A Strange Relationship....

I could say a lot of things about the ending of The Left Hand of Darkness, I suppose. But I think I’m going to focus on one aspect this time: the emotional relation between Estraven and Genly. Okay, I’ll admit it. I desperately wanted them to sit around that little stove of theirs, fighting off the cold and weariness after yet another day’s un-ending work. They would exchange a few words, but a comfortable yet strangle tense silence would run between them. Genly would offer to help Estraven practice mind speech, to which the careful reply would be a refusal. As the snow and wind raged outside, the strange tenseness would increase. Genly would shiver and try to refuse the blanket Estraven incessantly offers him. Eventually an agreement would be forged; that they could both use it so that one wouldn’t be less cold than the other. Slowly the heat of their bodies would get to them and Genly would hesitantly turn his head towards Estraven after secretly watching him from the corner of his eye, lean down slightly and-

Yeah, you get the idea. I wanted that to happen, dammit. And it never did. Instead Estraven the Stupid went and killed himself to help Genly on his ‘quest’. Grr. But the feelings were there, no doubt about it. What made it that more realistic was that it took a considerably amount of time for those two to understand each other enough for those emotion to develop. It didn’t happen instantly and those two continuously teased us, the readers, by not making it happen at all. Damn them. Ahem, anyways, I enjoyed that it felt so real and believable. It was something people, those who have felt that want for another and even those who haven’t, could almost taste and want for themselves. If someone asked me if I knew of another instance where a similar ploy was in something I’d think of Vampire Princess Miyu.

I believe that this anime is also a novel, but I know it as an tv series and (what the anime is based off which is slightly unusual as it’s usually the other way around) the OVA. I’ve seen both. The two main characters in this anime Miyu and Larva (or Lava, your choice) have a similar relationship. Okay I could say A LOT about these two. Really. They are unutterably fascinating to me. But there’s also that undertone of “want” between them that they have never acted on. Perhaps they, like Genly or Estraven, are scared of changing what already works for them. It’s really diving into the unknown after all. It could change so much, for the better….or worse. And neither Miyu and Larva or Estraven and Genly are willing to take that plunge into darkness.

It’s all a bit fascinating really, to watch them want each other but refuse. Do you agree?