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Reading "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Le Guin, did she forget about the singular "they" while writing this? (self.books)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by belluck to c/books@lemmy.world
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It just seems incredibly odd for there to be so many lines in a book about gender insisting that there is no way to refer to someone (in the English language, at least) without implying gender. She even mentions the possibility of using „it“ at one point!

I’m liking the book otherwise, but every time the narrators ponder about pronouns without even considering „they“ I have to ask myself if there is any point in ignoring it or if she genuinely just forgot. I don’t think it’s possible for her to have not known about it considering how well-read she was and how long it’s been in use.

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[-] Dunstabzugshaubitze@feddit.org 22 points 2 months ago

In the afterword of the 25th anniversary edition of the novel, she stated that "The Left Hand of Darkness is haunted and bedeviled by the gender of its pronouns", and that she no longer believed that the masculine pronoun in English is generic, as she had when she wrote the book.

From the Wiki-Article about the Book

she used masculine pronouns as generic pronouns, which is still often done.

I guess it's a product of it's time in that regard, simmiliar to Tolkiens use of "Men" in Lotr being read as "Humans" in many cases when it was first published.

[-] belluck 5 points 2 months ago

She was already criticizing the generic „he“ while writing the book. It probably wouldn’t be bothering me so much if there weren’t entire passages debating it every few chapters without mentioning the possibility of the singular „they“.

[-] Dunstabzugshaubitze@feddit.org 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

there are many possible reasons for that:

  • she might have thought that the general critic on gender roles is allready enough for the reader
  • she saw singular "they" as something for written or formal language and not everyday talk, which is what most of the dialogue in the book is.
  • she was not happy with "they" since it can lead to confusion around singular and plural or did not see it as better alternative than a generic masculin pronoun for someother reason
  • she simply did not use "they" that way when she wrote the book.

I sadly don't own the anniversary edition, so i don't know if le guin elaborates further on that. It's definitely valid criticism however.

e: english grammar hard.

[-] Wataba@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

Considering he forgot women needed to exist for a species to work, I'm not so sure that was intentional.

[-] nagaram@piefed.social 4 points 2 months ago

^

Didn't read the book

this post was submitted on 27 May 2026
36 points (100.0% liked)

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