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The Dispossessed: A Novel
The Dispossessed: A Novel
The Dispossessed: A Novel
Audiobook13 hours

The Dispossessed: A Novel

Written by Ursula K. Le Guin

Narrated by Don Leslie

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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About this audiobook

“One of the greats….Not just a science fiction writer; a literary icon.” – Stephen King

From the brilliant and award-winning author Ursula K. Le Guin comes a classic tale of two planets torn apart by conflict and mistrust — and the man who risks everything to reunite them.

A bleak moon settled by utopian anarchists, Anarres has long been isolated from other worlds, including its mother planet, Urras—a civilization of warring nations, great poverty, and immense wealth. Now Shevek, a brilliant physicist, is determined to reunite the two planets, which have been divided by centuries of distrust. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have kept them apart.

To visit Urras—to learn, to teach, to share—will require great sacrifice and risks, which Shevek willingly accepts. But the ambitious scientist's gift is soon seen as a threat, and in the profound conflict that ensues, he must reexamine his beliefs even as he ignites the fires of change.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperAudio
Release dateSep 14, 2010
ISBN9780062025449
The Dispossessed: A Novel
Author

Ursula K. Le Guin

URSULA K. LE GUIN was born in Berkeley, California, in 1929, and passed away in Portland, Oregon, in 2018. She published over sixty books of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, children’s literature, and translation. She was the recipient of a National Book Award, six Hugo and five Nebula awards, and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.  

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Rating: 4.456043953113554 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A very thought-provoking novel about a Physicist's journey to an alien planet, whose social/political structure clashes so harshly against his own anarchic/socialistic upbringing back home. It was interesting to read the events leading up to his departure and his experience upon arrival, separated into chapters, constantly flitting forward and backward in time and piece together Shevek's journey bit by bit. However it does seem to drag a bit at times. Sometimes the philosopising can overtake the progression of events in the novel, making this read drag a little. Still a good read though. Left hand of darkness is still my fav of LeGuin's novels, however.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a beautiful book that was easy to understand without needing too much introduction. There was so much development of the world without explaining and it made me feel as though things were just out of my grasp. Beautiful writing as always, coupled with some wonderful discussion of capitalism and socialism, gender roles, revolution, and class.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Shevek, a physicist, is researching something he calls his Ground Temporal Theory. He wants to unite his mother planet of Anarres with the sister planet, Urras. Anarres is an anarchist planet that has become isolated. Shevek's people are in exile. With his invention of instantaneous communication, Shevek could potentially change society. Unfortunately, his own planet of Anarres is at war, making it impossible for him to progress on his Principle of Simultaniety. Hoping to find a more accepting atmosphere he travels to Urras where he is somewhat accepted. There he lectures, builds a relationship, and fathers a child while working on his theory, working towards free exchange between Urras and Anarres. Little does Shevek know but he has fallen into a trap.As an aside, the range of different internal societies was interesting. For example, "propertarians" believe in the ownership of something whereas other societies don't. On the planet Urras Shevek encounters a woman who enthralls him completely, but he can't help but make feminism comparisons between her and the women on his planet of Anarres.Probably my favorite part was when Shevek meets Takver. The attraction was instantaneous and Shevek came alive after meeting her. He has been awakened to a whole new life. This life leads him in interesting directions.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Delightfully subversive.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing. Ranks up there with Left Hand of Darkness and the Lathe of Heaven - I don't know how I overlooked this one for so long. Kept me up until 2am finishing it. I found the alternating time frame structure to be very compelling - the stories were converging in time.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a wonderful jewel if a novel, beautifully written, beautifully read! As delightful as thought-provoking
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I know it won the Hugo and the Nebula, and it was certainly enjoyable. However, it doesn't rank as one of my favorite science fiction books of all time.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    LeGuin is perhaps a writer's writer. in many ways, her worlds and her thoughts, and most especially the words she builds them with, take precedence over character and plot. though the setting is bleak and utilitarian, this is an utterly beautiful book.

