The Dispossessed

I found this book (whose subtitle is “An Ambiguous Utopia”) one of the most thought-provoking works of fiction I have read.

The Dispossessed was my first introduction to anarchism as a political platform, and while it didn’t make an anarchist out of me, it was the book that allowed me to imagine anarchism as a coherent political philosophy. Practically every page of the book offers a critique of modern capitalism, and it’s impossible to read this book without considering the structures in our world today that ensure a system of haves and have-nots.

This book lives on in my mind as if it’s my own memory.

LeGuin’s anarcho-syndicalist utopia Annares is a convincing, very different kind of society, one without possessions, and based on cooperation. In some ways, it is reminiscent of my native Norway, for example, in how issues of ungenerous conventionality and conformism war with higher ideals.

This book has a coolness to it, and the main character, Shevek, who travels to another planet in the hopes of finding a connection and pursuing science, experiences profound loneliness.

It is the best kind of science fiction. It addresses something unsayable that yet… show more.

This is the grandmother of all great utopian fiction, my favorite science-fiction novel by my favorite science-fiction author, and the number-one source of inspiration for my book.

The novel opens on a moon (not ours) where a utopian anarchist society has long existed, but is now under threat from a host of antagonists on the mother planet. The novel is masterful because it is both enormous in scope (covering entire economies and political structures) but also extremely intimate (following one man, one relationship, one family).

The novel does not have to do with the climate crisis, or Earth, but I’m… show more.

The classic study of the balance between written and unwritten rules, Le Guin’s story of two societies – one full of written rules, but with extreme freedoms, and one with no written rules, but full of carefully enforced social norms – is both a thrilling and thought-provoking read. It speaks to the underlying humanness of our social milieu.

49 years after The Dispossessed was first published, the internet is full of user reviews written by people who claim that it changed their lives, enthralled them, made them true believers, made them want to move to the moon. I, too, am one of these people.

The Dispossessed is a book about anarchists on the moon. It divides the 20th-century ideological standoff over whether modern life should be governed by competitive (capitalist, hierarchical) or cooperative (socialist, egalitarian) logics with an expanse of interplanetary space.

An anarchist physicist named Shevek (modeled after J. Robert Oppenheimer) travels between the two planets –… show more.

Ursula Le Guin is a league of her own.

The Dispossessed is an anarchist utopian science fiction novel, a masterpiece, and part of the seven Hainish Cycle books.

The Dispossessed compares the life on two twin planets, one capitalist and patriarchic, one anarcho-syndicalist.

If you know little about the theoretical background of anarchy, here’s an easy way to pick it up! Le Guin labelled the book an “Ambiguous Utopia” – one of her strengths lies in making you think and to contemplate the deeper implications of her stories.

If you are out for more intellectual fun, visit the ambisexual people… show more.

The clue’s in the title of this one: in Le Guin’s high-concept future (set on the moon of Anarres, though it’s effectively a stand-in for what Earth could one day be like), human beings are…free. Free from materialism, the wage system, resource hoarding, political one-upmanship, rampant industrialism and all those fantastically capitalist things that have turned our planet into a dystopian factory. The anarcho-syndicalism of Anarres may not appeal to everyone’s tastes, but The Dispossessed offers a fascinating look at how a society that puts the collective ahead of personal desires could work in practice.

Yes, another social thought experiment by Ursula K. Le Guin! This one examines what a "utopian" society that attempts to live according to the philosophy of anarchism might look like. But trying to organize an anarchistic society is, of course, a contradiction in itself. The plot follows the physicist Shevek as he tries to reunite the moon, Anarres, home of the anarchist rebels, with its mother planet, Urras. The novel challenges many different common assumptions, ranging from the political to the personal, in its portrayal of two deeply flawed societies, neither of which can be seen as "the good guys."

When I was taking a literature course my freshman year at Virginia Tech, we were assigned to read The Dispossessed. My professor had us read the Tao Te Ching at the same time so we could see how Taoist principles were expressed in the book. We also looked at how the fundamentals of anarchism and quantum physics were a part of the story. With an incredibly rich world layered with unique characters, The Dispossessed really sucked me in, but it was especially meaningful to me because it was the first time that I experienced a book written by a… show more.

I have loved and reread this award-winning book for decades. And it’s only one of many I love by Le Guin. I appreciate its combination of futuristic fantasy and social relevance, written colorfully and sympathetically. This one feels especially topical to me because nowadays most of our Earth’s wealth has been siphoned into the hands of the super-wealthy. Not only wealthy but self-absorbed, just like the characters in this novel. Everyone else is dispossessed. So, what’s an entire little marginalized planet to do? She has some interesting ideas, which I loved for their daring and originality. 

I also treasure the… show more.