One aspect about the Left Hand of Darkness that I have not been able to shake is the name of the book itself.  I know that we touched on this some in class, but it still bothers me.

What is it about the left hand that makes everything seem worse?  The mistrust of left-handers seems to have stemmed from ancient sun worship.  Since the sun moved from left to right, the worshipers related everything to the right as “good” and everything to the left as “bad”. 

There are also passages in the bible that are not in favor of the left hand.  The most prominent one comes from Matthew 25: 31-34, 41:

“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them on from another, as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats: an he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, ‘Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’… Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Even pictures describing the fall of man in the Garden of Eden depict Eve reaching up to pick an apple with her left hand.

In summary, left-handed people seem to get the short end of the stick.