Postmodern Anarchism in the Novels of Ursula K. Le Guin

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Postmodern Anarchism in the
Novels of Ursula K. Le Guin
Lewis Call
LewisCall
PostmodernAnarchismintheNovelsofUrsulaK.LeGuin
2007
RetrievedonNovember2,2010fromwww.scribd.com
From“SubStance”#113,Vol.36,no.2,2007
theanarchistlibrary.org 2007

Contents
TheDebate:CriticalAwarenessofLeGuin’sAnarchism . 7
TheNovels:LeGuin’sPostmodernAnarchism . . . . . . 10
WorksCited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3
Newman, Saul. From Bakunin to Lacan: Anti-Authoritarianism
andtheDislocationofPower.Lanham,MD:LexingtonBooks,2001.
Nietzsche,Friedrich.OntheGenealogyofMoralsandEcceHomo.
Ed.WalterKaufmann.NewYork:VintageBooks,1969.
—.ThusSpokeZarathustra.Trans.WalterKaufmann.NewYork:
PenguinBooks,1988.
Rapp,JohnA.“DaoismandAnarchismReconsidered.”Anarchist
Studies6.2(October1998):123–151.
Suvin,Darko.MetamorphosesofScienceFiction.NewHaven,CT:
YaleUniversityPress,1979.
Watts, Alan. Tao: The Watercourse Way. New York: Penguin
Books,1986.
Widmer, Kingsley. Counterings: Utopian Dialectics in Contempo-
raryContexts.AnnArbor,MI:UMIResearchPress,1988.

29
Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. Standard Edi- Itiseasyenoughtolocateanarchistthemesinthesciencefiction
tion.Trans.andEd.JamesStrachey.NewYork:W.W.Nortonand ofUrsulaK.LeGuin.Herfrequentcritiquesofstatepower,coupled
Company,1989. with her rejection of capitalism and her obvious fascination with
Heidegger, Martin. Nietzsche. Ed. David Ferrell Krell. San Fran- alternativesystemsofpoliticaleconomy,aresufficienttoplaceher
cisco:HarperSanFrancisco,1991. within the anarchist tradition. She has, from time to time, explic-
Kropotkin, Peter. Ethics: Origin and Development. Montréal: itlyembracedthattradition.LeGuinis,amongotherthings,apop-
BlackRoseBooks,1992. ularizer of anarchist ideas. The political philosophy of anarchism
—.EvolutionandEnvironment.Ed.GeorgeWoodcock.Montréal: is largely an intellectual artifact of the nineteenth century, articu-
BlackRoseBooks,1995. lated in England by William Godwin, in France by Pierre-Joseph
—.MutualAid:AFactorofEvolution.Montréal:BlackRoseBooks, Proudhon,andinRussiabyPeterKropotkinandMikhailBakunin.
1989. Yetthisvibrantintellectualtraditionremainslargelyinvisibletoor-
Lamb,PatriciaFrazerandDianaL.Veith.“Again,TheLeftHand dinarypeopleintheearlytwenty-firstcentury.Bydescribinganar-
ofDarkness:AndrogynyorHomophobia?”EroticUniverse:Sexual- chistideasinawaythatissimultaneouslyfaithfultotheanarchist
ityandFantasyLiterature.Ed.DonaldPalumbo.NewYork:Green- tradition and accessible to contemporary audiences, Le Guin per-
woodPress,1986. formsaveryvaluableservice.Sherescuesanarchismfromthecul-
221–231. Le Guin, Ursula K. Dancing at the Edge of the World. turalghettotowhichithasbeenconsigned.Sheintroducesthean-
NewYork:GrovePress,1989. archistvisiontoanaudienceofsciencefictionreaderswhomight
—. Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching. A Book About the Way and the Power never pick up a volume of Kropotkin. She moves anarchism (ever
oftheWay.Boston:Shambhala,1998. soslightly)intothemainstreamofintellectualdiscourse.
