Ansible
Every great science fiction story needs an amazing futuristic gadget. Star Wars has the light saber, Back to the Future 2 has the hoverboard, and Stargate has, um, the Stargate. The Left Hand of Da...
Shadows
Shadows are an important image in The Left Hand of Darkness, so keep your eyes open for when they show up. In our society, we tend to think in terms of light and dark. Light is good; dark, not so m...
Handdara and Yomeshta Religions
There are two major religions on Gethen. Karhide has Handdara while Orogreyn has Yomeshta. Each roughly corresponds to a major Earth religion.A Wise Man Once SaidHanddara represents a Tao or Zen ty...
Androgyny
Brace yourself. Psycho-talk inbound in 3…2…1…. Go.We Are JungLe Guin is a huge fan of this guy named Carl Jung (pronounced "young" since he's German and all). Jung is a famous psychologist wh...
Keystone
First things first: a keystone is a wedge-shaped stone that distributes the forces of an arch to make it stay in place. (You can thank the Romans for that.) So, no keystone, no arch. We bet you're...