return to work shortly after giving birth.
20. The medical establishment is generally male-dominated; women need to reject the authority of doctors and insist on treatments appropriate to their needs.
21. A marriage in which a woman is prized only for her sexual attractiveness and availability is a sort of prostitution.
22. Children should be able to make many decisions about how they are raised.
23. A few feminists even argued that children should be able to “divorce” their parents.
24. Children should be raised to accept their bodies and their sexuality without shame.
25. Children can be raised by all kinds of configurations of loving adults: the traditional nuclear family is not necessarily the best model for childrearing.
26. Great women from the past can provide inspiration for us today; their influence and importance need to be more widely recognized.
Note that this is not a definition of feminism—just a list of common attitudes among some feminists in the period that Le Guin was writing. See whether you can identify where she is agreeing with these positions, illustrating them, or disagreeing with them.
The title of the novel may be a reference to Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s much less sympathetic work about Russian anarchists, The Possessed, also known in English as The Devils.
Chapter 1
The wall described in the opening symbolizes several of the themes of the novel. Look for other references to walls in the text. What is the meaning of this sentence: “It enclosed the universe, leaving Anarres outside, free?” Can you see any irony in it?
A “syndic” would be a representative of a “syndicate.” Although now the term is used almost exclusively in the popular press in the expression “crime syndicate,” syndicalism was at one time an important movement for social reform, urging the formation of voluntary groups to own and democratically control factories and other means of production. Syndicalists are anarchists in that they oppose any form of formal, centralized government, preferring society to be organized through voluntary labor unions. The most successful syndicalist organization in American history was the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), which peaked in the years before World War I.
Syndicalists highly value power exercised from the bottom up (the IWW even organized hoboes) and reject authority imposed from the top down. They tend to be equally hostile to capitalists and communists. In the paragraph beginning “People often came out,” what evidence can you find of feminist values? Of a lack of radical feminist values?
What does it imply about the foreman’s culture that she cannot understand the term “bastard” in either its literal or figurative senses? What does her reaction to the pistol tell you about her culture? What qualities make the Odonians poor at mob action? What does their awkwardness in this situation tell you about their society’s values? What kinds of values make knives preferable to firearms as weapons? Do these different values suggest that “human nature” has changed? Explain. Why do you suppose Le Guin begins her novel by depicting the Anarrans at their worst?
Shevek is a brilliant scientist, but his world does not give titles like “doctor” to indicate ranking. “Doctor” is merely a descriptive term for a physician. What is “the one law he had ever acknowledged”? What impression does this opening scene give you of Shevek’s character? What do you think this means: “I will go to Abbenay and unbuild walls”? What effect does being vaccinated have on Shevek? How does this incident illustrate the limits of pure freedom?
Le Guin acknowledges the reluctance of English-speakers to speak frankly about excretion by inventing her very own term for “toilet” (a word which originally means a table at which a woman applies make-up). There has never been such a word in English. “Outhouse,” “water closet,” “WC,” “lavatory” (meaning “place where one bathes”), “bathroom” (as in “going to the…”): all are euphemisms. The use of “shit-stool” suggests that the Anarrans are not ashamed of their bodily functions and see no need for euphemisms.
As becomes clear in a moment, it is also a society which has no use for pajamas. What does the water valve in the washstand tell Shevek about the society that produced it? What passage a page or so later reflects the same ecological concern? This is a good example of utopian fiction’s (and SF’s) ability to comment from the outside on aspects of our society that we take for granted. Remember that at the time this novel was written, long hair was a symbol of freedom, short hair or shaven heads a symbol of conformism and repression. Why is Shevek so upset about the door being locked? What does the doctor mean when he says that Shevek is not “an alien in the same sense”? Why didn’t Shevek bring any money on this trip? What quality in the captain did Odo call “the creation of pseudo-species”?
What is Shevek’s attitude toward religion? Look for the wall metaphor in the paragraph beginning “All their conversations were like this…” What is Shevek’s reaction to Kimoe’s arguments for a sexual division of labor? Evaluate his arguments. What does it mean to say that it feels as if there is “a woman in every table top?” Why are the Iotis so excited about Shevek’s arrival? What values do Ioti women’s fashions reflect?
Chapter 2
We now shift back in time to Shevek’s childhood. What does “Divlab” probably stand for? What does the struggle for the spot of sunlight tell us about Shevek? About his society? In the episode from Sheveks’ eighth year, we see him having independently reinvented one of the paradoxes of the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno. What does this incident tell us about Shevek? About his society? The teacher appeals to the feelings of the group to exclude Shevek. What is really going on? What does Shevek like about numbers? Follow the term “decad” and see whether you can figure out about how long a decad is.
What is implied by the fact that Shevek knows his father is going to “copulate with a woman named Pipar?” How many facts about Anarran society can you tease out from this one passage? What does the wall imagery in Shevek’s dream suggest?
The third passage, from Shevek’s eleventh or twelfth year, begins with a reference to the Fort in Drio, where Odo was imprisoned for years. Look for it later in the novel. The game of “prison” that the children play seems exciting at first, then terrifying. What is this episode meant to convey? There is much more to it than a simple statement about “human nature.” Some critics have objected to Le Guin portraying the young boys as eliminating girls from their company. What do you think of this criticism? What can you deduce about the nature of adolescent male/female relations from the following passage, from Shevek’s mid-teens?
In the preceding chapter it was mentioned in passing that Ioti women shave off their fine body hair: here, when the hairy corpses of children are mentioned, it is made clear that this hair, fine though it may be, is more prominent among Shevek’s race than among humans. What is Tirin’s reaction to the anti-Urrasti propaganda they are given in school? Why is Shevek’s reaction interesting, given the previous chapter? Summarize and evaluate Sheveks’ explanation to Tirin of why the Anarresti are not “forbidden” to help the Urrasti?
The afforestation project is meant to be a heroic undertaking, an inspiring example of cooperative effort that, for all its grueling aspects, shows the Anarresti at their best. Is this forced labor? Explain. What does the footnote to “Tadde” tell us about the nature of Odonian families? Gimar is not described as a conventional beauty. What do we know about her lo
oks? Does monogamy conflict with the other values of Odonianism? See the later passage discussing the language of sex.
What do you think of the argument over whether women are natural propertarians or anarchists? Why is it insulting to call someone a profiteer? Why don’t passersby intervene to stop the fight between Shevek and Shevet? What does the next passage convey about the normal course of sexual development in Odonian society? What hard lesson does Mitis teach Shevek when she sends him off to work with Sabul? What does Tirin’s beggarman skit tell us about the Anarresti?
At the party, Shevek meets his wife-to-be, the tall girl with the short hair. How else is she described? The argument she makes is a criticism frequently made by anarchists of Marxists. Communist society was supposed to build a paradise on earth through self-sacrifice; but many Marxists came to view the rejection of worldly comforts as good in itself. The problem in Russia was an extremely low level of industrial development, which meant that the Communists had to coerce the population into industrializing whereas Marx always assumed that industrialization would have taken place under bourgeois domination in the period preceding any Communist revolution.
The Odonians do not lack technology. What factor makes their society one of scarcity rather than abundance, encouraging the ascetic views which the girl rejects? Is it the fault of their social organization that they enjoy few luxuries?
Chapter 3
Shevek thought of “airships” earlier; now it becomes clear that these are dirigibles. What advantages do dirigibles have over airplanes in a society such as his? What appeals to Shevek about Urras? Is Chifoilisk correct in saying “Human nature is human nature?” What about the context suggests he is wrong, though his insight about Sabul is essentially correct?
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