—.TheDispossessed.NewYork:HarperPrism,1994. YetLeGuin,likemanywhoseanarchistviewsdevelopedinthe
—. The Language of the Night. Ed. Susan Wood. New York: G. P. late 1960s and early 1970s, also seems to recognize that this is
Putnam’sSons,1979. notenough.LikeclassicalMarxism,modernanarchismdeveloped
—.TheLatheofHeaven.NewYork:AvonBooks,1973. within the specific political, economic and intellectual environ-
—.TheLeftHandofDarkness.NewYork:AceBooks,1987. ment of the nineteenth century. In that context, it made perfect
Marcuse, Herbert. Eros and Civilization. Boston: Beacon Press, sense for anarchists to focus their critical powers upon the twin
1974. sourcesofoppressivepowerintheageoftheIndustrialRevolution:
Marshall, Peter. Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anar- capital and the state. By the late twentieth century, however, this
chism.London:FontanaPress,1993. traditional anarchism had become dangerously outdated. During
May,Todd.ThePoliticalPhilosophyofPoststructuralistAnarchism. the 1960s in particular, political activists throughout the western
UniversityPark,PA:PennsylvaniaStateUniversityPress,1994. worldaddedcritiquesofethnicpowerandgenderpowertothelist
Moylan, Tom. Demand the Impossible: Science Fiction and the of anarchist concerns. In the intellectual world, Michel Foucault
UtopianImagination.NewYork:Methuen,1986. identified and criticized the disciplinary power that emerges
Mullen, R. D. and Darko Suvin. Science-Fiction Studies: Selected in schools, hospitals, military barracks, psychiatric clinics and
ArticlesonScienceFiction1973–1975.Boston:GreggPress,1976. families, while Jean Baudrillard articulated a radical symbolic
28 5
critique of the semiotic system that dominates the contemporary possibilities that extend well beyond the horizons of the modern.
world. Meanwhile, Guy Debord and others argued that citizens In these novels, Le Guin experiments with androgyny, subverts
of the late twentieth century lived in a world dominated by the rational ontologies, articulates anarchist languages, and proposes
spectacularmassmedia,aworldinwhichconsumerismhasfound aradicalphilosophyoftime.Thethemesofpostmodernanarchism
its way into every aspect of people’s lives, a world in which areclearlypresentinherwork.Sofarthesethemeshaveremained
the traditional forms of political action (and perhaps even the largelyhidden,butitistimetobringthemtothesurface.Modern
political subjects who might perform such action) have become anarchists need not fear this critical project, for the postmodern
dangerously fragmented. In such a world, the anarchist critique elementsofLeGuin’sanarchismdonotopposethatphilosophy’s
cannot afford to remain trapped within the modern, industrial modern elements. Rather, the modern and postmodern aspects
mode of thinking. Anarchism must become more flexible, more of Le Guin’s anarchism are part of a permanent, ongoing, open-
fluid, more adaptable. In a word, it must become postmodern. ended dialogue about the possibilities of anarchist thinking in
Along with Todd May and Saul Newman, I have tried to describe the contemporary era. Such a dialogue can only enrich anarchist
the approximate contours of such a postmodern anarchism (see theory.
May, Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism; Newman,
FromBakunintoLacan;andCall,PostmodernAnarchism). CaliforniaPolytechnicStateUniversity,SanLuisObispo
An analysis of Le Guin’s science fiction will be helpful to this
project. Yes, Le Guin dreams of utopian worlds and moons, free
Works Cited
of the inequalities of capitalism and the injustices of state power
(justasKropotkindidbeforeher).Moreimportantly,however,Le Barr, Marleen S. Lost in Space: Probing Feminist Science Fiction
Guindevelopsnewformsofanarchistthinking,formsthatareur- and Beyond. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press,
gently needed in the United States and other post-industrial soci- 1993.
eties. The crucial foundation for this new postmodern anarchism Bittner,James.ApproachestotheFictionofUrsulaK.LeGuin.Ann
is to be found in three remarkable novels that Le Guin wrote in Arbor,MI:UMIResearchPress,1984.
a five-year period between 1969 and 1974. This period — which Brennan, John P. and Michael C. Downs. “Anarchism and
markstheculminationofboththeradicalsocialmovementsofthe Utopian Tradition in The Dispossessed.” Ursula K. Le Guin. Ed.
