There’s “No Place” Like a “Good Place”

There’s “No Place” Like a “Good Place”:
Ursula K. Le Guin’s Creation of a Realistic Eu-Topia
         
         Utopian fiction takes readers to new worlds and introduces them to new ways of living. Underneath however, utopian fiction is revolutionary and holds up a mirror that reflects the current society, showing either the current conditions of the real world, the potential future of the real world, or both. In the 19th and 20th Centuries, works of feminist utopian fiction showed both, exposing the real, highly patriarchal world and its very real problems, but also showing an alternative feminist world without the burdens of the patriarchy.

         Ursala K. Le Guin's novel The Dispossessed does fit into the feminist utopian mold; it portrays the world of Anarres, a feminist utopia founded by Odonians, followers of the anarchist Odo.  On Anarres, the inhabitants all share completely equal status, share equally in the upkeep of the planet and in the benefits provided, and speak an invented, non-sexist language.  The book contrasts Anarres with the patriarchal and exploitative planet Urras. However, Le Guin correctly calls Anarres an ambiguous utopia, as it is not completely free of the burden of patriarchy. The feminist utopian vision that Le Guin presents is undermined by a centuries' old patriarchal legacy, as represented by the thoughts of the novel's main character Shevek, the stereotypically patriarchal descriptions of principle female characters, and the creation of a feminist society that shows stereotypically feminine traits. 

         By constructing a world that espouses gender equality, but still suffers under the weight of the ideology of patriarchy, Le Guin accomplishes two distinct goals: She exposes patriarchy as a pervasive dogma that cannot simply be left behind and forgotten, but must be vigilantly fought against, even after escape.  On the other hand, Le Guin also manages to give her readers a viable alternative; a world where perfection does not exist, progress is achieved slowly and with sacrifice, and continual revolution is needed to stave off the reemergence of old ideologies.           

         Shevek, who is a devout Odonian even as he rebels against the non-Odonian infrastructure that develops on Annares, has no problem seeing women as intellectually equal, and certainly equal in the question of the rights and responsibilities of his planet.  Shevek's first physics teacher Mitis, a woman thirty-five years older than him, is described as having the best mind among the physicists at the regional institute where Shevek first studies. (Le Guin 56)  Shevek praises his next mentor Gvarab as "the greatest cosmologist who had ever worked at the Institute" in Abbenay. (Le Guin 161)  Mitis and Gvarab, who are both much older than Shevek, are not described in overly sentimental terms, despite Shevek's apparent affection for both, and are shown to be equal to or superior to their male counterparts. 

         On the other hand, when sex enters the picture Shevek begins to see women through patriarchal lenses.  Shevek sees Beshun, with whom he has his first adult sexual relationship, as too sentimental. (Le Guin 53)  She is also described as emotional and possessive: 
                   Beshun had cried herself sick when he got posted back to
                          Northwest, had raged and wept and tried to make him tell her
                          he couldn't live without her and insisted she couldn't live without
                          him and they must be partners.  Partners, as if she could have
                          stayed with any one man for half a year! (Le Guin 53) 
The last sentence even carries a patriarchal judgment on Beshun, implying that she is promiscuous, which is not an adjective that would exist on Anarres. 

         Additionally, Shevek even sees his partner Takver (there are no
"husbands" or "wives" on Annares) as hot tempered and passionate. (Le Guin 184-185)  Over time Shevek will even equate Takver with their children, as someone that he needs to protect and shield from the world instead of as an equal who can face danger with him as a partner. (Le Guin 375).  Shevek’s two opposing views of the important women in his life reflect the two opposing principles that are competing in The Dispossessed.  While Shevek is a believer in Odonian theory, and thus a believer in feminist principles, he cannot escape the patriarchal impulse to create a duality between women he has sex with and those who he shares strictly intellectual relationships.  According to Carol Pearson, “duality and the essential conflict between opposites characteristically is seen as the failure of patriarchy.” (57)

         While Shevek may at times see through a patriarchal cloud, it is Le Guin herself that gives stereotypical traits to her principle female characters.  By developing female characters that fit to certain patriarchal constructs, Le Guin is showing that Anarres cannot immediately and decisively cut itself off from Urras and its patriarchal legacy.  In the novel, Le Guin uses representations of two patriarchal villains - the temptress and the absent mother - and one patriarchal heroine - the good and faithful wife.  Vea, who lives on the patriarchal Urras, where "women are confined to their traditional roles as mothers and sexual objects," clearly represents the temptress. (Klarer 8)  Her name is even an anagram of the most famous temptress of all, Eve. Shevek is both attracted to and repulsed by Vea. Typically, men are privately attracted to so-called temptresses even while publicly shunning them. 

