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Of all the dark, obstructive, enigmatic souls I had met in this bleak city [Estraven's] was the darkest. I would not play his labyrinthine game.
(page 20)
sorry its just that this observation about therem/estraven by genly/genry is literally so hilarious considering well.....everything.
"You don't see yet, Genry, why we perfected and practice Foretelling?"
"No––"
"To exhibit the perfect uselessness of knowing the answer to the wrong question."
(...)
"The unknown," said Faxe's soft voice in the forest, "the unforetold, the unproven, that is what life is based on. Ignorance is the ground of thought. Unproof is the ground of action. If it were proven that there is no God , there would be no religion. No Handdara, no Yomesh, no hearthgods, nothing. But also if it were proven that there is a god, there would be no religion...Tell me, Genry, what is known? What is sure, predictable, inevitable––the one certain thing you know concerning your future, and mine?"
"That we shall die."
"Yes. There's really only one question that can be asked, Genry, and we already know the answer."
(page 74-45)
i uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
There waiting for me at the gate of the little town was Ashe. (...) We had not seen each other those three years, yet seeing his face in the twilight under the arch of stone I felt the old habit of our love as if it had been broken yesterday, and knew the faithfulness in him that had sent him to share my ruin. And feeling that unavailing bond close on me anew, I was angry; for Ashe's love had always forced me to act against my heart.
(page 79)
my face when ursula k le guin comes and slaps me in the middle of this chapter
Therem: You owe me nothing, nor I you. Let me go.
Ashe: Will you take this, Therem? I owe you nothing, but I love you well.
(page 79)
there was no good reason for me to feel this way but well thats just how it is
He said, "I am Arek of Estre."
The other said, "I am Therem of Stok."
Then Estraven laughed, for he was still weak, and said, "Did you warm me back to life in order to kill me, Stokven?"
The other said, "No."
He put out his hand and touched Estraven's hand, as if he were making certain that the frost was driven out. At the touch, though Estraven was a day or two from his kemmer, he felt the fire waken in himself. So for a while both held still, their hands touching.
"They are the same," said Stokven, and laying his palm against Estraven's showed it was so: their hands were the same in length and form, finger by finger, matching like the two hands of one man laid palm to palm.
"I have never seen you before," Stokven said. "We are mortal enemies." He rose, and built up the fire in the hearth, and returned to sit by Estraven.
"We are mortal enemies," said Estraven. "I would swear kemmering with you."
+
"Did you bind up my wounds in order to kill me, Stokven?"
"No," said the older one.
Estraven asked, "How does it chance that you, the lord of Stok, are her on disputed land alone?"
"I come here often," Stokven replied.
He felt the young man's pulse and hand for fever, and for an instant laid his palm flat to Estraven's palm, and finger by finger their two hands matches, like the two hands of one man.
"We are mortal enemies," said Stokven.
Estraven answered, "We are mortal enemies. Yet I have never seen you before."
Stokven turned aside his face. "Once I saw you, long ago," he said.
(page 134-137)
this is seriously soooooooo.....the inclusion of this karhidish tale where the characters all share the names of the second main character + his brother, the inclusion of the other tale about brothers, the duality/sameness theme, how both the estraven in the tale and the estraven who has pov in the story are both named traitors, the way at the end of the book genly basically does a variation on this plot, coming to estraven's father and meeting his son.....i was literally crying it felt like i had photo developer in my eye
It is a terrible thing, this kindness that human beings do not lose. Terrible, because when we are finally naked in the dark and cold, it is all we have. We who are so rich, so full of strength, we end up with that small change. We have nothing else to give.
(page 183)
you would not believe my face when i realized i reblogged a The Terror gifset on tumblr with this quote overlayed on the pix a few months ago....my interests are a flat circle.
"In kemmer all the time...Is it a place of reward, then? Or a place of punishment?"
"I don't know, Asra. Which is this world?"
"Neither, child. This here is just the world, it's how it is. You get born into it and...things are as they are."
"I wasn't born into it. I came to it. I chose it."
"Ah well...Ah well," Asra murmured, and sighed, and rubbed his legs. "We none of us choose," he said.
(page 196)
genly telling asra a story about his world and it eventually all careening towards this exchange i need to be knocked unconscious with a frying pan for several reasons thank you
"The fact is," I said, "that you're unable, or unwilling, to believe in the fact that I believe in you." I stood up, for my legs were cramped, and found I was trembling with anger and weariness. "Teach me your mindspeech," I said, trying to speak easily and with no rancor, "your language that has no lies in it. Teach me that, and then ask me why I did what I've done."
(page 214)
estraven you are so epic.
"You hate Orgoreyn, don't you?"
"Very few Orgota know how to cook. Hate Orgoreyn? No, how should I? How does one hate a country, or love one? Tibe talks about it; I lack the trick of it. I know people, I know town, farms, hills and rivers and rocks, I know how the sun at sunset in autumn falls on the side of a certain plowland in the hills; but what is the sense of giving a boundary to all that, of giving it a name and ceasing to love where the name ceases to apply? What is love of one's country; is it hate of one's uncountry?"
(page 228)
i loooove the way this book grappled with the idea of a nation, international conflict, and patriotism. i love this elaboration, 200 pages later, about what estraven says to genly in the very first chapter.
"Is it going to be 'Mr.' clear across the Gobrin ice?"
He looked up and laughed. "I don't know what to call you."
"My name is Genly Ai."
"I know. You use my landname."
"I don't know what to call you either."
"Harth."
"Then I'm Ai. Who uses first names?"
"Hearth-brothers, or friends."
(page 229)
the naming conventions on the planet in this book were so confusing. also this gave me soulpain
But it was from the difference between us, not from the affinities and likenesses, but from the difference, that that love came: and it was itself the bridge, the only bridge, across what divided us. For us to meet sexually would be for us to meet once more as aliens. We had touched, in the only way we could touch. We left it at that. I do not know if we were right.
(page 267)
no one has ever been more stunned than me when my jokes about these bitches being in love actually came to fruition in a direct and clear way....miss le guin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! explaining this passage is impossible without the context of literally the entire book but just know that i have a heart disease now
"Do you want to see if I can teach you how to speak it?"
He laughed. "You want to catch me lying."
"If you ever lied to me, it was long ago, and in another country."
(page 268)
i dont know why i decided to add commentary to this post when i genuinely am not capable of forming a though beyond AUGGGHHH
"But I might ask you as profitably why you've never seen fit to invent airborne vehicles? One small stolen airplane would have spared you and me a great deal of difficulty!"
"How would it ever occur to a sane man that he could fly?" said Estraven sternly.
(page 279)
the clash of interplanetary cultures is the best part of this kind of sci fi to me
On the blank leaf glued to the inner back cover I drew the double curve with the circle, and blacked the yin half of the symbol, then pushed it back to my companion. "Do you know that sign?"
He looked at it a long time, but he said, "No."
"It's found on Earth, and on Hain-Davenant, and on Chiffewar. It is yin and yang. Light is the left hand of darkness...how did it go?"
(page 287)
OKAY *DIES IN AGONY*