    physicist Shevek hails from an anarchist communist world that split off from the infighting class structure of the nearby sister planet a couple hundred years ago. alone among his comrades, he journeys back to the homeworld (the why of that journey moves most of the novel), and experiences just how different the other side lives. clearly a tale written during the cold war, the home planet is neatly recognized as a possible substitute for decadent western culture, but the anarchists aren't exactly familiar reds. LeGuin's other strong point is her ability to genuinely convey the sense of otherness that an alien civilization would be. "alien" here doesn't end at a green guy with a ray gun, but is indeed a truly different way of existing. communication is problematic not because you don't speak the language, but because you can't comprehend the thought.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Captivating and descriptive writing, profound symbolism and a great sci-fi epic tale that only scratches the surface. It’s sure to keep you reading well into the night.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I "re-read" this with the audiobook format, and it works well.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Shevek grew up in a society of anarchists, a near utopian society on the moon of Urras in which everyone is equal, there is no monetary system, and all goods are shared equally and fairly. However, it is also a society that has begun to reject new principles and ideas, making life difficult for Shevek, who wishes to explore the new boundaries of physics. In order to follow the path of physics, Shevek has to turn away from his home to Urras, the planet the anarchist society abandoned hundreds of years before so that they could have their freedom. Urras is a world upon divided by cultures and countries, many at war with each other. Capitalism is king there, where there are drastic differences between the classes and just about anything is for sale. One might think the focus of this novel is politics, from sexual politics to economic politics, -- and that would be true. Politics, philosophy, and and physics all play large roles here and are the subject of much discussion between the characters, each who have very strong points of view. Nothing is simple, however, and Sevek learns that his anarchist society is not as perfect as he believed, nor is the capitalistic society of Urras nearly as wicked as he imagined. There is good and evil in everything. But even more story, this is a novel about a man who is lost, who is looking for a place to belong. His deep, deep loneliness and feelings of being disconnected from either world are very true and moving. Without this connection to Shevek, the story would be too tangled in philosophy and politics. Shevek's journey -- physical, intellectual, and emotion -- is really what makes this story come alive.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I liked this. I know I didn't get everything out of it on the first reading. I'll definitely read other books in the same universe.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to leave his home planet Anarres and travel to Urras to work on his theories of time travel with other physicists. Not only does he leave his family, he leaves his world, a Utopian society that was created centuries ago by anarchists who left Urras in the hope of creating an ideal world where people leave their egos and work for the good of the entire planet. By alternating chapters that describe his new life on Anarres with chapters that flashback on his old life on Urras, Le Guin compares two opposite societies - one capitalistic and similar to today's society in the US and the other a communist colony where people give up homes, possessions, and even the notion of a family for the good of the collective. What I liked about this book is that LeGuin is not preaching one form of society over the other. Both civilizations have some pretty major flaws and both suffer from many of the same issues. She brings up many good points without preaching. Very thought provoking.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Eu amo demais a Ursula K. Le Guin e todos os livros que li dela até agora me encantaram demais, Os Despossuídos não foi uma exceção.
    Eu sou encantado com esse mundo que ela criou e desenvolveu de uma maneira extraordinária, tanto neste livro quanto em a mão esquerda da escuridão, quero muito ler os outros livro do Hainish Cycle.
    Eu gostei muito do Shevek, e acompanhar toda a jornada científica dele foi um deleite. Acredito que a Ursula consegue fazer muito bem essa ambientação da ciência nos seus livros de uma forma extremamente crível.
    Outro ponto alto do livro é o relacionamento do Shevek com Takver, uma grande história de amor, com algumas cenas maravilhosamente emocionantes. Há uma linha em particular que, apesar de ser totalmente simples e discreta, trouxe lágrimas aos meus olhos. Em A curva do sonho ela já nos mostrou que sabe escrever sobre o amor.

    O livro envolve os argumentos discretamente na narrativa e nunca os joga na sua cara, mas depois de um tempo você vê que são eles que unem todos os fios: a sociedade anarquista, a ciência, a história de amor, a política. Ele é extremamente profundo. Pra mim esse é um daqueles livros que mudam sua vida, espero relê-lo várias vezes ao longo da minha vida.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    So necessary and so great, i often go back to this story in my mind
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Honestly this was a difficult one to get through. I love Le Guin and her writings. EarthSea is one of my OG fav fantasy series. This was different in being very political. Not my usual read. It took me about mid book to really get invested in the story. But once I did, I can say I enjoyed it. The contrast of the worlds and the governments, and the classes within the governments was well written and laid out. I enjoyed learning and seeing the flaws in both worlds. I would definitely give it a shot of political reads are your thing.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I don't see what all the fuss is about. It's more of an outdated political argument than a novel. The protagonist comes from a sort of anarchistic "utopia," which - despite being somewhat hellish and cult-like - is very difficult to buy. You have to accept that in a population of millions, over two centuries, nobody ever tried to take power. The story, for most of the book, is almost nonexistent. And just as things finally start to happen, the book is over, with no resolution.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Le Guin has explored the meaning of communism and anarchy and what being free really means in this novel. The people of Antarres, "Odonians", left their home planet of Urras about 200 years previously, and settled on the moon/sister planet to leave behind the evils of capitalism ("propertianism") and government oppression. Their society has no government, no ownership (even saying "my nose" is frowned upon -- "the nose" is preferred), no person or group in charge. However, the truth of those claims are tested when one Antarrian, Shevek, wishes to leave Antarres to go to Urras and pursue his physics research (which was not supported and even actively discouraged). Very thought-provoking.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A lovely exploration of a utopia that Le Guin managed to make seem both appealing and plausible without shrinking from the sacrifices that it entailed.