         Furthermore, Vea can be seen as a symbol of everything that is wrong with Urras. It is highly patriarchal, excessive, and exploitive. Vea is both a symbol and victim of that world. She and all Urrasti women are possessions more than people.  "She was so elaborately and ostentatiously a female body that seemed scarcely to be a human being." (Le Guin 213). Moreover, Vea is a "body profiteer" and she uses her "sexuality as a weapon in a power struggle with men." (Le Guin 213)  Shevek sees Vea as a slave or prisoner that wants to hurt her captors: "you think only of tricking the owners,  of getting revenge--" (Le Guin 215)

         Although Vea is an intelligent woman, she deftly plays her patriarchal role of the helpless, demure, and dim girl.  While out with Shevek she makes it clear that he is in charge of what she does and that it is his responsibility to pay for her.  Vea is so convincing in her role as a subordinate and a dependent that Shevek begins to wonder if she is one of those prostitutes that he had read about. (Le Guin 217)  Vea even allows one of the men at her party to "dismiss her from the realms of higher thought," even acting "quite relieved to be put in her place." (Le Guin 224)  As fitting with Urrasti expectations, Vea is at once both enticing and innocent.  This contradictory behavior proves to be overwhelming to Shevek, especially after consuming alcohol, who does not have anything to relate the patriarchal "tease" on Anarres.

         Moreover, Le Guin uses Vea, a female, as the symbol of Urras.  Perhaps this choice is meant to reflect the patriarchal myth that women, beginning with Eve, are responsible for all that is wrong with the world.  Le Guin certainly could be using Vea to represent patriarchal women who resist and even combat feminist thought. However; except for the memory of Odo, who does not make it to Anarres, Le Guin does not provide an opposing symbol of a truly feminist woman, as both Takver and Rulag also display traditionally patriarchal traits.

         Whereas Vea seems to be deliberately stereotypical, with her name implying a conscious decision on Le Guin's part to make her fit the Eve/temptress template, on the surface neither Takver nor Rulag seem to fit into a female stereotype. Rulag is a top engineer, more talented than her husband is, and she puts herself and her society ahead of her family.  However, Le Guin lingers on Rulag's and Shevek's relationship even while developing a world that de-emphasizes parental relationships.  Shevek's pain at the loss of his mother certainly calls to the importance of biological ties in a parent/child relationship - Shevek "feels that he lost something essential" when Rulag left.  (Le Guin 364). 

         However, the attention paid to Shevek's and Rulag's broken relationship also brings attention to the lingering effects of making motherhood a patriarchal institution.  Rulag is punished by Shevek for her decision to leave him, as he rejects her when she visits him.  In return she punishes him, although why is not quite clear.  Guilt is the theory expressed by Bedap.  (Le Guin 364)  In order to alleviate her own guilt, Rulag turns Shevek into a source of anger and hatred, placing guilt on him.  “If there is violence, you will have caused it.” (Le Guin 358)

         Though Rulag is negative character, Takver remains a positive character throughout the novel, but what of her traditional, and perhaps stereotypical, role of self-sacrificing “wife?” It is Takver that stays “home,” while Shevek goes to Urras. Certainly Takver works, as all Odonians do, but equal employment does not equal gender equality if women are still expected to take care of all domestic tasks as well. Moreover, Takver's jobs, either as a fish geneticist or in a hospital, are still tied to stereotypically female roles, such as breeding and nurturing, as are most jobs that are typically acceptable for women within a patriarchal society. 

         According to Mario Klarer, “Takver evidences 'ecofeminism,' or the close association of the feminine and nature.” (9) However, Klarer also points out that Takver “'saw time naively.'” (9 italics added) Shevek sees Takver as a soul “whose umbilicus has never been cut. . . . never got weaned from the universe.” (Le Guin 185)  Takver even describes herself  in patriarchal terms.  She calls herself sentimental. (Le Guin 326)  She also says that “pregnant women have no ethics.” (Le Guin 331)  Takver’s role as mother even begins to overtake her own self.  “Takvar was somewhat overabsorbed in the child, for want of other intimacies, and her strong common sense was obscured by maternal ambitions and anxieties.”  (Le Guin 325)

         Vea, Rulag, and Takver all play roles that in their own way reinforce patriarchal ideology.  Vea is the “despised” temptress who is absolutely necessary for patriarchal propaganda.  Rulag and Takver play opposing roles, the absent mother and the sacrificing mother.  As Rulag is portrayed negatively and Takver is portrayed positively, the patriarchal message is that motherhood should be top priority of women.  Le Guin uses these characters to emphasize the power of patriarchy and to show the stranglehold that it has in even a world that is trying to break free from that ideology. 