1960s and the poststructuralist and postmodernist movements in Joseph D. Olander and Martin Harry Greenberg. New York:
the intellectual world — represents a vitally important historical Taplinger,1979.116–152.
momentintheanarchisttradition.Thisisthemomentwhenanar- Call, Lewis. Postmodern Anarchism. Lanham, MD: Lexington
chismtookits“postmodernturn.”AndLeGuinwasinstrumentalin Books,2002.
bringingaboutthisremarkabletransformationinanarchistthink- Davis,LaurenceandPeterStillman,eds.TheNewUtopianPoli-
ing. In The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), Le Guin subverted the ticsofUrsulaK.LeGuin’sTheDispossessed.Lanham,MD:Lexing-
traditional binary concept of gender identity, to promote an anar- tonBooks,2005.
chy of gender. In The Lathe of Heaven (1971), she told the story of
apsychiatricpatientwhosedreamsliterallyredesignedtheworld,
6 27
within the classical anarchist tradition” (203). There are serious thus creating the possibility of an ontological anarchy. And in her
problems with this approach. First and foremost, there is no di- 1974masterpieceTheDispossessed,LeGuinmadetwomajorcontri-
alecticalreconciliationofSequencyandSimultaneityinTheDispos- butionstothephilosophyofpostmodernanarchism.Shecreateda
sessed.Shevekdevelopstheabilitytothinkboththoughtstogether, fictional anarchist language called Pravic, which underscores the
butnotinasyntheticway.Thetwothoughtsremainseparateand importance of linguistics for any contemporary anarchist project.
distinct. Rather than a synthetic reconciliation of thesis and an- Andshedevelopedanequallyradicalconceptoftime,creatingthe
tithesis, Shevek’s theory represents the perpetual embrace of two possibilityofachronosophicanarchy.Theexistenceofanexplicitly
theoriesthatareandremaincontradictory.Shevek’sexperienceof anarchist society on the moon of Anarres has led many critics of
timeisthusanexperienceofpermanentcognitivedissonance.He TheDispossessed tofocusonlyonthetraditionalanarchistthemes
ispreparedtoexperiencetimeasbothlinearandcyclicalatevery of this novel. Yet the truly radical legacy of this novel (and of Le
momentofhislife,andhemustneverallowthisexperiencetoso- Guin’s other major works from the late 1960s and early 1970s) is
lidifyintoastagnantsynthesis. that these works transgress the boundaries of conventional anar-
Shevek’s views on time must remain tentative, provisional, un- chist thinking to create new forms of anarchism that are entirely
resolved — in short, postmodern. He must abandon the false cer- relevant to life in the postmodern condition. Le Guin updates the
tainties of reason. His rewards for doing so are substantial. The conventional anarchist project and positions anarchism to move
majorpracticalbenefitofShevek’stheoryisthatitwillpermitthe intothethirdmillennium.
creationoftheansible,adevicethatwillallowinstantaneousinter-
stellar communication. Thus Shevek’s theory creates the opportu-
The Debate: Critical Awareness of Le Guin’s
nityforaninfiniteproliferationofdiscoursewithoutresolution:a
Anarchism
trulypostmodernpossibility.Indeed,thisismorethanamerepos-
sibility.FortheuniversethatShevekmadeistheuniverseofGenly
Le Guin’s masterpiece The Dispossessed drew a tremendous
Ai’s Ekumen: a community of worlds linked together in radically
amount of critical attention after it appeared in 1974, but the crit-
egalitarian, non-hierarchical fashion by the ansible. Thus the con-
ical reception of Le Guin’s work remained remarkably orthodox
clusionofTheDispossessedpointsbacktoTheLeftHandofDarkness.
duringthelate1970sand1980s.Criticsofthisperioddidacknowl-
Thisisabeautifulstatementoftime’scircle,andapowerfulstruc-
edge that Le Guin’s work was strongly influenced by anarchism,
turalassertionoftheanarchisticpossibilitiesthatemergewhenwe
but they persisted in reading that anarchism in purely modern
embracethecontradictoryaspectsofsequentialandsimultaneous
terms.ThusDavidL.Porterarguedthatbythemid-1970sLeGuin
time.
