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#king argaven
estravens-tits · 7 months
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You don’t think a single sentence can fuck you up until you get to this part.
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sevinite · 1 year
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“Inside her head she repeated, as she had been repeating for hours or years, over and over, ‘I will abdicate. I will abdicate. I will abdicate.’ Inside her eyes she saw the red-walled rooms of the Palace, the towers and streets of Erhenrang in falling snow, the lovely plains of the West Fall, the white summits of the Kargav, and she renounced them all, her kingdom.”
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knightotoc · 2 years
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King Argaven was right! Never trust a galactic federation!!!👏👏👏
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aurpiment · 1 year
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One thing I like about kemmer as opposed to other fictional mating cycles is that instead of going into fuck or die mode like Star Trek Vulcans or losing their minds about it like omegaverse characters is that Gethenians in kemmer can simply…not have sex.
Not having sex is no fun for them because of course it’s a mating cycle, so they’re horny, but there’s no unrefusable imperative that overrides the will. They’re just very horny but they’re still regular human people with regular human choice processes. If they don’t like someone, they won’t have sex with them, like Estraven turning down Gaum from Left Hand. If there’s no one they like around, they can just sulk in their room like Argaven the 17th from “Winter’s King.” They’re people; they’ve got dignity. They’re not pawing at the door like an unspayed tabby cat.
The other thing I like about kemmer is that instead of doing turboheterosexuality/turbomisogyny (new and improved! for Men) and sorting people into classes based on permanent physical traits (which is what omegaverse is About. It’s a feature not a bug), it’s essentially a coin toss what physical traits they get every month, so they never thought to invent genders about it.
Kemmer is still a little heterosexual in that it’s a reproductive adaptation, so it had to be even though the characters are genderless themselves, but Gethenian characters still figured out how to be old gay men (Obsle from Left Hand) and do lesbian co-parenting (Oreth and Karth from “The Shobies’ Story”) and have lesbian sex (Berre and Sov from “Coming of Age in Karhide”).
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missfay49 · 2 months
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Chapter 16 review:
I have been thinking about this a lot throughout the story, but they must be selecting and training a very special kind of person to go on these solo planetary missions. The way Genly spoke to King Argaven about the years that could be spent in Light travel, the way he could just skip a generation and come back when King Argaven is dead if he isn't agreeable to joining the Ekumen now.
It's the way he talked about knowing that he, Genly, could be killed, and the Ekumen would just send another in his place.
It's the way he tells Estraven about his family, dead for decades now because he chose to Light travel to another planet for this job.
This man is in his twenties and he's either been trained out of his emotions, or never had them to begin with, because if he got worked up over things like never seeing your loved ones again you just wouldn't take a job like this!
Not only that, but based on the numbers he gives, both his parents died during his very first trip, which took twenty years of their time, and he's only been off Earth for 7 years. So a college graduate in his early twenties leaves behind his two healthy living parents probably in their late 40's, early 50's, and they both die about 17 years into his 20 year trip. They almost made it! He almost could have spoken to them again if they had lasted another 3-4 years!
And the fact that they were Both dead by then implies some kind of accident that they were both involved in, like a car wreck or a fire. They would only have just been reaching their 70's, below the average death rate. Was it hard for him? For him, it's only been 7 years since they died, and what kind of closure might he have gotten?
Estraven is right when he says, "I thought myself an exile."
Genly is also right when he says, "You for my sake-I for yours"
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domtopvarric · 6 months
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Constantly thinking about that part of The Left Hand Of Darkness where he finally gets an audience with the king after MONTHS and all Argaven does is grill him about his genitals, call him a transexual pervert, and ask him why he's Black. Genly is literally so fucking good at his job like I would have snapped.
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licerice · 2 years
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when i wear my boots to cvs i feel like genly ai from the left hand of darkness when he walks up to king argaven in his throneroom or whatever
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novelsmini · 5 months
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Top ten Sci-fi novels along with theirs author and others info
  Certainly! Here are summaries of 10 classic science fiction novels, along with some information about their plots and characters:
1. **"Dune" by Frank Herbert**
   - **Plot:** Set in a distant future, it follows the story of Paul Atreides as he navigates the desert planet of Arrakis, the only source of a valuable spice called melange. The novel explores themes of power, religion, and ecology.
   - **Characters:** Paul Atreides, Duke Leto, Lady Jessica, Baron Harkonnen.
