光幻之墟

No matter how provocatively this reading argues against the favor of conventional
feminism, my purpose is not to disown its accomplishment, nor in any sense to deny
their rightful critique toward the pseudo-male-eccentric undertone in The Left Hand of
Darkness. It's also worth mentioning that this book's first publishing year is 1968,
when the Stonewall event just happened, and it justifiably unleashed the long-
repressed rage of LesBiGay and Transgender subjects. The antagonistic rage, in all
fairness, has been derived not only from so-called white-straight-male's chauvinism,
but also the discrimination of equally straight female's disavowal . It's historical
inevitableness to place queer masculinity of transgender subjects along with the guilty
umbrella by some feminism discourse at that period, but the fact is that the His-story
within transgender narratives not only disrupts the same-ness and exclusion formed
by certain bio-straight males, but also represents a dissident intriguing kind of Yang
that no biological male could represent. The dynamics between feminism and
transgender subjectivity is a long-term struggle between the righteous, authentic
mother-god which jealously guards its ground like a dominating matriarch, but the
king as a rebel-son, with his wanton defiant tomboyhood, departs from the map of
hetero-reproduction and straight duality, refusing the motherland and its imagination
of a uniformity in the name of femininity.

Thus, the main focus of this essay, by my reading above, is to bring out the always
already existence of a dissident inscription /difference of a defiant masculinity which
dwells beyond, but also within the light and darkness, as a certain kind of penumbra,
like "shade within light, light beneath shadow" in accord with the central theme of Le
Guin's philosophy. Within the milieu of this penumbra, much different from the
binary, opposing masculinity/femininity of the straight system, the butch/femme
duality is a tai-chi circular symbol where Ying and Yang form a distinguishing and
dynamic relationship; where the dragking-esque and butch masculinity illuminate like
a darkness both splendid and burning bright, there is alternative femininities represented
by femme-like characters which glitters like an archetypical Ying, the aurora formed
out of fathomless darkness. As the central "poem" of this book beautifully illustrates, that
light of Ying is the left hand of darkness, and darkness as Yang the right hand of light,
Ying and Yang are indeed "like hands joined together, like the end and the way"; they
are what transgender the normative duality of compulsory straight sex system. This
transgender reading is one of the way(s) for the kings, along with their queer
comrades, to celebrate a flamboyant, non-conformist masculinity as Yang
embodiment; as already always, there is the divine Ying, signified as transgressive
femmes, which embraces, rather than denounces, its counterpart and consort, its left
hand as queer darkness. Together they dance at the never-ending circle of dark light
and divine darkness.


6. "The only truth I can understand or express is, logically defined, a lie.
Psychologically defined, a symbol. Aesthetically defined, a metaphor…. I am not
predicting, or prescribing. I am describing. I am describing certain aspects of
psychological reality in a novelist's way." (Author's Introduction in Left Hand of
Darkness.)

7. Here below is a rather vivid description of the Taiwanese tomboy's grow-up
formation, in emphasizing the cattle-monster twin qualities and mutual dynamics.
Since this type of tomboy, in this passage, is described and appropriated as a
Heathcliff-esque type, I used this passage as a textual comparison to augment textual
multitude, not to literally assert that this persona is totally alike as Estraven.

"In this section I would like to argue that one typical T-ness in contemporary Taiwan
could be described metaphorically as "cattle-monster", a term that illustrates how a
Tomboy grows up as a gender-dissident person just as some mutant young cattle and
becomes a monster when being hurt or enraged.

"To elaborate this characteristic T-ness in more detail, I would like to take Heathcliff
in Wuthering Heights for example. In this psycho-sexual story, the author describes
Heathcliff's hysterical love toward Catherine that makes readers confused and
terrified. Heathcliff has been adopted by Catherine's father, Mr. Earnshaw, and
brought up as family member since he was a kid.

"After the death of Mr. Earnshaw, the inheritor relegated Heathcliff in a subordinate
position immediately, and he declared that's what Heathcliff deserved in English law.
Heathcliff took all these shame and insults by silence to keep living with Catherine,
his love, in the same house. In this period, He is in the mode of what I called "cattle"
with love and honest heart. He even could hear the sound of great Nature through his
unusual sensibility. How come such a good person turned out to be a monster? I bet
you would ask why. Most hatred aroused form love and jealousy. Being forced to
"fall" into the servant's class deemed that he could not marry Catherine, just at this
time, he happened to overhear that Catherine's dreaming about being a rich man's
wife. All these tragic experiences consolidate as a never-healing wound and made him
a cruel person who tries his best to make money by murdering rich widows.
He didn't stop his revenge on Earnshaw family, even finally let Catherine die in his
psychotic torture. This process is what I called a tomboy who is "cattle-turned-as-
monster" type."
(Quoted by permission of the author, deadcat, and in courtesy of the English version
that the author amiably made; any mistake of this modification is mine. The original
post could be read on a butch/femme/transgender discussion board:
http://sts.hist.nthu.edu.tw/~haheho/phorum/list.php?f=1)

8. It is worth noting that after confronting with charge of male identification and the
straight mind in The Left Hand of Darkness, Le Guin gradually developed a queer
voice; the plentitude of this voice is best exemplified in some stories of The Birthday
of The World and other Stories. Wherein Coming of Age in Karhide, the reader are
introduced to a dazzling pansexual feast, which includes semi-butch/femme coupling
along with vivid same-gendered lesbian sex, by a Gethenian teenager who experience
her first encounter with "kemmer house" (a kind of public place built for anyone who
wants to have random sex). Also in the same collection, another story, Mountain
Ways, portrays a peculiar yet convincing marriage system that takes four persons to
participate, two bio-females and two bio-males. The most fascinating part of this story
is, by the desire and demand of a tough femme's request, her lover, a scholar butch
gravely occupied the position of one of the husbands, and the passing part is central to
the plot. The author deals with each character's internal complexity and struggle in a
sophisticated and sympathetic grace.


中文版刊登於CSA文化研究月報第四十九期
http://140.112.191.178/csa/journal/49/journal_49.htm