The Dispossessed
1974
- anarchism
- anarquismo
- ciencia-ficción
- communal living
- ficción
- fiction
- fiction in english
- físicos
- hugo award winner
- life on other planets
The story
Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe. To do this dangerous task will mean giving up his family and possibly his life. Shevek must make the unprecedented journey to the planet, Anarres, to challenge the complex structures of life and living, and ignite the fires of change.
What it’s like
Dense but unhurried prose that alternates between two worlds: the spare, dry, stone-and-dust sensations of an austere desert moon, and the crowded, glossy, color-saturated textures of a wealthy capital city. Le Guin's voice is precise and intellectual, with long reflective passages on how a society thinks and loves, interrupted by sharp scenes of hunger, cold dormitories, lecture halls and tense political rooms. Sound is mostly conversation, argument and the hum of machinery, with little music to soften it. The pacing is deliberate, built from alternating chapters that let ideas and memories accumulate before they converge. Its register is contemplative and quietly melancholy, with a steady undercurrent of hope and frustration. The protagonist is a stubborn, solitary scientist slowly learning what it costs to belong, and the book is rooted in discussion rather than action. Violence is rare and mostly offstage, with some political menace and an occasional sharp confrontation; no gore and no sexual content. It suits readers who want thoughtful, talky, idea-driven science fiction for a slow, attentive afternoon.
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