Throughout my reading of The Dispossessed, I feel that it came more abundantly clear that the novel was revolving its ideas of utopia and societal critique around a transparent comparison to the Cold War. I do think that Le Guin’s novel provides an incredible social critique of society and government systems from the time period of the Cold War, and follows Suvin’s idea of cognitive estrangement through Shevek’s research. The states of Urras, A-lo, and Thu, go further to complete a realistic parallel of the Cold War as they are described as being two ideological different states with dissent harboring along the borders that resulted in a revolution in Benbili and a proxy war. A-lo is portrayed as a state with a capitalist economy and a patriarchal system, while Thu is described as having an authoritarian system that rules in the name of the proletariat. I feel that the parallels created in Urras to the real Cold War are nothing but obvious and stands as an example of Soviet Realism. Anarres, on the other hand, is framed as an ideal socialist/anarchist utopia, which is seen as a country of salvation by the lower classes of society and those who follow the ideology of Odo. However, the reality of what happens on Anarres is far from the ideal utopia that most might think about when defining utopia in SF. Since Anarres was founded by an anarchist rebel group from Urras, they do not have any government system, and the entire country is defined by extreme collectivism that allows no one to have property. Instead, there seems to be a small collective of individuals that manipulate the society of Anarres to benefit themselves and enforce their extreme ideas of collectivism.
Comparing Anarres to Urras, however, Urras would not be a conception of an “ideal” utopia either. The people of Urras seem to live in a paradise-like capitalist country, but the country has a dark side that not all of its citizens accept. The country is divided by an immense gap between the upper-class Urrasti who enjoy lives of wealth and privilege, and the lower-class Urrasti who attempt to rebel against the government of Urras. If Urras was an ideal utopia, then why would the people want to leave and rebel? The people of Anarres have nothing and the people of Urras have everything, but they are both still not utopias.
Shevek, as a protagonist, is interesting in the fact that he does not feel that he belongs to his home country of Anarres or the country of Urras, but instead, he feels “alone, here, because he came from a self-exiled society. He had always been alone on his own world because he had exiled himself from his society” (Le Guin 89). Shevek’s main goal in the novel is to somehow find a common middle ground of understanding between Anarres and Urras to reduce the gap between the two planets. In order to do this, Shevek decides to continue his research on temporal theory on Urras. However, Shevek has witnessed both Urrasti and Anarresti societies and he cannot truly accept the ideologies and values of either planet. Through his experiences and research, Shevek is able to expose the weaknesses of both societies, which I think further adds to Le Guin’s conception of utopia. The temporal theory does not seem like the type of science or even field of study that would help to bridge a gap between two drastically different ideological countries. Shevek, through his research, even becomes more fully aware of the conditions of both planets when they both attempt to steal his research since they believe him to be suspicious. Instead, Shevek’s research seems to me like a type of cognitive estrangement written into the novel by Le Guin. Under the guise of scientific study, I feel that there is a connection of cognitive estrangement between the parallels of the reality of the societies in the Cold War and Shevek’s temporal theory, and even between the Cold War and Utopia. Physics provides a base for modern science and the explanations and writings of Le Guin provide for the imaginative framework of the environment.
In this case, what is a utopia? Is there such a thing as a utopia? I think that Le Guin uses Anarres and Urras to pose this question perfectly. I personally believe that a “utopia” cannot exist, it is part of the nature of humans to want to be superior to one another. The Cold War is a great example of this because the United States and the Soviet Union were fighting with each other to show who had the superior ideology. If a utopia presents everyone in society as an equal and everyone has the same moral standing, then no one can be superior to someone else, and that goes against human nature. A utopia can only exist if it is realistically possible, and nothing can be realistically possible if it defies human nature.
Works Cited:
- Le Guin, Ursula K. The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia. [1st ed.]. New York: Harper & Row, 1974.