The Dispossessed (Review)
                            2019-01-04

The second book from my [2018  list][1] that I didn't mention in my
awards  post was  this one  - Ursula  K. LeGuin's  1974 work,  [The
Dispossessed][2].

It would be unfair  to compare the rest of my reads  to this book -
this is  an absolute  monster of  a book within  the genre,  and it
holds a  particularly important  place in my  heart. This  was, for
various reasons, one of the very first science fiction books I ever
read. Before I read Clarke,  or Heinlein[^1], Asimov or Zelazny, or
indeed anyone else  that I can remember from my  youth, I read this
book. It gripped me then, and  I held fond (if muddled) memories of
Anarres and Urras. Following her  death in January 2018, I resolved
that  if I  was  to read  primarily  women that  year,  then I  was
certainly going to read this again.

It was, quite simply, a revelation.

Reading  this  book now,  separated  by  years  and miles  from  my
childhood,  its  amazing how  much  of  an  impact  it had  on  me.
Put  simply, I  can  trace my  personal  development, my  political
development, to this  book. There was no place for  anarchism in my
childhood, yet  today it  is one  of the  overarching themes  of my
as-yet-unfolding personal viewpoint. The  reasons for that are many
and complex, yet they trace their origin point to this book.

Even  the preface  references Peter  Kropotkin, whose  _Mutual Aid_
essays are one of the cornerstones of my personal philosophy. I can
say, wholeheartedly  and unreservedly,  that it was  this reference
led me  to Kropotkin's works.  I can also  state that the  reason I
sought it out was simple - I wished I lived on Anarres.

The Dispossessed is set in a dual-planet system. One planet, Urras,
is divided between a pronounced  Capitalist Superpower (A-Io) and a
Statist  Authoritarian  Superpower  (Thu)  which  claims  to  be  a
dictatorship of the proletariat. A failed anarchist uprising in the
distant  past led  to the  exile of  the anarchists  to the  second
planet -  Anarres, a bleak  and inhospitable planet  without native
fauna.

On  the  world of  Anarres,  there  is  no  property. There  is  no
consumerism.  There  is  no involuntary  subjugation  to  another's
power. As Shevek, the protaganist, learns as a child:

> “Nothing is yours. It is to use.  It is to share. If you will not
> share it, you cannot use it."

Anarres  is  a  zero-waste  economy,  Shevek  is  apalled  when  he
discovers on Urras that products  are created with the intention of
becoming waste material, without ever  there being any intention to
reuse them. Work  on Anarres is a matter of  choice, there being no
distinction  between  "work" and  "play",  if  work is  coerced  or
mandated it is referred to as drudgery.

This is not a perfect utopia  [^2], a central narrative refers to a
cataclysmic famine  on Anarres where  Shevek is separated  from his
wife and child for years, working  to produce food for the starving
population. The  syndicalist collective described is  not free from
the personal  or the petty,  nor is  the Division of  Labour always
without social engineering when required.

Shevek, for just those reasons, seeks  asylum (of a sort) on Urras,
to continue the  work he feels is being blocked  by the authorities
on Anarres. Much as with Tennyson's Traveller Among Unknown Men, it
is not until he  has left Anarres does he come  to a real reckoning
of his own  truth, and he comes  to see that the  quest for eternal
revolution is not something which can  be ignored. In his last days
on Anarres he had approached this  realisation, but it is only when
presented with  the unimaginable  savagery of the  Urrasian systems
that it comes to full understanding.

There really is  very little I can say about  this book that hasn't
been  said by  people  far  more accomplished  and  versed in  both
anarchism and  literary criticism  than I. On  a personal  level, I
love this book, I love everything about it. I understand that there
are  latter-day feminist  critiques which  find it  lacking, and  I
appreciate that.

But in its pages there is  a living breathing vision of a different
type  of world.  One that  doesn't rely  on The  Culture's infinite
resources and infinite intellects to  create a collective of almost
unparalleled importance. Sure, there are things wrong with Anarres,
but there are always things wrong with every political and economic
system. If  you delude  yourself into  accepting these  problems as
part  of an  unchanging unchangeable  truth, then  there can  be no
truth in your existence. We are not singular entities alone against
an uncaring universe, we are less than the sum of our parts.

Apart from the starvation (obviously) there is a beauty to Anarres,
a  nobility of  purpose and  understanding. It  is something  which
gripped my attention and imagination as a teenager, it is something
which now seizes me by the  arms and screams imprecations at my own
docility. We  cannot just be  mere ciphers  in this world,  we must
seek to change what we are, who we are.

I still wish I lived on Anarres.

_______Feetneet___________________________________________________
[^1]:  spit  
[^2]:  the  sometimes  applied  subtitle  remains  "An Ambiguous 
       Utopia"

_______References_________________________________________________
[1]:   https://ascraeus.org/page/ascraeus-reading-year-2018/   
[2]:   https://is.gd/fi5lhn

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