Talk:The Left Hand of Darkness

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The Left Hand of Darkness is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on October 23, 2016.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
April 8, 2016	Good article nominee	Listed
September 9, 2016	Featured article candidate	Promoted
July 9, 2016	Peer review	Reviewed
A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on April 19, 2016. The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that Ursula K. Le Guin's Hugo and Nebula award-winning 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness is set on a fictional planet whose people are neither male nor female for most of their sexual cycle?
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"Science fiction as thought experiment" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Science fiction as thought experiment has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2023 July 3 § Science fiction as thought experiment until a consensus is reached. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 04:41, 3 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Influence of Theodora

There are certainly some references to the mother's influence. I have added a citation to one journal. It states "It is no surprise that Le Guin’s work should be influenced by anthropology. Le Guin’s mother, Theodora Kroeber, pursued graduate studies in anthropology, participated in an archaeological dig in Peru’s Nazca Valley, co-authored a journal article on methodologies in cultural anthropology (Clements, Schenck, and Brown, 1926), published a collection of retellings of California Native American legends in 1959 (Kroeber, 2005), and later married the anthropologist Alfred Louis (A.L.) Kroeber, one of the most influential American cultural anthropologists of the first half of the 20th century." and "The influence of her parents’ involvement with anthropology on Le Guin’s upbringing, education, and intellectual development was therefore profound.". There are assuredly other citations available. MarcGarver (talk) 13:56, 11 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I certainly don't object to the notion that Theodora K. influenced her daughter. But where Alfred K.'s influence is universally described as anthropological, Theodora's career, and influence, were far more varied and complex. When discussing Le Guin's use of anthropologist protagonists, the vast majority of sources I've read (and if you'll pardon the brag, this is a topic on which I have read a lot of sources) describe the influence of Alfred, and per WP:DUE that's the description I had written in. "Le Guin's father and mother were anthropologists" glosses over a lot of this nuance. I've tried to rework this somewhat, but I'm not very happy with that bald statement based on a single source: and even that source does not equate the two. Vanamonde (Talk) 16:10, 11 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Seems reasonable (and I prefer your edit). It seems probable she grew up in a home where both parents were influential (hardly unreasonable) but as you say the source generally albeit not exclusively credit the father's influence. So that's the way it should be weighted. MarcGarver (talk) 16:49, 11 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Edit warring over Anarcha-feminism category

I invite editors who appear to be edit-warring over the inclusion of Category:Anarcha-feminism to discuss here please :-)

@Doomhope, @Vanamonde93, @GwydionM Funcrunch (talk) 17:36, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hardly edit-warring! I'm not opposed in principle to the category, but we have no content in the article supporting it. I've read a lot of analysis of Le Guin's writing. Anarchism is a prominent theme, but it's not really analyzed relative to this book as far as I am aware. If anyone who wishes to add this category is willing to produce a good source, I'm willing to try to work it into the article. Vanamonde93 (talk) 17:48, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

True that it's not yet an edit war, I just feared that it was heading in that direction. I agree that there should be reliable sources to justify including the category.

(Aside: Le Guin, who I was fortunate to meet in person, is my favorite author, and I took my last name, Gethen, from this book.) Funcrunch (talk) 18:02, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah I'm not interested in edit wars either - I think Vanamonde93's assessment is fair and if I find a source I'll come back to chat about it :) Doomhope (talk) 19:51, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Elsewhere, I wasted some time giving a source from someone who would not otherwise permit it to be said that Kier Starmer was the UK Prime Minister. But if it is going to become a habit to root out well-known facts without someone wasting time, I am not going to be one of the time-wasters. If you insist on removing definite truths, I have better things to do with my time.GwydionM (talk) 07:09, 19 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]