Thursday, January 18, 2018
Joshua Cabebe- Wave 1 Responder
I think Genley Ai's struggle to see Gethenians as they see themselves is a situation comparable to transferring to a new school. I have personal experience as I went into Valley Christian a predominantly super occupied white school. It was easy to spot the short Filipino boy. Like I said, this is comparable to Mr. Ai's mission as he is used to certain aspects one obviously being a single gender rather than a sexless species. Since he is a human there are other features that make him very distinctive from the Gethenian world like for one he is noticeably taller(Page 8). He comes from a world like ours where we have certain views because of our gender based society. It also reveals how judgemental people can be looking at different people. He is used to seeing people have a certain gender and other traditions like perhaps the music that he mentions is "discordant"(Page 4). We are already introduced to him while he is 2 years into his mission. He's been there 2 years already and still he struggles to observe the Gethenian lifestyle. There are many little things that he tries very hard to see, like determining if they are a he or a she. However, he can't do that because they are gender less. Someone could be feminine but display other traits of masculinity. If there is anything that he might be along the line with is the planet's form of love, kemmer. He actually gets a little whipped when he meets the weaver, Faxe(Page 58).
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I like how you compared Genley's struggle to not being able to fit in yourself! From reading Genley's struggle, he stated " I craved to be like everybody else." (8) But if you think about it, isn't that ironic? If he wanted to fit in, maybe he should have accepted that the Gethenian world is different than his, and stop questioning their differences. He is constantly trying to see if a person has female or male characteristics, so this is why he is not able to fit in.
ReplyDeleteJoshua you’re right. Genley struggles to see himself as one of the gethenians as he’s not used to their lifestyle as genderless human beings. Also, it’s been two years as you said that he’s been on this planet and he can’t fit himself in. That’s crazy if you ask me. However, I understand where Genley comes from as people can easily spot him from a difference which causes attention that Genley surely doesn’t want to have. I hope Genley someday will just appear how the Genthenians live and not judge them by their personality and lifestyle
ReplyDeleteI think that Genly's struggles are emphasized by the fact that he has been in Gethen for years now and is still not accepted by society, nor has he accepted Gethenian norms. However, I feel like the closer Genly gets to Estraven, the more he is starts to open up to the Gethenian lifestyle. If there's one character that has the potential to teach Genly how to live normally in Gethen, it's definitely Estraven. I also like how you compared Genly's sense of loneliness to yourself when you went to a different high school and didn't necessarily fit the Valley Christian norm.
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