The Left Hand of Darkness

The following passage from Chapter 5 features an important metaphor, reflecting on the role of the "time-dividers" in the foretelling process:

They were insane. Goss called them “time-dividers,” which may mean schizophrenics. Karhidish psychologists, though lacking mindspeech and thus like blind surgeons, were ingenious with drugs, hypnosis, spotshock, cryonic touch, and various mental therapies; I asked if these two psychopaths could not be cured. “Cured?” Goss said. “Would you cure a singer of his voice?”

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The following passage from Chapter 16 describes Genly's frustration and exhaustion from Estraven's perspective. Estraven does not understand why Genly refuses to allow himself to cry. Readers, however—presumably raised in societies with prescribed gender roles—do understand Genly's behavior. What follows is a critical example of dramatic irony:

Ai was exhausted and enraged. He looked ready to cry, but did not. I believe he considers crying either evil or shameful. Even when he was very ill and weak, the first days of our escape, he hid his face from me when he wept. Reasons personal, racial, social, sexual—how can I guess why Ai must not weep? Yet his name is a cry of pain. For that I first sought him out in Erhenrang, a long time ago it seems now; hearing talk of “an Alien” I asked his name, and heard for answer a cry of pain from a human throat across the night.

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