    At times the weird temporal structure of the book confused me, though it does make sense given the principal character's work. And there are moments when the utopians' political talk starts to feel like author lecturing reader - though really only moments, this isn't one of those books that bludgeons you with its rhetoric. It is one of those that I've spent as long thinking about after finishing as I had spent reading it, because there's more substance and subtletly to its politics and sociological observation than you might expect after I've thrown the "utopia" label at it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Fiction, Science fiction, The planet Urras and its moon Anarres are in the system of Tau Ceti, The States of Urras gave the revolutionaries the right to live on Anarres, The citizens of Anarres are dispossessed by the very lack of resources to possess. Hugo Award Prize, 1975, Nebula Award Prize, 1975, First published by Harper & Row, 1974, 341 pp., First Italian edition under the title: "I reietti dell'altro pianeta", by Editrice Nord, Milano, 1990, translated by Riccardo Valla
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is an absolutely beautiful and powerful novel. For all those who dream of true freedom, this book shares a powerful vision of just what that means.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Social commentary for those of us who need spaceships in order to take a book seriously. I'm not sure that anarcho-communism is actually the answer to the woes of humanity, but it makes a fun story. Count me out of the first moon colony. Seriously.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book really speaks to me. ULG had an anthropologist father, known for his work on Apaches, I believe, and thus she had a leg up when confronting societies out of the American normal range. This book tries to deal with the two impulses in society, the collective and the competitive. I think it's remarkably even-handed for a work by an American as the POV character moves between two planets that emphasize these two poles. Being Le Guin, it's also very well written.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This story follows the life of Shevek, starting as a young man and up through his career as a physicist. He lives on the desert moon Anarres, which orbits his people's homeworld, Urras. Being followers of Odo, an anarchist leader now deceased, his people exiled themselves (?) to the moon to start a utopia; they are the dispossessed. Shevek has big ideas that are of no use in a pre-conceived society and looks for a way to contribute to all people in his square of the universe.The book is more intellectual than spiritual and not a real fun read. Most characters are living in a state of quiet desperation. The utopian situation is interesting, but the people there are very robotic and unquestioning.The Perennial Classics edition I read contained many, many mistakes in spelling and editing. I felt like someone had typed this up in 1974, no one proofread it, and no one has made any corrections since then. It's very annoying to read a book with this many printing errors. This problem was a contributor to my 3 star rating.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Anarres vs. Urras - Ambiguous Walls: “The Dispossessed” by Ursula K. Le Guin Published 1994.


    “There was a wall. It did not look important…But the idea was real…Like all walls it was ambiguous, two-faced. What was inside it and what was outside it depended upon the which side of it you were on”.

    In “The Dispossessed” by Ursula K. Le Guin



    "Call me Shevek. Some years ago, never mind how many, I set out to be the tedious, most hypocritical, unreal character in all of fiction. That I failed is of little consequence. But here, for your records is some of the bare facts of how I failed.

    Manuel, Manuel, Manuel. I don't drink booze? But I got drunk at a party, ejaculated all over a woman's dress (Did Bill Clinton read my tale?) and then promptly threw up. Did you skip some of my story? I am not amused! When I saw I was causing distress on page 75 to those very different to myself, I stopped. Am I not sympathetic? I make jokes. 'You have your anarchist. What are you going to do with him?' and so on...but I won't dwell on the point. ;) And now having read the novel again after about 10 years, I am even fonder of it that I was back then. Chapter 5 is like a distilled version of “The Brothers Karamazov” and the whole is a more serious, thoughtful “Stranger in a Strange Land”.

