There was several myths and folktales in the novel Left Hand Of Darkness. Some of these included The place inside a blizzard, The Nineteenth day and an Orgota Creation myth.
The place inside a blizzard was the story of two brothers who fell in love during kemmering, but one committed suicide and broke his promise in doing so to his brother causing the brother to be sent off. The Gethenians are not allowed to have a relationship (vowing in kemmer)with their family and committing suicide is a big no no in their culture. Committing suicide is one of the worst things you can do in gethen culture.(ch 2 p22-26)
The nineteenth day is a story about a person who asks a foreteller when will he die and the foreteller tells him on the 19th day of any month. His kemmering goes to the foreteller to get more information and offers his life in exchange. The man gets mad at his kemmering for not asking a better question and kills his kemmering. He goes crazy on the crime he did and hangs himself on the 19th day.(another suicide) (ch 4 p43-46)
An Orgota creation myth describes how gethenians were created. It started with sun and ice on the planet, The sun melted the ice in 3 pieces, one because became land another rivers and oceans and the last one nature, animals, and people. A giant man named Endondurath who kills 36 of the other people created, and ones runs off but Endondurath catches him and kills him too. However the last person escapes when Endondurath goes chasing the guy who ran off. Endondurath makes a house out of the dead bodies. One day the person who escaped comes back and they have kemmer together. Since gethenians were born in a house of dead corpses, death follows them everywhere. (ch 17 p.237 -239)
All these myths help us understand how the Gethenian culture works. The gethenian culture is something so different from ours like being genderless which is something we can’t connect to. All these myths have a connection. The idea of death following the gethenians everywhere was shown when one of the brothers committed suicide, a man hanged himself on the 19th day, and sadly when Estraven was killed.
It is really interesting to see the creation of these myths in the story. Sometimes the chapters considered myths can foreshadow events that can happen in the future. Others give away the confusing information that us readers were not able to comprehend in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI feel like all these Myths eventually connect to what is happening in the story eventually.For Example the Estraven Myth we didn't really see that right when Estraven became a traitor we seen it a couple of chapter later. That this myth is basically a repeat in every generation of Estraven's. That in my eyes the Myths don't make sense right then and there but it makes sense later on in the story when we get the true purpose of the myth.
ReplyDeleteI think it is really interesting to see all of these events to intertwine so perfectly! Reading this has actually made gain a better understanding of what was actually happening too. I also find it interesting how even though Gethenians are so different from Earthlings, they both share one common trait in common, the fear of death.I think this may be the only thing that Genly could possibly understand in this planet, which is why the folk tales are so important as well. Not only that, but suicide is also looked down upon on our Earth as well. We as a society are becoming better with the acceptance of mental disorders but I'm sure that back then people didn't see depression as a real thing. This could be something that the author was trying to convey in her novel. I enjoyed reading this post! Job well done explaining each story!
ReplyDeleteEvery myth that you mentioned is a way to help the reader think about future events that will happen in this book of The Left Hand of Darkness. Like Lissette said both of these worlds sound like complete opposites they actually do share quit some similarities that seem to tie in to our life today.
ReplyDeleteIt can be confusing at first to see how all the myths connect. You have to read every passage at least a couple times to understand. Once you do get it you understand how all the myths connect to their world. Most of it though isnt easy to understand.
ReplyDeleteThe passages are basically just foreshadowing about what we will find out later in the book. The myths and present time in the book are parallels. And like Vivian said, they are pretty confusing. You have to read them a couple of times to understand them thoroughly in order to be able to later connect the dots.
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