Narrative Structure in Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness

Note: This is a blog post based on my initial thoughts after reading Left Hand of Darkness and is not the actual close reading essay for my MFA.

As part of the MFA coursework, we are required to close read twelve separate books and write a short essay analyzing the craft of the books in a way that can help us with our own writing. My first close reading was of Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin. One of the challenges of writing science fiction and fantasy novels is how can an author convey back story and world building in a way that's engaging to the reader without large blocks of explanatory exposition.

Ursula K. Le Guin sets The Left Hand of Darkness on a far off planet called Winter. During the course of the novel, she must introduce the reader to a planet, the planet's system of government, a federation of planets and the federation's system of government, the environment, the history, the religions and cultures of the indigenous peoples, and the physiology of their species…