The Dispossessed

I recently increased my LeGuin collection. It was utter bliss to do so. I bought several books I've read but wanted for myself, and I bought a few that I haven't read and have been thoroughly enjoying. I'll be talking about one of those I hadn't read today.

It's called "The Dispossessed." Stated shortly, it's about a 100-something year-old anarchic settlement on a virgin world, Anarres, in a galaxy alien to ours. The story circles around a physicist (don't run away screaming now, it's still fiction) raised in this society in which 'money' and 'possession' don't exist. Mutual sharing, human solidarity play a major role here. Shevek, our physicist, spends a long time thinking he doesn't belong in this society, and that mental struggle also plays a major role in the story.

Cover of the copy I have.

But what really makes me fall in love all over again with this author is how she creates this experiment; had I not know the author of this book I still would've been able to identify her, even though the words she uses is different from the ones she uses in the Earthsea cycle. In any case, "The Dispossessed" is indeed a thought experiment, an exploration of how intelligent beings could interact if the concept of 'possession' were eliminated, the idea of 'profit.'

LeGuin is honest about it; the no-authority, absolute freedom ideal in Anarres is at risk at the time of the story as social authority develop, though not incredible risk, seeing as the very nature of citizens like Shevek uphold the ideals, and allow them to flourish after years in this anarchic system. There are characters that tend to collect things that rightfully belong to the community, characters that complain constantly about work, about cut rations during famine.... In any honest story those characters are there, and they are certainly no exempt from this story. However, the ideals the community has are sound: there is absolute freedom, and anybody testing or exerting that freedom becomes aware that absolute freedom also means that risk is involved: fights may occur, you may get hurt or shunned. But it's the freedom of the individual to do as he wishes, as long as he understand what is sure to follow, and really, even if he doesn't understand.

The image of 'coming with empty hands' is present all the time. Shevek thinks about bringing things home to his family, pictures and the like, but as he claims nothing, he takes nothing, is tied down by nothing. He lives his experiences, tells about them, but doesn't carry around the physical baggage; it's part of his upbringing. In the hands of LeGuin, the idea of 'coming with empty hands' is transformed in a way hard to put in words; it's not that he's not giving anything, the contrary he's offering it all, all that is within his ability. It moves the value from 'things' one can covet, to what unburdened hands have to offer, what empty hands have to offer.

I suppose I'm enchanted with this book because it gives expressions, a story, to the belief that anarchy is the best 'governmental' system human beings can follow. I've never been able to justify why I'm so certain that this is true. "The Dispossessed" puts in words why this is true, and does it realistically, containing all the usual spectrum of human beings, not only the goody-all-giving Mother Teresas. It's honest about what it says, leaving the ending open, full of possibilities for humanity, not condemning humanity to either follow Anarres or not. It just presents one way of living, but doesn't demand anybody to follow it or else yadayada hell and everything.