A Man of the People

by Ursula K. Le Guin

Standalone story

Genres: Fiction

Unknown Binding

About the author

Ursula K. Le Guin published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. She lived in Portland, Oregon.

She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.

Reviews

[Henk · Rating 4 out of 5]

From a world where traditions define everything, our main character becomes and envoy who takes a more active role on the planet he is send to supervis, while we learn a lot about the Ekumen
To know that there is a choice is to have to make a choice

After growing up in a tradition filled pueblo on Hain, the central world of the Ekumen, our main character finds a road to become an envoy, while leaving his kin and lovers dead due to time dilution. His society is deeply traditional, with lineage defining once profession. Only an external shock makes him question the external order:
Lineage matters here, it does not matter there. It has meaning here and use, it has no meaning and no use anywhere else in the universe

Hain receives prominent attention in this story. One does wonder how the economy and technological advancement work if Hain already exists 3 million years and mastered genetic engineering at least 25 generations ago. Also the level in which the Eukemen, a society of worlds, is cultural relativistic is something of a question. Slavery and child abuse are condoned as long as it is part of “traditions”, what kind of improvement is it then for a citizen to be part of the Eukemen? How does it not avoid the same fate as the UN in our world, being perceived as ineffective and not that influential on everyday’s people life?

Still most of the story is about the expanding world of the narrator and his contribution to a more fair society for women in the world he is send to. This world is scarred by long term slavery, with the now freed men repressing the women in a vicious circle.
People have to learn to be human observes a character early on, and that is not just true for our protagonist but also for the wider society Le Guin describes.

Quotes:
One can be more than one kind of being

I think you’ll understand what you choose to understand

You will think there are no rules, but there always rules

Reason is a net thrown into the ocean

You kill the boss and you become the boss

No truth can make another truth untrue

[Gili · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting exploration into how one’s upbringing can affect their involvement and empathy towards underprivileged people.
I’m not sure how I feel about the ending kind of skipping over what I assume is quite a few years and what changes happened during that time but perhaps the novella “A Woman’s Liberation” (the next one in the book) will reveal a bit more.

[Carole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story follows one man from his boyhood in a village on Hain to studying at a school on another planet to joining the Ekumen and becoming an envoy on Yeowe. It is a story about revolution on a personal and political level. The story does jump in time, leaving a gap. Some of this gap is filled in by the novella A Woman’s Liberation.

This is in the Hainish universe in the time of the Ekumen. It is about Werel and Yeowe. It should be read after Forgiveness Day and before A Woman’s Liberation.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent, if relatively unengaging, story of a young man experiencing a wider world.

Le Guin's "A Man of the People" tells of a young man who leaves his family and travels to a distant world and learns of their very different and distinct culture. In the doing, there's growth. Not much of a plot or story, but growth.

[kazerniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Juuust about reaches 4 stars. It has some decent philosophy ("all knowledge is local, all knowledge is partial"), but otherwise I didn't really find it engaging. As much as it was nice to see some of Hain at last, the pacing felt quite uneven and the protagonist unrelatable.

[Kevin Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Le Guin is always a fine writer.