The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia (Hainish Cycle)

by Ursula K. Le Guin

One of the very best must-read novels of all time - with a new introduction by Roddy Doyle

'A well told tale signifying a good deal; one to be read again and again' THE TIMES

'The book I wish I had written ... It's so far away from my own imagination, I'd love to sit at my desk one day and discover that I could think and write like Ursula Le Guin' Roddy Doyle

'Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power' OBSERVER

The Principle of Simultaneity is a scientific breakthrough which will revolutionize interstellar civilization by making possible instantaneous communication. It is the life work of Shevek, a brilliant physicist from the arid anarchist world of Anarres.

But Shevek's work is being stifled by jealous colleagues, so he travels to Anarres's sister-planet Urras, hoping to find more liberty and tolerance there. But he soon finds himself being used as a pawn in a deadly political game.

• ISBN10: 0060125632
• ISBN13: 9780060125639
• Publish Date: 1 January 1974
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 13 March 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 341
• Language: English

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

Sublime. Carefully constructed, nuanced, warmly empathetic, passionately human, complex. If you want a rose-colored ideologue that purports to fix problems with simplistic utopias, look elsewhere. If you want an accounting of our society’s ills, and alternatives that are just as complicated and imperfect, you’re in the right place. She doesn’t shout, preach, or point, just shifts the frame of reference in order to examine our assumptions. Each word choice has weight. Quiet, lovely, and profound. And just as timely now, nearly 50 years later.

[teachergorman]

Considering the newfound popularity of 1984, this book should be getting a lot more attention. Though it’s not structured in a similar way, it explores some of the same concepts with a nuance that is worthy of Orwell. It tells the story of a traveler who comes from a harsh world that has perfected a kind of anarchist collectivism who travels to a world of capitalism. What I loved most is that it shows the flaws in both systems with a brutal honesty most novels about political systems avoid because they are promoting one over the other. I came away with a newfound respect for anarchists, who I’d always dismissed as utopians with no sense of how to create a functional system. It could work, but, as LeGuin points out, it would have to be culturally coercive to be maintained, and it would have other significant flaws. This novel’s construction mirrors the ambivalence of the protagonist (and maybe the author), as it weaves back and forth in time, starting with his arrival on the new world, then flashing back to his childhood, and then back and forth, telling two parallel stories. It’s done very well. Overall, this novel will stick with me, and it’s changed the way I think about what kinds of political systems could be functional without making any one seem like a utopia.

[lovelybookshelf]

This was my first Le Guin (I now have a new favorite author). The Dispossessed is like all those great Star Trek episodes where societies with different cultures and political hierarchies meet and try to understand each other. It's all about nuance: Even though the author is anarchist, the anarchist society in this novel is NOT perfect. It portrays an unflinchingly honest (and more interesting) "utopia," rather than [singing] "everything is awesome."

I listened to the audiobook, but I think I'll reach for print when I read it next. It jumps back and forth in time/location (odd/even chapters) and that was a bit hard to keep track of when listening.

[adamfortuna]

Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the biggest names in science fiction that I've never read anything by -- until now. The Dispossessed exists in Le Guin's "Hainish Cycle" world, although there is no required order for the the series as each book is self contained. The world The Dispossessed includes a pair of worlds -- a planet and moon. The planet is like Earth in the 70s, with major power in a communist and a capitalist power. The moon, however, is a communist utopia where there is no violence, need, or want and everyone pursues what they want. When a scientist from the moon is brought to the planet, the superpowers battle over scientific control while struggling to change.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

I must admit I groaned a bit when I started The Dispossessed, a book about aliens and their different social structures. I’ve read books like this and I wasn’t really in the mood for another Sci-Fi book about anarchist societies. It is a bit dry and difficult to read but I did end up finding this book really interesting. I did end up finding the most interesting parts of this book was the different societies and how no could ever be perfect. The Dispossessed is just a giant metaphor about the world we live in. It’s not an easy read but rather interesting anyway.

[Metaphorosis Reviews]

Metaphorosis Reviews
4.5 stars

A determined but awkward physicist from the anarchic communal world of Anarres returns to Urras, the sister planet from which his idealistic ancestors fled. Hoping to find freedom from tradition and habit, he finds a rich world with a host of flaws beneath the surface.

I came to Ursula Le Guin's work, as did many, via Earthsea - light but deep YA fantasy. The Dispossessed is the other side of Le Guin - deep, dense, intellectual science fiction focused on social issues and human nature.

I hadn't read this book for decades, but after spending what seemed an endless period in Phillip Jose Farmer's adventure pulp Tiers series, I felt I owed myself something a little more thoughtful (and better written). The Dispossessed was a good fit.

I'm sure I got more out of the book this time around. I was young when I read it last, and I recall thinking it was well written and interesting, but slow. Then, I was a budding scientist. Now, I work on governance issues. But my first judgment is still correct - it is well written and interesting, but it is slow. It's just that now I'm a little more patient, a little more interested in pondering, and I look at things from a different point of view.

The Dispossessed is a masterful thought experiment - to see how anarchy might work out in practice (not entirely anarchic) and how an established mostly-anarchic culture might interact with a mostly-capitalist one. Le Guin has done an excellent job with pretty dry material. There are no clear blacks or whites, though Shevek, the protagonist, is sympathetic and largely on the side of good. Le Guin acknowledges the shortcomings of both sides, and if she has a clear inclination toward one side, it's not at such an angle that she can't see the other. This is the kind of book that gives science fiction a good name - it's intelligent and thoughtful, and it genuinely introduces and explores an idea.

That's not to say it's all rainbows and puppies. As with Anarres, the anarchists' world, it's dusty and convoluted in places. Le Guin's sequencing could do with clearer time stamps.The pace, as noted, is slow. And while she purports to set out a world in which gender is not determinative of role, she can't quite get away from stereotypes. For a book written during the disruptive, freedom-seeking early '70s, that's disappointing. But it's heavily outweighed by the strengths of the book.

Overall, The Dispossessed is a remarkable achievement, and well-deserving its status as a classic of science fiction. If you haven't read it, you should - and not in the 'Oh, it's a dull classic, but I have to read it' sense, but because it's a genuinely good book. Just have some patience with it, and it will reward you.