The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin

   1974; 387 pages.  Full Title (in the original version) : The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia.  New Author? : Yes.  Laurels : Locus Award – Best Novel (1975, won); Nebula Award – Best Novel (1974, won); Hugo Award (1975, won); John W. Campbell Memorial Award (1975, nominated).  Genre : Utopian Fiction; Science Fiction; Political Science; Quantum Physics Fiction; Middlebrow.  Overall Rating : 7*/10.

    There’s little love between the planets Urras and Anarres, despite the fact that they serve as each other’s moon.  It’s been that way for more than a century, after a group of dissenters left Urras to resettle on Anarres and set up a Anarcho-Utopian society.  Since then, the two worlds have been almost completely isolated from each other.

    There are some exceptions.  One spaceport on Anarres, Abbenay, allows Urrasti freighters to dock several times a year, and goods are exchanged.  Anarres is a barren world and needs manufactured goods; Urras is a lush, but heavily resource-exploited world and needs minerals and other raw materials.  In addition, there is limited communication by radio.

      So it is a truly historic and unprecedented event when Urras agrees to allow Shevek, an Anarresti “rebel”, to come visit their world.  Of course, the fact that he’s also a renowned physicist who can work with their scientists to develop the next leap in Quantum Physics figures into their decision.

  But beware, Shevek.  You think that while you’re there, you’ll be able to extol the virtues of Anarchism to all sorts of people.  Perhaps the government officials on Urras are planning to do the same sort of thing through you.

What’s To Like...

    The Dispossessed is a clever blend of three genres: Science Fiction, Political Science, and Quantum Physics.  The Poli-Sci angle was truly groundbreaking.  Ursula K. Le Guin contrasts the political ideal of Anarchy to that of Capitalism and Communism; the latter was still a dominant force back in 1974.  Utopian Fiction (not to be confused with its Dystopian cousin) had already been infused into Science Fiction, but it always was presented as an ideal.  Here, Ursula K. Le Guin presents a Utopia with its own set of warts and blemishes, a never-before-considered concept.

    The Dispossessed is the story of our protagonist, Shevek, but it is not told in a linear fashion.  More on this in a bit.  Shevek is an interesting character study – brilliant in some ways, incredibly naïve in others.  There are a bunch of his friends, family, and professional associates to meet and greet, and Kindle has a new feature called “Shelfari” which was a handy resource in determining which of these characters were important enough keep make notes about.

    The world-building is fantastic.  I loved the attention to the two languages, Iotic on Urras, and Pravic on Anarres.  Ursula Le Guin invents some words for these languages, but the important ones are footnoted.  I liked the epithets, such as “Propertarian”, “Profiteer”, “Egoizing”, and “Archist”, the latter being the opposite of “Anarchist”.  And I chuckled at the mention of Dr. Ainsetain, a physicist from long ago on Terra, whose Relativity theories are regarded now as quaint but outdated.

    The book is a primer on Anarchism.  I had only a rudimentary understanding of what that was about (Down with Government!), so it was enlightening to have it presented in a practical manner.  There’s a recurring motif of “walls”, which basically embody anything – physical or otherwise – that separates people from each other.  If you’re a fan of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”, you’ll have no trouble with this idea.

    The boys “playing prison” early in the book is a particularly riveting event.  But there are also some lighter moments, such as Shevek “exploring a bathroom” when he first gets to Urras.  The Pravic language doesn’t recognize bodily functions as being dirty, nor does it view any words as “cussing”, so be prepared to be shocked a bit by some of the language here.

    I found The Dispossessed to be a slow read, but not a difficult one.  The chapters are fairly long – thirteen of them for 387 pages of text.  The ending is okay, but not spectacular.  This is a standalone novel, despite being set in the author’s “Hainish Cycle” world.

Kewlest New Word ...

Apocopations (n., plural) : words formed by removing the end of a longer word.  (Examples:  “street cred”; "bro"; "sis")

Kindle Details...

    The Dispossessed sells for $6.99 at Amazon.  Ursula K. Le Guin was a prolific science fiction/fantasy writer, and her full-length novels are in the $5.99-$14.99 range for the Kindle versions.  She also wrote several short books for children, which are even cheaper.   

Excerpts...

    “The singular forms of the possessive pronoun in Pravic were used mostly for emphasis; idiom avoided them.  Little children might say “my mother,” but very soon they learned to say “the mother”.  Instead of “my hand hurts,” it was “the hand hurts me,” and so on; to say “this one is mine and that’s yours” in Pravic, one said, “I use this one and you use that.”  (loc. 870)

    “I used to want so badly to be different.  I wonder why?”

    “There’s a point, around age twenty,” Bedap said, “when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life, or to make a virtue of your peculiarities.”

    “Or at least accept them with resignation,” said Shevek.

    “Shev is on a resignation binge,” Takver said.  “It’s old age coming on.  It must be terrible to be thirty.”  (loc. 3661)

 “You can’t crush ideas by suppressing them.  You can only crush them by ignoring them.”  (loc. 2399)

    Despite all its awards and plaudits, I did not find The Dispossessed to be a compelling read.  I think this was because I was expecting a science fiction tale, filled with excitement and ET’s, and exotic worlds.  It isn’t.

    Shevek visits.  Shevek contemplates.  Shevek expounds upon the merits and challenges of Anarchism.  Shevek points out the shortcomings of both Capitalism and Communism.  At one point Shevek gives a speech at a demonstration.  Ho hum.

    I also found the Quantum Physics parts to be an awkward fit, although it has to be said that QP was in its infancy at the time Le Guin was writing this, and it has evolved significantly since then.

    The book’s structure was also a challenge.  It opens smack dab in the middle of the storyline.  The chapters then alternate between Shevek’s present situation on Urras and his past history on Anarres.  But the reader has to suss this out for himself.

    To be fair, there’s a handy Study Guide at the end of the book, which will help you make sure you don’t miss anything important.  Also, I consulted Wikipedia after finishing the first chapter in a confused state of mind, and it helped straighten things out considerably.

    So here's my advice.  Read The Dispossessed as a Political Science treatise, not as a tale of galactic adventure.  Skim over the Wikipedia entry beforehand; then make use of the Study Guide after each chapter.  You’ll enjoy the book a lot more if you do.

    7 Stars.  I am a fan of the main genres that Ursula K. Le Guin wrote in: Science Fiction and Fantasy.  She was also an ardent Anarchist, which fascinates me.  I am at a loss to say why I haven’t read any of her books before this, particularly the Hainish Cycle and the Earthsea series.  She passed away recently (01/22/18) at the ripe old age of 88, so reading this book is kind of a small tribute on my part to her.  Two more of her books reside on my Kindle, including the first Earthsea novel, so I intend to read more of her stuff.