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A Hand Out In The Dark: Rethinking The Human In Ursula K. Le Guin’S “Nine Lives”, Syntyche Walker

Access*: Interdisciplinary Journal of Student Research and Scholarship

The Science Fiction genre, according to pioneer Science Fiction scholar Darko Suvin, has the power to elucidate “future-bearing elements from the empirical environment”(Suvin 7). In her short story, “Nine Lives,” Ursula K. Le Guin uses the trope of human cloning to dissect the “future-bearing” potential of a cultural obsession with youth, beauty and perfection, suggesting that the future of this obsession, paired with scientific advances that render such perfectibility possible, is a future of spiritual starvation. Le Guin explores the gendered dichotomies of strength and weakness, the dark side of unity without dissent, and the futility of altruism without empathy.