    So, yes, Manuel, Shevek is quite like me in many ways, but since I've never had a single alcoholic drink in my life, I am even more unreliable as a character!!
    And so this orphan is all alone without even a cardboard character to keep me company. ;)"

    If you're into vintage SF, read the rest of the review on my blog.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Another difficult read from Ms LeGuin. I'm finding many of her books to be entirely too topical and relevant to current events to be comfortable. I keep remembering that the movie "Idiocracy" was supposed to have been a comedy, not a future documentary sent back in time to warn of civilizations imminent downfall. "The Dispossessed" leaves me with the feeling that the author was more prescient than she cared to admit.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I miss beautiful ideas. More specifically, I miss reading a book where, interspersed with an intense and riveting story, are beautiful ideas. Ideas about how the world should work, about the human condition. Ideas to make the soul and brain expand. (and no, I am not talking about unfortunate bloating or swelling. Expanding in the good way.)The thing about beautiful ideas is that you don’t know you are missing them until you come into contact with them again. And mostly they come from places you never expected them to be. In this case the beautiful ideas came disguised as an old, browning paperback with a ridiculous cover.ursulaleguinBut holy bells in hells, if ever there was an argument for NOT judging a book by its cover, it would be The Dispossessed by Ursula Leguin. I have a new love, a new mentor, a new political allegiance now. I am in love with Shevek the phycisist, the man, the anarchist. Or maybe I am in love with Ursula Leguin. Or maybe I am in love with the beautiful ideas in the book. I don’t know.As I would only harm the beautiful ideas by trying to describe them, here will follow a selection of passages I want to memorize. To needlepoint and frame and then fling into the world.On Suffering: “Suffering is a misunderstanding….It exists,”Shevek said, spreading out his hands. “It’s real. I can call it a misunderstanding, but I can’t pretend that it doesn’t exist, or will ever cease to exist. Suffering is the condition on which we live. And when it comes you know it. You know it as the truth. Of course it’s right to cure diseases, to prevent hunger and injustice, as the social organism does. Nut no society can change the nature of existence. We can’t prevent suffering. This pain and that pain, yes, but not Pain. A society can only relieve social suffering, unnecessary suffering. The rest remains. The root, the reality. All of us here are going to know grief; if we live fifty years, we’ll have no pain for fifty years. And in the end we’ll die. That’s the condition we’re born on. I’m afraid of life! There are times I– I am very frightened. Any happiness seems trivial. And yet I wonder if it isn’t all a misunderstanding–this grasping for happiness, this fear of pain…If instead of fearing it and running from it, one could…get through it, go beyond it. There is something beyond it. It’s the self that suffers, and there’s a place where the self–ceases.I don’t know how to say it. But I believe that the reality–the truth that I recognize in suffering as I don’t in comfort and happiness–that the reality of pain is not pain. If you can get through it, if you can endure it all the way.”I think this passage might explain much of the book. Shevek makes a journey out of his world, experiences the pain of misunderstanding, the grief of injustice, the ache of dissatisfaction and comes back.On Education: “They were superbly trained, these students. Their minds were fine, keen, ready. When they weren’t working, they rested. They were not blunted and distracted by a dozen other obligations. They never fell asleep in class because they were tired from having worked on rotational duty the day before. Their society maintained them in complete freedom from want, distractions, and cares. What they were free to do, however, was another question. It appeared to Shevek that their freedom from obligation was in exact proportion to their lack of freedom of initiative.”Wham, bam thank you ma’am. This issue has been on my mind for a while now. Our children have everything they need- the best schools, adequate food, parents who are willing to give up significant portions of their lives to make sure their young get the best grades, get fit, stay safe. And yet, when asked to solve a simple problem where they are not given the exact formula, thy are unable to do so.For example, a student today stood before the printer today. She stood there until I looked up and then she said, “Miss, only one page of my essay was printed.” She didn’t look at the printer. She didn’t go back to see if she had made a mistake in her printing options. She just stood there clutching her first page, looking at me blankly, waiting for me to fix it. (If she had simply looked down at the printer, the yellow flashing light and the wordf “tray empty” would have given her a huge hint).This bothers me.LeGuin continues: “He was appalled by the examination system, when it was explained to him; he could not imagine a greater deterrent to the natural wish to learn than this pattern of cramming in information and disgorging it at demand.”And there we have one of the most succinct, scathing indictments of our modern school system.On Relationships: “An Odonian undertook monogamy just as he might undertake a joint enterprise in production, a ballet or a soap works. Partnership was a voluntarily constituted federation like any other. So long as it worked, it worked and if it didn’t work it stopped being. It was not an institution but a function. It had no sanction but private conscience. This was fully in accord with Odonian social theory. The validity of the promise, even promise of indefinite term, was deep in the grain of Odo’s thinking; though it might seem her insistence on freedom to change would invalidate the idea of promise or vow, in fact the freedom made the promise meaningful. A promise is a direction