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“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pendants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain.”
In case you need reminding that Le Guin is one of the very best of writers, a person of compassion and anger and intellectual rigor and elegant grace, a person of vision... read this story. It is barely 8 ...more
In case you need reminding that Le Guin is one of the very best of writers, a person of compassion and anger and intellectual rigor and elegant grace, a person of vision... read this story. It is barely 8 ...more
Mar 17, 2022
Hirondelle (not getting notifications)
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review of another edition
Shelves:
short-pieces,
fantasy
A very famous short story by a favorite author of mine, which I had never read but whose plot is very famous and which I was aware of. And finally read it (2022 is being the year where I am devouring short stories, particularly sf and fantasy. I think I am cracking the mode in not trying to read anthologies and also I am understanding better the cache of online magazines...).
And rating books is HARD, and unfair, and often says more about the person doing rating than the book, but I can't rate t ...more
And rating books is HARD, and unfair, and often says more about the person doing rating than the book, but I can't rate t ...more
I love this story dearly. I know many often see it as a Gedankenexperiment on Utopia and the cost we are willing to pay for it; I see it as a metaphor for our own lives in the Western world. Much of our prosperity and convenience, sometimes our sense of happiness and self, necessitates the misery of others. Child labor for our consumer goods, or war for oil.
That's why I have a hard time believing someone would not accept Omelas's deal. I feel that we as a society have done so in orders of magnit ...more
That's why I have a hard time believing someone would not accept Omelas's deal. I feel that we as a society have done so in orders of magnit ...more
Sep 11, 2010
Julie S.
marked it as to-read
Mar 28, 2014
Figgy
marked it as to-read
Feb 22, 2015
~Geektastic~
marked it as to-read
Jan 07, 2022
Tatjana
marked it as to-read
Apr 16, 2022
Maria
marked it as to-read