had“movedtoamuchrichersocialcritiqueandexplicitanarchist
Ursula Le Guin’s writing shows a remarkable knowledge of
commitment” (Mullen and Suvin 273), while John P. Brennan and
— and a deep respect for — the classical anarchist tradition. It
MichaelC.DownsreadTheDispossessed “asapenetratingcritique
is hardly surprising, then, that her critics should focus mainly
of all utopian experience, even that of anarchism” (117). At this
on the ways in which her work builds upon that tradition. Yet
timecriticismgenerallyfailedtorecognizethepostmodernaspects
criticism must do more than this, for Le Guin certainly does. Le
of Le Guin’s writing. A notable exception was Fredric Jameson,
Guin’s novels of the late 1960s and early 1970s offer anarchist
26 7
apostleofthepostmodern.In1975,Jamesonnotedinpassingthat ousessenceofman.Withinmetaphysicsmanisexperiencedasthe
theGeneralTheoryofTimedescribedinTheDispossessed employs rational animal” (III 217). Shevek is a scientist, but he is not a ra-
a “vocabulary of a subversive reason, which has therefore had tionalist.Apurelyrationalsciencecouldnotproducehistemporal
first to pass through the false, nonreasonable and by themselves theory. To achieve this theory, Shevek must give up a great deal.
non-cognitive expressions of parareason” (Mullen and Suvin 266). Hemustabandonarestrictiverationalism,andwithitthehuman-
Jameson was one of the first to recognize the truly transgressive ismthatdominatedtheintellectualhistoryoftheWestuntilNiet-
natureofLeGuin’sfiction,namelyitsabilitytocallintoquestion zsche(Heidegger’s“previousessenceofman”).Inshort,toachieve
the forms of scientific, technical and instrumental reason that his goals in physics, Shevek must take a postmodern turn. Thus
have come to dominate the modern West. But criticism was slow AndrewReynoldsisrighttoargue(albeitinasomewhatdifferent
to adopt Jameson’s position. As late as 1986, Tom Moylan was context)that“TheDispossessed isequallytheproductofanarchism
arguingthattheutopiaofTheDispossessedwaslockedintoaseries and Nietzschean postmodernism” (Davis and Stillman 88). As an
of binary oppositions, and that the text thus “expresses the con- Odonian, Shevek has already internalized the basic principles of
tinued closure of the current social formation” (114). Remarkably, modern anarchism. When he moves beyond rationalism and hu-
MoylanfoundLeGuin’sworktobeinsufficientlypostmodern. manism to grasp a radically new concept of time, he takes his an-
Itwasonlyinthe1990sthatsomefeministcriticsbegantoem- archism a step further. Ellen Rigsby is quite correct to note that
brace the postmodern reading of Le Guin. In 1993, Marleen Barr by embracing the cyclical concept of time, Shevek challenges the
argued that “reading Le Guin… sometimes involves encountering entiremainstreamintellectualtraditionofEurope;thus“Shevek’s
an alliance between humanism and antihumanism,” which resem- thoughts move into an explicitly anarchist form” (Davis and Still-
bles Christopher Butler’s version of the Lacanian position (155). man173).Moreprecisely,byacceptingSimultaneityaswellasSe-
Here Barr has identified the anarchy of the subject that is such a quency,Shevekbecomesapostmodernanarchist.
crucial part of the postmodern anarchist project. Subjectivity, for I must therefore challenge the extensive body of literature that
the postmodern anarchist, cannot be understood solely in the co- characterizes Shevek’s reconciliation of Sequency and Simultane-
herent, rational terms of the Enlightenment. Instead, subjectivity ityasanexampleofLeGuin’s“dialecticalthinking”(see,forexam-
mustbeviewedasperpetuallyprovisional,deeplycontextual,and ple,Bittner121).Mostrecently,TonyBurnshasarguedthatShevek
powerfullypsychological.Thisiscertainlythetypeofsubjectivity “likehiscreatorisathoroughgoing‘dialectical’thinker”(Davisand
found in Le Guin’s work, particularly The Lathe of Heaven. This Stillman 199) whose attitude towards time “demonstrates a ten-
type of subjectivity recognizes that the subject of Enlightenment dencyforhimtothinkintermsofthose‘binaryoppositions,’such
discourseisimplicitlystatist,andacknowledgesthatameaningful as that between the notion of ‘Being’ and the notion of ‘Becom-
anarchistpoliticswillrequirearadicalreconceptualizationofthat ing,’ which have been central to the Western philosophical tradi-
subject. tion from the time of the ancient Greeks, and which are rejected