         The hold that patriarchy still has on Anarres is so strong that even Anarres itself, as a “feminine” world, is not safe from patriarchal stereotypes. “Although the life-style of this planet features a number of stereotypically “feminine” traits, these are never overtly praised by Le Guin, who remains quite critical.” (Klarer 8) It is the “feminine” Odonians that are labeled as irrational, rejecting Shevek's theory of simultaneity and any contact with Urras, while the rational, patriarchal worlds immediately react positively to Shevek. “The Urrasti had been more eager to talk, to exchange information, than they had expected,” while “the opposition on Anarres had been more virulent than expected.” (Le Guin 354)

         The Odonians even begin to act more out of emotion than reason when dealing with Shevek. “Interruptions were sometimes more frequent than statements. The process, compared to a well-mannered executive conference, was a slab of raw beef compared to a winning diagram.” (Le Guin 352). Le Guin negatively contrasts the process of Odonian debate with a typically male executive conference, equating the Odonian process with nature while tying the executive conference to rational design. He is threatened with violence and is even threatened with expulsion from the planet. Le Guin portrays Anarres as the feminist utopia, but also gives the people of that Utopia stereotypically patriarchal female traits.

         While Le Guin creates a world that believes in feminism and even speaks a feminist language, she is very aware of the fact that she is writing in and for a patriarchal society and that she is writing in a patriarchal language. 
                   Whether we realize it or not, whenever we read Anarresti
                          dialogue . . . we are really reading a translation from Pravic.
                          Phrases like 'Don't Egoize' and 'she was a body profiteer' are thus
                          not just instances of awkward English, but imperfect renderings
                          of concepts better expressed in another, currently nonexistent
                          language. (Anderson 3)
Just as patriarchal language hinders feminist thought, Vea, Rulag, and Anarres itself all serve to hinder Shevek's, the heroic male's, journey. Rulag and the other Odonians simply try to prevent Shevek from leaving Anarres, using the threat of both violent retaliation and banishment from his home. Vea continues her role as temptress, but as a kind of siren, bent on distracting Shevek from his noble work.

         Utopian fiction “is inherently revolutionary” and “feminist theory is inherently utopian.” (Mellor 242-243)  However, Karl Marx insisted “that any utopian depiction of an alternative society is merely abstract or ’sentimental’ unless it tells us how to get there.” (Mellor 249)  Le Guin's goal was not to create a fantastical utopia that eliminated the influence of the real world or of the past, but to create a realistic "eu-topia" that, while good, was not perfect.  With Anarres, Le Guin creates a world that lived under the legacy of  patriarchal ideology and recognized the inherent problems that come with creating and breaking biological ties.  Le Guin wants to make clear that thousands of years of ideology do not just go away even if people go away from the source.  One of Le Guin's messages is that no matter what steps Anarres may have taken to rid itself of ideologies, such as patriarchy or nationalism, unless steps are continually being taken to reject what has already been rejected, those ideologies will creep back in to the collective consciousness.

         In The Dispossessed Le Guin creates an alternative feminist utopia to the patriarchal world of Urras, which is a stand-in for our own Earth.  However, Le Guin goes beyond creating a critical mirror to create a text that both critiques patriarchy, while exposing its enormity, and presents a viable feminist society that can exist in spite of patriarchal burdens.


Bibliography

Anderson, Kristine J. “Places Where a Woman Could Talk: Ursula K. Le Guin and the Feminist Utopia,” Women and Language. Urbana: Spring 1992. Vol. 15, Iss. 1; pg. 7


Klarer, Mario, “Gender and the ‘Simultaneity Principle’: Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed,” Mosaic, Vol. 25, No. 2, Spring, 1992, pp. 107-21


Le Guin, Ursala K. The Dispossessed. New York: HarperCollins, 1974.


Mellor, Anne K. “On Feminist Utopias,” Women’s Studies, Vol. 9, 1982, pp. 241-262


Pearson, Carol, “Women’s Fantasies and Feminist Utopias,” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Vol. 2, No. 3, Autumn, 1977, pp. 50-61