Book Review: The Dispossessed

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. le Guin

Some people may be put off about reading a science fiction novel, but
there are many books within this genre that are well worth reading -
The Dispossessed is one. Having said that, however, I can't say that
it's a great novel, but I do believe it is worth reading. Why?

Fist a little synopsis. The subtitle (or additional title?) is "An
Ambiguous Utopia." The ambiguous utopia is a world to which
anarchists have moved in order to live on their own apart from a
world much like our own. What makes the story most interesting is how
people might come to think, relate, live - that is, in a manner
totally different than that which we are accustomed to. The ideas of
community, sharing, non-violence are encouraged from birth and are
completely natural, especially given the fact that many generations
have now lived on this world. Such behavior is considered the norm,
and to act otherwise is foreign. Ursula le Guin obviously put a lot
of thought and work into keeping her characters in anarchist character.

But what makes the novel even more compelling is the fact that this
anarchist society is not a utopia. There are problems, nonetheless.
And not just personal problems of the heros, but ones for the society
as a whole. A central issue to the novel deals with a level of peer
pressure and conformity, which have arisen within this society and
the attempts by a small group to break out of that conformity.

I read somewhere that le Guin specifically chose anarchism for this
society as she believes that an anarchist society would best reflect
a true, just, free society - a truly human society. She contrasts it
to a socialist society, which in the novel she characterizes as a
communal police state of sorts. However, I would contend that both
anarchism and communism (socialism being a precursor to communism)
strive toward the development of the same society. Where they
contrast is in how to get there. Therefore the socialist societies
she describes are not socialist, but state capitalist. But I detract
from the novel.

The novel was pointed out to me by a friend/comrade as I was
interested in the problems that would exist in a future communist
society. This interest arose from reading Class Theory and History by
Stephen A. Resnick and Richard D. Wolff, which is subtitled,
Capitalism and Communism in the USSR (a future review of this book
will be provided when I finish it). In this book the authors brush
upon the potential problems that may exist in a future communist
society. In fact they even speculate that there is no reason to think
that communism would be the final political, economic, social
structure. That the dialectics of a communist society could lead to
the development of yet another society. Who knows? It is important to
note that Marxists and Anarchists never presuppose what a future
society will be like, but merely suggest possible and probable
pictures of how society could be organized. The people will have to
decide how to organize any future society. Anything else is utopian.

But again I detract from the novel. However, I wanted to provide a
reason for finding this novel of interest. That reason is that The
Dispossessed provides a picture into a social structure that
otherwise appears valid, and most important is not an entirely
utopian one. It is not utopian because there are nonetheless problems
within the society that require that the revolution never end - a
permanent revolution, as Trotsky might say.

If your not convinced that this novel is for you, I would encourage
you to at least pick up the novel, try reading a couple of chapters.
I look forward to hearing why you finished the novel.