Type of bind: Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 256
Printing Date: October 01, 2001
Sale Popularity Level: 1500815
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The Left Hand of DarknessSutty, an Observer from Earth for the interstellar Ekumen, has been assigned to a new world-a world in the grips of a stern monolithic state, the Corporation. Embracing the sophisticated technology brought by other worlds and desiring to advance even faster into the future, the Akans recently outlawed the past, the old calligraphy, certain words, all ancient beliefs and ways; every citizen must now be a producer-consumer. Their state, not unlike the China of the Cultural Revolution, is one of secular terrorism. Traveling from city to small town, from loudspeakers to bleating cattle, Sutty discovers the remnants of a banned religion, a hidden culture. As she moves deeper into the countryside and the desolate mountains, she learns more about the Telling-the old faith of the Akans-and more about herself. With her intricate creation of an alien world, Ursula K. Le Guin compels us to reflect on our own recent history.
Amazon.com Review:
Earthling Sutty has been living a solitary, well-protected life in Dovza City on the planet Aka as an official Observer for the interstellar Ekumen. Insisting on all citizens being pure 'producer-consumers,' the tightly controlled capitalist government of Aka--the Corporation--is systematically destroying all vestiges of the ancient ways: 'The Time of Cleansing' is the chilling term used to describe this era. Books are burned, the old language and calligraphy are outlawed, and those caught trying to keep any part of the past alive are punished and then reeducated. Frustrated in her attempts to study the linguistics and literature of Aka's cultural past, Sutty is sent upriver to the backwoods town of Okzat-Ozkat. Here she is slowly charmed by the old-world mountain people, whose still waters, she gradually realizes, run very deep. But whether their ways constitute a religion, ancient traditions, philosophy, or passive, political resistance, Sutty is not sure. Delving ever deeper into her hosts' culture, Sutty finds herself on a parallel spiritual quest, as well.
With quiet linguistic humour (Dovza citizens are passionate about their hot bitter beverage, akakafi--the ubiquitous Corporation brand is called Starbrew), dark references to the dangers of restricted cultural, political, and social freedom, and beautifully visualized worlds, award-winning author Ursula K. Le Guin pens her latest in the Hainish cycle, which includes The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness. Le Guin explores her characters and societies with such care, such thoughtfulness, her novels call out for slow, deep attention. --Emilie Coulter
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Rated by buyers 
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Like many of Le Guin's novels, "The Telling" begins in media res; for readers unfamiliar with the various Hainish books (or who, like me, might need a refresher course), the opening chapter is a little confusing. Sutty, a newly trained Observer for the Ekumen (a far-flung league of worlds) has fled Earth in the midst of a purge by religious fundamentalists who seek to destroy all non-scriptural texts. Her very first assignment is Aka, a planet rich in culture that has been newly absorbed into the league. By the time she arrives, delayed by several decades of relativistic travel, Sutty finds herself stuck in a nightmarish mirror image of her home planet. The newly ascendant corporatist government, with its headquarters in Dovza City, has oppressively banned its "primitive" traditions--its books, its music, its poetry. The new god is technology.
With the help of her supervisor, Sutty is assigned to Okzat-Ozkat, a region known for harboring cultural throwbacks suspected of (and often apprehended for) having preserved some of the old traditions. So we've never really left planet Earth: Okzat-Ozkat plays Tibet to Dovza City's Beijing.
The story that frames "The Telling" is interesting enough. And Sutty is one of Le Guin's most soulful--if perpetually insecure--characters. The cruel irony, however, is that the inhabitants of Okzat-Ozkat, including the maz (the magi-like carriers of the old traditions) are almost indistinguishable from each other; their individuality has been mystifyingly erased by Le Guin almost as thoroughly as by the Corporation of Dovzan. And the remaining cast, including Sutty's boss and the menacing Monitor, are hardly more than cardboard props in this parable.
But the novel's biggest failing is its depiction of Aka's intriguing, lost civilization. One problem is that Le Guin leads her readers along; we expect more behind the mystery then there really is. In one scene, there's a perplexing hint of supernatural magic that is summarily discarded, and the novel's "mystery" ends up being nothing more than one would expect in a country where books have been banned. In addition, for almost a quarter of the novel, we read, omnisciently and lyrically abridged, the fieldnotes and speculations Sutty has been amassing into her portable "noter." She describes a world where "books, tellings, anything" are proscribed and what remains is a "system [that] was incoherent, fragmented." The risk in describing an "incoherent, fragmented" society, of course, is that the resulting draft might reflect all too well the structure it depicts, and--I'm afraid--the mirror Le Guin holds up to Aka (but really, to our world) is often fogged by the mumbo-jumbo of her amateur anthropologist's random ramblings.
If it all sounds like "Fahrenheit 451" retold through the prism of the Tao Te Ching--well, it is. That's part of the problem, what's interesting about "The Telling" is derivative; what's unique about it is not quite polished; what's left is just the familiar beauty of Le Guin's language. That's almost enough for her fans, but if the bulk of this book were only as finely tuned as its opening pages and the closing chapters, then I think we'd have another masterpiece on par with "The Dispossessed" and "The Left Hand of Darkness." Instead, for all its poetry and wordplay and allegory, "The Telling" remains one of the lesser of the many fictional landscapes in the Hainish cycle.
Rated by buyers 
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The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin is a lovely little science fiction novel. Sutty (born in India and raised in Canada) decides to become a researcher and leave the Earth of her time, which is in tumult from terrorist attacks from religious fanatics. She is sent to the world of Aka, where the new regime has systematically been destroying all traces of its original culture, history, tradition, and literature. But Sutty gets the opportunity to travel to a backwards mountainous region of Aka, and there she encounters the Telling, an oral tradition of the past...a deep and intelligent short science fiction novel that I really enjoyed.
This is science fiction, but it is not space opera and it is not filled with action and adventure. Rather, it explores issues such as religious fantacism, oppression, and censorship through the lenses of history and the "soft' science of anthropology.
Rated by buyers -
Ursula K. LeGuin is my favorite author, but I have to admit that this book dissapointed me just a little bit. I like books whose lessons I have to work for, so in that sense I was very pleased, yet it seemed all too laborsome to read through only to arrive at a breezy conclusion that, to me, constituted no more than a giant question mark. There's so much development towards the inevitable ending, but not much matter to tie it all together with. This is not to say, however, that I do not appreciate The Telling, just that I'd call it a guide into ones own thoughts before I'd call it a novel, which is perfectly fine if you consider the value of the insights which, after reading, one can gain.
Rated by buyers 
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This is an outstanding book, and it brings up very real and very important issues. I think that this is one of Ursula K. LeGuin's best books and the Sutty/Pao love story is very touching...I cried....
Rated by buyers -
I am somewhat puzzled by the lukewarm responses by many readers to this book. I absolutely loved it; Le Guin has many intelligent things to say about the processes of cultural change and economic development, and wraps them in a wonderful story. She also does what many of the supposed science fiction masters are rarely able to do; develop interesting, three dimensional characters to go along with her ideas (male AND female characters to boot! What a concept!). I read this shortly after finishing The Left Hand of Darkness, and I actually enjoyed this one a bit more. Highly recommended for anyone who wants something entertaining and thoughtful, regardless of whether you usually enjoy science fiction.
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