Jul 14, 2026 · 1 hr 16 min · 13 segments
This week, Aatif Rashid discusses *The Dispossessed* by Ursula K. Le Guin, from 1974.
Atif RasheedHost
So this is, I suppose, technically our first science fiction novel that we're discussing on the podcast.
Some of you might argue that something like The Picture of Dorian Gray had certain speculative elements, and I think that's fair and that's valid.
But, uh, this is really the first hard science fiction novel that we're looking at on this podcast.
Now, in general, you know, I used to read a lot of science fiction when I was younger, uh, when I was in middle school and high school.
Um, more recently, I've moved away from science fiction towards what's called, in the publishing industry, literary fiction.
I've often felt that science fiction sometimes feels, at least for my taste, too abstract, too theoretical, too invested in ideas and concepts rather than what interests me, characters, emotions, character arcs, et cetera.
I was really moved by this novel, uh, really, really moved by the story, by the journey that this character undertakes, and it is a pretty philosophically heavy novel that explores themes around anarchism and capitalism and utopia, as the subtitle suggests, and what makes for a utopia, as well as these questions of time and experience.
I had heard that this novel was quite didactic, at least that's how it was described to me.
I thought Le Guin did a marvelous job of presenting the complexities and the nuances of the two societies she depicts in the novel.
And even though she clearly comes down in favor of one society over the other, even though there's clearly a correct answer to which of these societies is the better society, and we're gonna discuss what that correct answer is, even though that's the case, I wouldn't say that the novel is didactic.
The novel allows its protagonist to reach that conclusion through a character arc, and that's what I think prevents novels from being didactic, is instead of simply having the narrator tell you what the correct answer is, they depict a character arriving at that point through their experience, through the experience that we witness in the novel.
And as a result, it doesn't feel didactic because we have gone through that experience with the character.
So this is, I suppose, technically our first science fiction novel that we're discussing on the podcast.
Some of you might argue that something like The Picture of Dorian Gray had certain speculative elements, and I think that's fair and that's valid.
But, uh, this is really the first hard science fiction novel that we're looking at on this podcast.
Now, in general, you know, I used to read a lot of science fiction when I was younger, uh, when I was in middle school and high school.
Um, more recently, I've moved away from science fiction towards what's called, in the publishing industry, literary fiction.
I've often felt that science fiction sometimes feels, at least for my taste, too abstract, too theoretical, too invested in ideas and concepts rather than what interests me, characters, emotions, character arcs, et cetera.
I was really moved by this novel, uh, really, really moved by the story, by the journey that this character undertakes, and it is a pretty philosophically heavy novel that explores themes around anarchism and capitalism and utopia, as the subtitle suggests, and what makes for a utopia, as well as these questions of time and experience.
I had heard that this novel was quite didactic, at least that's how it was described to me.
I thought Le Guin did a marvelous job of presenting the complexities and the nuances of the two societies she depicts in the novel.
And even though she clearly comes down in favor of one society over the other, even though there's clearly a correct answer to which of these societies is the better society, and we're gonna discuss what that correct answer is, even though that's the case, I wouldn't say that the novel is didactic.
The novel allows its protagonist to reach that conclusion through a character arc, and that's what I think prevents novels from being didactic, is instead of simply having the narrator tell you what the correct answer is, they depict a character arriving at that point through their experience, through the experience that we witness in the novel.
And as a result, it doesn't feel didactic because we have gone through that experience with the character.
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