2. **"1984" by George Orwell**
   - **Plot:** This dystopian novel is set in a totalitarian society controlled by Big Brother. It follows Winston Smith, who rebels against the oppressive regime and seeks truth and freedom.
   - **Characters:** Winston Smith, Julia, Big Brother.
3. **"Neuromancer" by William Gibson**
   - **Plot:** A cyberpunk classic, it follows Case, a washed-up computer hacker hired for one last job. The novel is known for its virtual reality, hacking, and complex conspiracies.
   - **Characters:** Case, Molly Millions, Wintermute.
4. **"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley**
   - **Plot:** In a futuristic world, society is conditioned to maintain stability and happiness through genetic engineering and mind control. The story revolves around Bernard Marx, who questions the system.
   - **Characters:** Bernard Marx, Lenina Crowne, John "the Savage."
5. **"Foundation" by Isaac Asimov**
   - **Plot:** This is the first book in the Foundation series. It centers on mathematician Hari Seldon's plan to preserve knowledge during the fall of a galactic empire and the rise of a new civilization.
   - **Characters:** Hari Seldon, Gaal Dornick, Brother Day.
6. **"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card**
   - **Plot:** The novel follows Ender Wiggin, a gifted child trained to lead humanity in a war against an alien race. It explores themes of leadership, morality, and the consequences of war.
   - **Characters:** Ender Wiggin, Valentine Wiggin, Colonel Graff.
7. **"The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin**
   - **Plot:** In a world where the inhabitants are ambisexual androgynes, an Earth ambassador, Genly Ai, navigates cultural differences and political intrigue.
   - **Characters:** Genly Ai, Estraven, King Argaven.
8. **"Hyperion" by Dan Simmons**
   - **Plot:** A group of seven pilgrims, each with their own story, travels through a far-future universe. They share their tales on a journey to a mysterious, time-altering structure called the Shrike.
   - **Characters:** Martin Silenus, Brawne Lamia, The Consul.
9. **"Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson**
   - **Plot:** Set in a cyberpunk world, it follows Hiro Protagonist, a hacker and pizza delivery driver, as he investigates a virtual drug called Snow Crash and its connection to a linguistic virus.
   - **Characters:** Hiro Protagonist, Y.T., L. Bob Rife.
10. **"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams**
    - **Plot:** This comedic space odyssey follows the unwitting Arthur Dent as he is whisked away from Earth just before its destruction and joins an eclectic group of interstellar travelers.
    - **Characters:** Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox.
These novels offer a wide range of themes and storytelling styles within the science fiction genre, making them essential reads for fans of the genre.
For more info visit here -https://novelsmini.blogspot.com/
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rem-ir · 4 years
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Left Hand of Darkness Characters rated by themboness
I would absolutely make that textpost. Genly, incidentally, would get put on that list even though he is 1) a cis guy and 2) quite intelligent because 3) I can’t NOT do it
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sharry-arry-odd · 4 years
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But I do fear you, Envoy. I fear those who sent you. I fear liars, and I fear tricksters, and worst I fear the bitter truth. And so I rule my country well. Because only fear rules men. Nothing else works. Nothing else lasts long enough. You are what you say you are, yet you're a joke, a hoax. There's nothing in between the stars but void and terror and darkness, and you come out of that all alone trying to frighten me. But I am already afraid, and I am the king. Fear is king! Now take your traps and tricks and go, there's no more needs saying. I have ordered that you be given the freedom of Karhide.
The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin
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kiev4am · 6 years
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I just listened to the recent BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness.  I was really looking forward to this - it’s one of my absolute favourite novels - but I have to say, the decision to cast a female actor as Estraven was a misstep I couldn’t get past.  Polite but lengthy rant below.
It’s a beautiful production - the music and sound direction is perfectly bleak and arctic, the acting is excellent, it’s clearly been created with a huge amount of respect and affection for the source material.  Lesley Sharp is a wonderful actor (in fact it’s a wonderful and diverse cast overall, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is outstanding as Genly and there’s also Toby Jones, Louise Brealey, Noma Dumezweni and Ruth Gemmell in the mix) and I can absolutely see the solid feminist reasons why casting a woman as Estraven - and other women as other Gethenians - could be thought of as progressive and fitting.  Le Guin herself acknowledged that her use of male pronouns in the book was problematic in that it derailed the perception of both Gethenians’ female traits and of their genderfluidity, especially when so many of the characters were in roles traditionally held by men in fiction - politicians, leaders, guards, a king (despite that beautiful line ‘the king was pregnant’).  I can see how a female-coded Estraven deftly operating at the highest levels of Karhide statecraft, singlehandedly rescuing Genly from the prison camp and hauling that sledge across the ice with him addresses that issue specifically and brings a crucial piece of Le Guin’s vision of Gethenians into focus.