TherecentlypublishedcollectionofessaysonTheNewUtopian byNietzsche,postmodernism,andthe‘academicleft’”(201).Burns
PoliticsofUrsulaK.LeGuin’sTheDispossessedfeaturesthreeessays attempts to relate Shevek’s theory to the Hegelian philosophical
that deal specifically with Le Guin’s anarchist politics. Dan Sabia method,toshowthatTheDispossessed isa“modern”ratherthana
correctlynotesthattheinspirationforLeGuin’sAnarresisthe“an- “postmodern”work,andthatShevek’sviewsonscience“fallfirmly
8 25
Shevek’s objective is to bring together two apparently contra- archist communism” of Peter Kropotkin (Davis and Stillman 112–
dictory fields of physics, known as Sequency and Simultaneity. 113), with its emphasis on mutual aid (114) and decentralization
Sequency deals with the linear concept of time, which has (120). However, Sabia also argues that “not even anarchist com-
dominated the perception of history in the West. Simultaneity munism can reconcile completely the ideals of individualism and
acknowledges and endorses the nonlinear, including in particular community”(125).ForSabia,then,LeGuinremainstrappedwithin
those philosophies that see time as cyclical or recursive. Shevek the basic dilemma that has haunted political theory at least since
describesthetwoconceptsoftime:“Sothentimehastwoaspects. Rousseau: the problem of reconciling the specific needs of the in-
There is the arrow, the running river, without which there is no dividual with the broader social needs of the community. This is,
change, no progress, or direction, or creation. And there is the however,aspecificallymodernpoliticalproblem,whichcanbere-
circleorthecycle,withoutwhichthereischaos,meaninglesssuc- solvedthroughtheattainmentofapostmodernperspective.Inthe
cessionofinstants,aworldwithoutclocksorseasonsorpromises” samevolume,MarkTunickinterpretsLeGuin’sprojectasHegelian
(223). Shevek’s invocation of promises is interesting, for it recalls (129).Tunickthusjoinsalonglineofcriticswhohaveidentifiedthe
Nietzsche’s definition of the human being as an animal with the formofLeGuin’sthinkingasdialectical(see,forexample,Donald
righttomakepromises(GenealogyofMorals,secondessay,section F.Theall’sargumentinMullenandSuvin286–294;seealsoWidmer
2). Shevek even makes the Nietzschean element of his thinking 44ff).IfindthedialecticalinterpretationofLeGuindifficulttosus-
explicit: “And so, when the mystic makes the reconnection of his tain,andthespecificallyHegelianformofthatinterpretationeven
reasonandhisunconscious,heseesallbecomingasonebeing,and more so. Certainly any attempt to describe Le Guin’s thinking as
understands the eternal return” (Le Guin, The Dispossessed 222). HegelianmustaddressthedisturbinglystatistnatureofHegel’spo-
Inthisremarkablepassage,Shevekacknowledgesthattheproject liticalphilosophy;moreurgently,theattempttodescribeLeGuin
he is pursuing in the physical sciences is parallel to the project asadialecticalthinkermustfindawaytoaccountforthesustained
Nietzsche undertook in philosophy. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, assaultonbinarythinkingthatissuchafundamentalfeatureofher
Nietzsche famously described his world-shaking vision of eternal work. Finally, Winter Elliot approaches The Dispossessed from the
return: “everything goes, everything comes back; eternally rolls perspectiveofindividualistanarchism.ForElliot,anauthentican-
the wheel of being. Everything dies, everything blossoms again; archism must always be an interior personal anarchism (such as
eternally runs the year of being” (217). In Zarathustra, Nietzsche that of Shevek, the novel’s protagonist). By advocating individu-
dreamed of a being who could not only accept the terrifying alist anarchism in this way, Elliot is certainly going against what
thought of eternal recurrence but could actively embrace it, we might describe (with appropriate irony) as the “mainstream”
cherishit,celebrateit.HecalledthisbeingOverman. anarchist tradition — i.e. the tradition that emphasizes the impor-
Toaremarkableextent,LeGuin’sShevekcompletestheproject tance of community and collective social action. Yet by emphasiz-
outlined in Zarathustra. Shevek embraces the principle of eternal ing the autonomy of the unique individual, Elliot shows that she
return embodied in the theory of Simultaneity. Remarkably, he hasthismuchincommonwithmainstreamanarchism:sheremains
is also able to continue thinking of time in linear or Sequential trappedwithinthemodern.
