{"id":289,"date":"2021-01-13T21:53:49","date_gmt":"2021-01-13T21:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=289"},"modified":"2021-01-29T13:54:30","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T13:54:30","slug":"coming-of-age-in-karhide-by-ursula-k-le-guin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=289","title":{"rendered":"Coming of Age in Karhide by Ursula K. Le Guin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Coming of Age in Karhide<\/em><\/strong> by Ursula K. Le Guin (New Legends<\/em>, edited by Greg Bear & Martin H. Greenberg, 1995) is one of her \u2018Hainish\u2019 stories, the most famous example of which is The Left Hand of Darkness<\/em>. This story also takes place on the world of Gethen, a.k.a Winter, and, after some accomplished and elegant scene setting, the piece soon becomes a coming-of-age story about of one of the children of this planet, Sov Thade Tage em Ereb. Because Sov is an androgynous Gethenian, the process of growing up involves, in part, a fascination with the concept of \u201ckemmer,\u201d the periods after adolescence when Gethenians change into males or females to reproduce:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, I hadn\u2019t thought much about kemmer before. What would be the use? Until we come of age we have no gender and no sexuality, our hormones don\u2019t give us any trouble at all. And in a city Hearth we never see adults in kemmer. They kiss and go. Where\u2019s Maba? In the kemmerhouse, love, now eat your porridge. When\u2019s Maba coming back? Soon, love. And in a couple of days Maba comes back, looking sleepy and shiny and refreshed and exhausted. Is it like having a bath, Maba? Yes, a bit, love, and what have you been up to while I was away?  p. 290 (Year\u2019s Best SF<\/em>, edited by David Hartwell)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Eventually Sov ages enough to show the first signs of kemmer, which involves temporary physical changes and some discomfort, something Sov later discusses with a friend called Sether, who is going through the same thing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We did not look at each other. Very gradually, unnoticeably, I was slowing my pace till we were going along side by side at an easy walk.
\u201cSometimes do you feel like your tits are on fire?\u201d I asked without knowing that I was going to say anything.
Sether nodded.
After a while, Sether said, \u201cListen, does your pisser get. . . .\u201d
I nodded.
\u201cIt must be what the Aliens look like,\u201d Sether said with revulsion. \u201cThis, this thing sticking out, it gets so big . . . it gets in the way.\u201d
We exchanged and compared symptoms for a mile or so. It was a relief to talk about it, to find company in misery, but it was also frightening to hear our misery confirmed by the other. Sether burst out, \u201cI\u2019ll tell you what I hate, what I really hate about it\u2014it\u2019s dehumanizing. To get jerked around like that by your own body, to lose control, I can\u2019t stand the idea. Of being just a sex machine. And everybody just turns into something to have sex with. You know that people in kemmer go crazy and die if there isn\u2019t anybody else in kemmer? That they\u2019ll even attack people in somer? Their own mothers?\u201d
\u201cThey can\u2019t,\u201d I said, shocked.
\u201cYes they can.\u201d  p. 295<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

After a brief visit to the Fastness, which appears to be some spiritual seat of higher learning (and where Sov learns how to \u201cuntrance\u201d and sing), the remainder of the story follows Sov\u2019s first visit to the kemmerhouse. We see how the Gethenian sexual change is triggered (Sov becomes a female after being exposed to the male pheromones of one of the cooks at her Hearth), and learn of the various lovers she takes afterwards.
This a very well written piece (there is so much textual detail that it almost feels like a tapestry) but the story is ultimately little more than an extended alien biology lesson (although the kemmer process will be of interest to those that have read The Left Hand of Darkness<\/em>).
*** (Good). 7,950 words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coming of Age in Karhide by Ursula K. Le Guin (New Legends, edited by Greg Bear & Martin H. Greenberg, 1995) is one of her \u2018Hainish\u2019 stories, the most famous example of which is The Left Hand of Darkness. This story also takes place on the world of Gethen, a.k.a Winter, and, after some accomplished […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[5,24,78,7,93],"class_list":["post-289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ursula-k-le-guin","tag-5","tag-3-2","tag-new-legends","tag-novelette","tag-ursula-k-le-guin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=289"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":449,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions\/449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}