About the book: 1991 / From the field notes of ONG TOT OPPONG, Explorer of the First Ecumenical Landing Party on Getten/Winter, Cycle 93. Eik. year 1448. Our own experience of socio-sexual relations is completely unsuitable here. Gethenians do not view each other as Men and Women. It is almost impossible for our imagination to imagine this. After all, what is the first question we ask when we learn about the birth of a child? And yet you cannot use the pronoun “it” in relation to Gethenians. They have a certain potency; during each sexual cycle they can change in one direction or another. After this, no psychological habits remain, and the mother of several children can be the father of other children. There is no division of humanity into the strong and weak half, into those who protect and those who are protected. Everyone is respected and everyone is treated primarily as human beings. You cannot imagine a Gethenian in the role of a Man or a Woman, although when addressing them, you choose for the interlocutor a role that meets your expectations in relationships between persons of the same or opposite sex. Earthlings have an absolutely amazing experience here.…