Caterina’s Reviews > The Left Hand of Darkness > Status Update
Caterina
is 35% done
He was, he said, "cutting down beneath the veneer of civilization." It is a durable, ubiquitous, specious metaphor, that one about veneer..hiding the nobler reality beneath. It can conceal a dozen fallacies..One of the most dangerous is the implication that civilization, being artificial, is unnatural. ...Of course there is no veneer; the process is one of growth....
— 4 hours, 37 min ago
1 like · Like flag
Caterina’s Previous Updates
Caterina
is 45% done
I stood benumbed. The man was like an electric shock. Nothing to hold onto, and you don't know what hit you. He had certainly spoiled the mood of peaceful self-congratulation in which I had eaten breakfast.
— 39 minutes ago
Caterina
is 26% done
The only thing that makes life possible, Genly, is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: Not knowing what happens next.
— 23 hours, 24 min ago
Caterina
is 26% done
When I was a teen/young adult I read everything I could find by UKLeG - except this - maybe her most famous? - which i owned but just could not get into. I'm finally trying again - and ... although maybe I understand the subtleties better, alas the first quarter of the book is, well, not very interesting. Blasphemy! I'm sorry, Ursula! But I shall persevere ...
— Aug 16, 2026 06:39AM