taken, a self-limitation of choice. As Odo pointed out, if no direction is taken, if one goes nowhere, no change will occur. One’s freedom to choose and to change will be unused, exactly as if one were in jail, a jail of one’s own building, a maze in which no one way is better than any other. So Odo came to see the promise, the pledge, the idea of fidelity, as essential in the complexity of freedom.”This is the first time I have ever read such a clear description of my own view of a monogamous relationship. It moved me. I always considered monogamy a choice, not a biological or societal prerogative. I do not believe in the concept of the soul mate- I find it very narrow-minded and ultimately harmful (not to mention the fodder of asinine twilight-esque romance novels) What I do believe is that you can build a life with someone, a life that is more productive, more meaningful by being with that person. The rules of fidelity or non-fidelity should howver only be the business of the couple. Society has no right to tell us who or how we should be with people. Besides “the idea of fidelity as essential in the complexity of freedom”? Isn’t that one of the most beautiful thoughts you ever did hear?And these are just a few of the moments in the book that made me think of how my world is structured and what my role is in it. What is choice? What is freedom? Jealousy? Longing?Besides being chock full of beautiful, thought-provoking ideas, Ms. LeGuin also writes a mean story. Some of her scenes are so visceral I physically cringed, felt the claw of horror and grief clutch at my heart. Two in particular stand out for me- one when Shevek is young and they are playing a pretend game of jail. Jail is a foreign concept to them as they live in an anarchist society that has no police, no law enforcement, no law. It is a harrowing scene where these innocents get a taste for power over another. So simple and beautifully done, it was a gut-wrenching demonstration of that old adage, power corrupts.The other scene is when Shevek is on the mother planet, the planet where his group of anarchists left a couple of hundred years ago. He has not realised until now that he has been living in a guilded cage. He escapes one night to visit a woman he met with a fellow professor. She has a party, and he drinks alcohol for the first time. His drunkenness and sense of desolation contribute to a sequence of humiliating events.I won’t tell you what happens -nothing and everything, really. Suffice it to say, if I could ever write a scene like that, I would die happy.In short, my first foray into classic science-fiction (brought on by my reading of Jo Walton’s Among Others) was a resounding success. I now want to go purchase all of Ms. Leguin’s books. The idea of laying them out on an altar beside her picture has crossed my mind, but that would be distinctly un-Odonian. I will content myself with simply reading the books I have in the library, at least for now…
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazingly thoughtful, emotional and literate science fiction. An excellent read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Recently, I've read a number of books written by Ursula LeGuin. This after having somehow avoided her for the last forty years, largely as a result of her Earthsea cycle. I've come to enjoy her science fiction with an anthropological slant, best represetned by The Left Hand of Darkness and her Hainish tales. This novel takes it a liitle further, adding a very philosophical political commentary to the sociological layer of the story.Our backdrop is the Tau Ceti system, and more particularly the inhabited planets of Anvarres and Urras. Urras is the cradle of Cetian civilization and is composed of several different nation states, the two most prominent being A-Io and Thu; the former, a free market capitalist state (think United States) and the latter an authoritarian Communist state (think U.S.S.R.). It would seem that 200 years in the past, the underclass of A-Io revolted under the leadership of an anarchist/libertarian by the name of Odo. The Odoists were gathered up and settled on the stark, barely survivable moon, Anvarres. There, they built their ideal anarchist society, with no concept of ownership or personal entitlement. Pronouns such as "my" and "mine" were not even part of their language. The worst insult from an Anvarren would be to term someone an "egoist" or "profiteer". Their motto: "No one starves while others eat." Though plenty starved. The two planets are almost completely isolated from one another.Our protagonist is an Anvarren physisist, Shevek. Shevek cannot fully explore his ground breaking theories (involving instantaeous space travel, Simulaneity) on Anvarres and is invited to study and publish in A-Io, an unprecedented turn of events. It is Shevek's journey to A-Io, his observations and the interactions between the several competing political systems that make up this novel. There is a second thread which describes the lead up to Shevek's journey, in which we learn more of the Anvarren, anarcho-socialist civilization, and its far from ideal operation.This novel becomes somewhat weighted with political discourse and even theoretical physics, sometimes to the detriment of the underlying story. However, by and large, it is a fair treatment of the various political systems, their strengths and weaknesses. We see two alien races interacting with the Cetians, the Terrans and the Hainish. For those familiar with the Hainish tales of LeGuin, we discover the source of the ansible, a communications device allowing instantaneous communication throughout space. The story is similar in style to Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress in its socio-political overtones, but not as dense as some of Philip Dick's or Frank Herbert's work. Bottom line: A worthwhile and enjoyable read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a subtle exploration of how the individual operates in various political contexts, how disillusionment sets in, and how hard it is to adapt to new surroundings and systems. It is one of the best Sci-Fi novels I’ve read in a long time.