Lessons of the Future: Grand Ideas (The Left Hand of Darkness)

Convincing someone to change the way they think is extremely delicate. This is the goal of many films, animations, and literary works, to communicate a grand idea. We can’t just say, “you’re wrong! You should change the way you think about that!” If we did, the audience would immediately become defensive because we’ve just attacked them. There are better, more entertaining, ways of influencing people with our stories.

If we want to communicate a grand idea through film or animation, we have to explain the idea indirectly, without actually asking the audience to change their mind. Luckily this is the best way of actually getting your audience to change their mind. Direct comparisons of two ideas and asking for a change can be counterproductive and stressful to the audience. The Left Hand of Darkness is a book that serves as both a story about communicating a grand idea to an entire planet and actually communicating a grand idea to the audience. In The Left Hand of Darkness, Genly Ai is trying to convince nations of Gethen (a planet) to join an alliance with the planetary confederation Genly belongs to, the Ekumen. The leaders of Gethen refuses and much of the rest of the story revolves around the trials Genly has to whether to convince the planet of ambisexuals to join them. Genly says that the reason for joining the alliance is for the greater benefit of intelligent life and not resources or conquest of any kind. It takes great sacrifice on Genly’s part to finally accomplish his goal and convince the nations of Gethen to be on his side. It also takes time for us to get on Genly’s side in the first place. In the end, we understand Genly’s motives and agree with him as do the nations of Gethen. 

 If we want to convey any grand idea to our audience, we have to be just as clever at getting our point across. In writing for film and animation, we have to use metaphor to beat around the bush to convince our audience that our grand ideas are worth changing our mind for. You can lead a horse to water but…