The Dispossessed is definitely not my favorite novel so far. But, the many themes that are packed into it do intrigue me. In my last post I wrote on the utopia that Le Guin described. But his book is so much more than a study of this ambiguous utopia. It could easily be labeled as feminist science fiction. Le Guin uses the […]
I really thought that the concept of scarcity and the role of government/ governing body and law in the two societies was very fascinating. Urras obviously the wealthy capitalistic state and Anarres the so-called “Utopia”. I think that the idea of Anarres is a very interesting one, like we said in class it is […]
The Dispossessed was not my favorite of the four novels we have read so far. It was rather slow, and went into a LOT of detail with physics terms and the General Temporal theory which can be confusing and too comprehensive for someone who knows almost nothing about it. I did like the way LeGuin […]
The concept of time that is presented in Le Guin’s novel, “The Dispossessed”, is thought provoking. The two opposing ideas of time she presents are that time is sequential as well as simultaneous. At first, the idea seemed slightly hippie-ish. The western idea of time is that it moves forward and it is only sequential. […]
I must admit I haven’t finished the novel yet but it is very intriguing. I do not really care for the story itself for the obvious reasons that have already been pointed out in class; it’s slow, there is not much action, and the story bounces back and forth between the past and present. But […]
“The Revolution is in the individual spirit, or it is nowhere” (p. 359). In class today, the idea of individualism was mentioned and it made me realize how contradictory the Odonians were. Le Guin’s imperfect Utopia is evident in the novel I thought especially in the form of conformity. Anarres is supposed to be […]
Towards the end of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, chapter 11 discusses the debate whether Shevek should go to Urras or not. For instance, Shevek goes to a meeting to discuss his opinions about Urras, but gets shut down by everyone else at the meeting. One of the members says, “But if they [Anaresti] […]
We have spent a lot of time talking about Le Quin’s ideology while she wrote this book. In another class, History Seminar, we are talking about the 1970s and how peoples perspectives had changed dramatically about government, about lifestyles and world views had changed. This was the first decade where the American people began to […]
As I’m reading Ursula Le Guin’s novel “The Dispossessed” I can’t help noticing the recurring idea of walls and barriers. One of the most prominent barriers that i’m seeing is the language barriers in the novel between not only men and women but between The Urrasti and the Annaresti. The first time that I noticed the language […]
I found the concept of “copulating” in Urras to be really interesting. It is first mentioned when Shevek is waiting for his father when he is a young boy. His father loved Rulag, Shevek’s mother, but she had to go to a different area since she was smarter than he was. So Shevek’s father would […]
One of my favorite sections of the novel early on was in the second chapter when the narrator spoke of numbers and their beauty and that if a book was written all in numbers it would be true. “Nothing said in words ever came out quite even. Things in words got twisted . . . […]
So far, Ursula K. LeGuin’s novel has brought up some interesting questions and ideas. Annares is supposed to be the perfect Utopia, but is it really? Annares has no form of government, everyone is equal (including women) and being a homosexual is nothing out of the norm. In fact, they encourage sexual exploration with the other […]
Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel, The Dispossessed, is complex to say the least. It’s really not a hard book to read. But, it manages to touch on so many aspects of the human experience at once that it’s hard to sum up what makes it so fascinating. Le Guin manages this through the fabulous main character, […]
In Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel The Dispossessed, ideas about the pursuit of knowledge run aplenty. specifically, when Shevek begins his professorship on Urras he is completely astounded by the way students are taught. He was, “appalled by the examination system” that required a, “deterrent to the natural wish to learn” and a “pattern of […]
I think that the concept of gender is obviously a very important idea thorough out the book and is very interesting one as well. I think that the way the women from Urras are made out to be is ridiculous. For example when Shevek first arrives to Urras his encounter with the woman at the […]
I wanted to respond to the idea of abolishing property, or the right to own something as we were discussing this in class. As I had an opportunity to think about it I do not like the idea nor do I think the concept has any chance of ever working in any society […]
I find the concept of Urras very interesting because of the way their structure is laid out. They just know they have responsibilities that have to be met, the same way it is in my home, where I live with three other girls and we don’t have any structure of how we do things, we […]
Half way into Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, one of the major themes that really astonished me so far is the theme of dependency vs independence. Le Guin takes these into consideration while describing Shevek’s journey to Abbenay and with Shevek’s experience, it is extremely negative. For example, Shevek gets treated as an outsider […]
As I started The Dispossessed, immediately Star Wars and Star Trek came to mind. The language barrier between the two countries is evident. What was it like when the explorers came across another being? How did they communicate or relate to each other? There is no universal language that could be used because we would […]