![]() One of the things I admire most about Le Guin is that she's not blindly utopian, but there's a strong throughline in her work of refusing to accept a cruel status quo she acknowledges we might have to give up some comforts and luxuries to build a better society than Omelas, but isn't it worth it, if no more children have to be tortured in basements? Such a chilling portrait it becomes of how easily we'll excuse and rationalise and compartmentalise to retain our comforts, or even just something that's familiar.Īs for the ones who walk away, as much as she asked us to be part of constructing the city, she then asks us to imagine what the place they're walking to could look like. But the title plants a "Yes, but?" in your head and you know the reveal is coming, and when it does, you see oh no, this is just us and how we live now. It was such a stroke of brilliance to paint Omelas as a utopia and even make us complicit in its construction by asking us to imagine the details ourselves (I also love her humour, and getting out ahead of people who'd call her a goody-goody fuddy-duddy by dropping in sex and drugs). Your interpretation is about the sum of it, at least to me. ![]() Coincidentally, I also read it for the first time just yesterday despite being a huge fan of hers for years! It's stunning, and provides a lot to discuss in its very short word count.
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