#anarchisim

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Year Published: 1974

Country: United States

A common line of logic in America (and other countries) is that anarchy cannot work. It would be too chaotic for anyone to get anything done or would devolve into something resembling the dictatorial impulses of communism. Would it, though? One of the few novels to simultaneously win science fiction’s two highest literary awards in the same year (the Hugo and Nebula Awards), The Dispossessed is a novel that finds a master at the height of her powers. Later printings would give the novel a subtitle, “an ambiguous utopia” and it’s a very fitting one as Le Guin creates a world that explores not only anarchism but the benefits and drawbacks of individualism and collectivism, and the impossibility of maintaining a revolutionary society.

The main plot revolves around a physicist named Shevek, born and raised on a satellite planet of Anarres. It is a society based on the principles of collective anarchism. People’s needs are looked after by the whole society but there is no obligation to stay in one job for any length of time. However, this means that sometimes people put society’s needs before their own. Shevek begins to pursue a theory about time that could potentially lead to instantaneous interstellar communication. However, in order to do this, he needs to go to the planet his ancestors fled - a very Earth-like Urras. As he struggles to not become the tool of competing ideologies on Urras and comes to grips with the idea, perhaps, there is no such thing as a utopia.

A lot of literary criticism is focused on Le Guin’s worldbuilding, and rightfully so. The world of Anarres is masterful and complete. It is strange without being unfamiliar. What might seem like information dumps are built into the story, anecdotes building to a larger purpose. While Anarres’s culture is self-sufficient it is closed off and ossified. Urras, in contrast, is viciously capitalistic and venal. And yet, Shevek knows he cannot finish his research without them as they have contact with the rest of the galaxy. This idea of societal interdependence is one that the reader is left with. However, that does not mean collectivism is worse than capitalism. In many ways, Le Guin shows Anarres to be superior to Urras. People come together to solve problems, there’s a high degree of social mobility and freedom, and is a high degree of culture. Yet, groupthink closes off this society to new ideas. The stultification prevents Shevek from accomplishing his scientific breakthrough, making not only his world but all the worlds in the galaxy poorer.

Anarchism... stands for liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from the dominion of property; liberation from shackles and restraint of government. It stands for social order based on the free grouping of individuals.