[Review] The Dispossessed (Ursula K. Le Guin)
july 21 2023
The Dispossessed is another one of Le Guin's most famous books, being even more well known than The Left Hand of Darkness. Fun fact: with this book, Le Guin became the first author to win both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award for the same book... twice. She would go on to win six Nebulas and eight Hugos throughout her life! Anyways, I've been wanting to read The Dispossessed for years but couldn't find a cheap copy, and I try not to buy books before I'm sure I really like them (I'm cheap and hate buying things. Plus, books are expensive!). My university library finally got a copy back in March, and I absolutely devoured this book. I meant to write a review much sooner, but life got in the way. Make no mistake, though— The Dispossessed is genuinely one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking books I've read in my life, and I highly recommend it.
This novel follows the protagonist Shevek, a physicist studying temporal theory on the planet of Anarres. Anarres is an anarchist-communist nation made up of political refugees from the much larger planet nearby, Urras, which is severely hyper-capitalistic and oppressively patriarchal. Annarres is a fascinating planet with an insanely well developed culture, and Le Guin puts a lot of loving time and care into tearing down our society and building a new one from the ground up. She imagines a totally different world, and what it would take to build that world. The first Annarresti even had a computer generate a new language for them, because they knew that capitalism and ideas of possession are baked into our very language (for example, their new language has no possessive pronouns like "mine").
Shevek struggles with feeling like he truly belongs on Anarres, as he's naturally a bit of a loner and Annarresti society is heavily based around community and collectivism. He throws himself into his work and research, but is blocked by a superior who hates him and takes credit for his work. His other superiors aren't much better, considering his work goes against established theory, and thus is seen as "rebellious." Shevek eventually starts to build a fulfilling life for himself and starts a family, but is interrupted by a serious drought. He spends four years away from his family, doing hard labor and simply trying to survive. After the drought, Shevek is invited to Urras after winning an award there for his research. Shevek, frustrated with the constraints of his society, goes to Urras hoping things will be better, or at least different. The rest of the novel is about his struggles on Urras and his journey to return home.
It felt like this book could have gone bad so easily, with it feeling like preachy anti-communist propaganda where Annarres sucks and Shevek ends up loving Urras. But the book resolutely stays away from any sort of anti-communist sentiments, and is surprisingly positive about total anarchism for a book from the 1970s. Anarres isn't perfect, and the novel revolves around its many problems. Le Guin takes great pains to hammer home that there is no perfect society, and society must be rebuilt everyday. But Anarres is ultimately Shevek's home and the better/more attractive of the two societies. Urras is like a piece of costume jewelry— flashy, and a novelty, but ultimately fake and with no lasting impact.
The Dispossessed is one of the few true utopias, as opposed to a dystopia disguised as a utopia. I love a good dystopia (Brave New World remains one of my favorite novels), but I think writing a truly utopian society is much harder and much more impressive when it's pulled off well. I think Le Guin pulls it off amazingly, although I do regret that she was never able to include those communal pickle barrels. Truly a massive oversight. I think The Left Hand of Darkness is still my favorite Le Guin book, but that's mostly personal preference.