terms as well. He can do this only because, as Heidegger has ar- This, then, is the current state of scholarship on the subject of
gued, “the overman is the expressly willed negation of the previ- LeGuin’spoliticalphilosophy.Withafewnotableexceptions,crit-
24 9
ics tend to read Le Guin’s narratives in dialectical and/or utopian standthenecessity”(234).HereoneisremindedofDr.Haber,who
terms.Theyunderstandheranarchismprimarilyasaconventional proceeded from the best humanist intentions, but was doomed to
challengetostatepowerandcapitalism.Inshort,thesereadingsof failurebyhisrejectionoftheirrational.Languagecannotbepurely
LeGuinremainrelentlesslymodern.Itisparticularlystrikingthat rational,forthehumanswhospeakitcertainlyarenot.Language
thesemodernistreadingsofLeGuin’sanarchismremainsopreva- mustbeabletoexpressnotonlylogicalconceptsbutalsoemotions,
lenttoday,some35yearsafterLeGuininitiatedamajorpostmod- eventhosethatmightbeseenasundesirablefromtheperspective
ernmoveinhersciencefiction.Clearly,themoderndoesnotgive ofsocialengineering.WhenShevekneedstoswear,hemustswitch
up without a fight. Yet it is imperative for today’s critics to move toIotic:“‘Hell!’hesaidaloud.Pravicwasnotagoodswearinglan-
beyondtheirfascinationwithmodernism,particularlyiftheywish guage. It is hard to swear when sex is not dirty and blasphemy
to understand the depth and significance of Le Guin’s anarchism. doesnotexist”(258).Ironically,thesuccessofOdonianismsetsthe
Thatanarchismcannotsimplybeunderstoodasanupdatedversion stage for its failures. Pravic is a fair language and a just one. It
of Kropotkin’s utopian dreams. Rather, Le Guin’s postmodern an- encouragesegalitarianthinkingandactivelyworksagainstthees-
archismisasustainedchallengetoconventionalmodesofradical tablishmentofhierarchy.Yetitremainsdryandsterile.Thisbrings
thinking.Thisisananarchismthatrejectsteleologies,explodestra- usbacktothemessageofpostmodernanarchism:theworldcannot
ditionalconceptsofsubjectivityingeneral(andconceptsofgender be saved through the articulation of a rational revolutionary phi-
identityinparticular),proposesradicalnewcosmologies,andem- losophy,evenifthatphilosophydoescontainadmirableelements.
bracestheanarchisticpossibilitiesinherentinthecreationofnew Fortunately, The Dispossessed does contain one element that is
languages.Itis,inshort,ananarchismforthetwenty-firstcentury, truly revolutionary in the postmodern sense, and that is Shevek’s
anditistimeforcriticismtorecognizethis. General Temporal Theory. Shevek is a theoretical physicist; his
termforhisfieldofstudyischronosophy.Thisgivesusanimportant
clueastothenatureandsignificanceofhistheories.WhatShevek
The Novels: Le Guin’s Postmodern
isworkingonisaphilosophyoftime.LeGuin’stextmakesitquite
Anarchism
clearthatthisphilosophyhasradicalpoliticalimplications.TheUr-
rastiphysicistOiieobservesthat“Thepoliticianandthephysicist
In both structure and content, Le Guin’s 1969 novel The Left
both deal with things as they are, with real forces, the basic laws
HandofDarknessisapostmodernmasterpiece.Thenovelisrelent-
of the world” (203). Naturally, Shevek rejects Oiie’s statist formu-
lessly experimental and fragmented. It has no narrative center. It
lation. And yet Shevek does accept Oiie’s basic insight: that there
alternatesbetweentworadicallydifferentpointsofview:thatofa
is a politics of physics, and a physics of politics. Of course, for an
Gethenian called Estraven, and that of Genly Ai, a diplomat who
anarchistlikeShevek,politicsandethicsarevirtuallycoterminous.
isvisitingtheplanetGethenasarepresentativeoftheinterstellar
ThusShevekacknowledgesthat“chronosophydoesinvolveethics.
Ekumen.Whilesuchfluctuationsinviewpointmightproducesome
Becauseoursenseoftimeinvolvesourabilitytoseparatecauseand
interesting cognitive effects in the audience, one could argue that
effect, means and end” (225). Thus, Shevek’s attempt to articulate
theirradicalpotentialislimited.Anovelthatdependeduponthebi-
a General Temporal Theory is also, fundamentally, an attempt to
naryalternationbetweentwopointsofviewcouldeasilyfallvictim
createaviableandvibrantethicaltheory.
10 23