The myths & folktales behind Left Hand of Darkness is identified in the beginning of a chapter so you can't really miss it. One folktale you'll find in the beginning of the book is in chapter 2, "The Place Inside the Blizzard." It talks about two brothers who vowed kemmering to each other & this is one of the chapters that questioned a lot of people because we had no idea what kemmering was & it was entirely new to us. The part I didn't really get was that when the child was conceived, the brothers were forced to separate & break their vow. (22) What's the point of having the child if they weren't able to get together as a family? It's quite sad actually, one of the brother committed suicide & the other was exiled for that. This gave us an insight of how Gethen culture works. It's completely different to marriage that we all are familiar with. Also, it tells us how they value shifgrethor because committing suicide illustrates how bad of a sin it is to Gethenians.
Another folktale is in chapter 4,"The 19th Day," which talks about a particular man named Berosty, who set his question to the Weaver Odren about when he will pass away & told him that he will die on Odstreth (the 19th day of any month). (43) This also threw a lot of people having to know less about how days or months go in Gethen or for me at least. However, one myth that I found interesting was in chapter 17, "An Orgota Creation Myth," which tells us all about the origin & sense of how the world was created yet very similar to the way the story in the bible is presented. I think these ties to the plot of the story in relation to how Gethenians act & think the way they do & the whole morale behind the relationship between Estraven & his brother.
- Kyle Regaliza
I read the book and I was kinda lost on how the third myth ties to the book.It felt like the last myth was just there to be there. I was wondering also why the author wanted to have so many chapters in the cold and showing that bond so long.
ReplyDeleteWell yes, at the time we didn't know what kemmering was, but soon after it was introduced. I think the two brothers created the baby because they were truly in love with each other. Love is a very powerful thing that can take control of anything it wants. I agree with you, it did show us where the people of Gethen stand on the topic of suicide. The myth of "The 19th Day" showed us how vague questions asked to the Weaver Odren can be deadly. The myth of "An Orgota Creation" shows us one of the ways religion ties into the novel.
ReplyDeleteThe folktale about the brothers was very confusing until we learned about kemmering in chapter 7. The book is very good at making these folktales similar to folktales we have heard in our lives. In Chapter 17, it talked about the creation of the world. I agree that it is similar to the Bible and it shows how the book tries to tie in real-world things to try and make the book seem like the Gethenian people are similar to us. Left Hand of Darkness tries to make the people of Gethen seem like they share a form of life like us humans.
ReplyDelete