i loved this one absolutely; but it is not without it's issues. firstly being of the writer's own mind: the gendered 'he' at the center. despite the existence of beings that are essentially 'sexless', because they are relayed to us through the view of the character Genly Ai who is similar to us than to the Gethens, they are rendered in a bisexed world view. even if we discount this fact, positing the 'he' as the more sublime, powerful one is problematic, leGuin clearly still hadn't let go of her acquired misogyny while writing this. we all, as women, have acquired misogyny. if the novel was only about this i wouldn't have gone on reading. but as it is not, i have read it in its entirety and it is glorious. there's some amount of mental adjustment to be done while reading this in order to love it fully, i feel, but i offered it readily because i loved the prose and the setting and the feel and how she writes... there's so much i wish was different and yet i would change nothing about this. what i love most about the author herself is when the same criticisms of her work emerged she was annoyed, but eventually learned that there was truth in those criticisms. they were feminist criticisms of positing the 'he' at the centre, and her latter approach to feminisms and the question of gender address this, even if not fully letting go of her misogyny. internalised misogyny is a bitch.

this is the most formal, goodreads-y review i've written... so funny. i just feel strongly for this novel