But.  That's only one strand of the book’s exploration of gender and sexuality, and it’s the most mainstream strand - the one that relates to gender roles and Genly’s ingrained sexism, his reductive view of women.  There’s an entire other aspect being erased here, something which for me was integral to the story and its themes, namely the book’s powerful queer subtext - introduced via the choice of those same male pronouns and skilfully expanded on through Genly’s unconscious stereotyping and homophobia, the way his initial mistrust of Gethenians, and Estraven specifically, is rooted in his perception of them as ‘effeminate’ or ‘incomplete’ men.  It’s impossible to read Genly’s emerging acceptance of and love for Estraven without understanding that, in order to reach that point emotionally, Genly had overcome not only his assumptions about women but also his prejudices against men who did not act socially and sexually according to his own norms and any unease at thoughts of intimacy with them.  That’s virtually a blueprint for a literary journey of gay self-discovery and I can’t imagine the producers of this adaptation could have been unaware of that.  Hence my profound problems with the casting.
I could almost have accepted it if the producers had chosen to cast female actors for every Gethenian character - that would at least have been consistent, implying a conscious choice to use womens’ voices to emphasise the very telling overlap in Genly’s thinking between the alienness of Gethenians and the alienness of women.  But they haven’t done that; at least three Gethenians including King Argaven are voiced by male actors, which means the casting was driven not by thematic motives but by whatever the producers were comfortable with.  I could still mostly assume good faith in these decisions until the final scene, where Genly meets Estraven and Arek’s child Sorve.  In the book, Sorve is introduced by the grandfather as “my sons’ son.”  In the radio version, the grandfather’s line is changed to “my childrens’ only child” and Estraven is called the mother of Sorve not once but twice in the short scene.  At this point, I lost my goodwill.  Everything else had been in keeping with the book with merely a change to the perceived gender of the actor’s voice; this was a deliberate change to the text that didn’t feel organic at all.  The erasure not only of gay pairings but of gay parenting - the choice to alter Le Guin’s words to favour a heteronormative reading and exclude any other - is too explicit for me to ignore.  It’s just... so timid, so disappointing, and so against the spirit of the novel.
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flippyspoon · 7 years
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So I just started reading LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness and decided that they must make this movie just so Tilda Swinton can play the mad king Argaven (I mean unless he’s not in it much, I’m only a few chapters in- Tilda would def be in it anyway.)
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sevinite · 1 year
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more Winter’s King stuufff yay
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omgnithyasri-blog · 6 years
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Strangely loyalty and betrayal are portrayed as complementary traits rather than a contradictory trait. Estraven believes that by preventing war he was saving Karhidish lives and being loyal to his country, while King Argaven sees it as a betrayal. The same way Ai calls his ship down to formalize Gethen's joining the Ekumen, and feels conflicted while doing so because he had promised Estraven that he would clear Estraven's name before calling his ship down. Before reading the book I thought that these traits were opposite of each other but this book proved that they can be complementary to each other.
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aurpiment · 3 years
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@astronomer88’s idea
Image description: Genly Ai calmly saying “your prime minister looks gnc af.” King Argaven saying, with an appalled look on his face, “you’re insane.” Description ends.
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rem-ir · 3 years
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in the metatextual version of The Left Hand of Darkness that lives in my head (but not in my google docs this time, alas), the novel was written by Genly to garner sympathy for Estraven in order to shifgrethor-shame King Argaven into revoking Estraven’s exile. Estraven is chilling in the Archipelago region of Gethen, alive. It was a mutual decision on both their parts to depict their relationship as unfulfilled and cut short because 1) it’s sadder that way, and tugs at more heartstrings, and 2) Estraven’s 20-year-old kid, Sorve Harth, is copyediting the novel and nobody wants to read about their mom fucking aliens, much less correct the grammar of a KSL (Karhidish as a second language) speaker in a passage about their mom fucking aliens.
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