Scan barcode
A review by hibsta
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
5.0
Friggin brilliant!! So thought-provoking; it asks us the type of questions that, upon answering, give us a deeper insight into our own beings.
Omelas is a Utopia filled with such pure joy, beauty, health, prosperity, and all good things that come to mind, that the narrator has to pop in several times to assure us of its reality. But, the catch is (there's always a price to these utopias), its utopic existence is contingent on the perpetual misery (and not just any kind of misery, but the most profound and damned misery) of a child locked up in a dark basement under one of Omelas's pristine public buildings—aye there's the rub! What's worse is that the child knows what normal life feels like, "it remembers sunlight and its mother's voice". The inhabitants of Omelas know this malnourished child exists and exists in gross, festering misery.
But only a handful choose to walk away.
In thinking, we'd all like to imagine ourselves to be among those who walk away from Omelas. But this story can be read from so many different lenses that we realise we're actually the ones who stay because there's exploitation all around us and we know of it, and yet, we've accepted it—think Zara still being a popular brand when everybody knows about the sweatshops. Utilitarianism very much still exists today—think exploitation of countries in the global South.
Some topics that came to mind while reading this: the exuberance of gilded age stood on the backs of the working class; slavery; colonisers profiting off of the colonies; and, in a way, the infringement of women's rights allowing patriarchal structures to exist and thrive.
One of the most interesting reads of 2022!
Omelas is a Utopia filled with such pure joy, beauty, health, prosperity, and all good things that come to mind, that the narrator has to pop in several times to assure us of its reality. But, the catch is (there's always a price to these utopias), its utopic existence is contingent on the perpetual misery (and not just any kind of misery, but the most profound and damned misery) of a child locked up in a dark basement under one of Omelas's pristine public buildings—aye there's the rub! What's worse is that the child knows what normal life feels like, "it remembers sunlight and its mother's voice". The inhabitants of Omelas know this malnourished child exists and exists in gross, festering misery.
But only a handful choose to walk away.
In thinking, we'd all like to imagine ourselves to be among those who walk away from Omelas. But this story can be read from so many different lenses that we realise we're actually the ones who stay because there's exploitation all around us and we know of it, and yet, we've accepted it—think Zara still being a popular brand when everybody knows about the sweatshops. Utilitarianism very much still exists today—think exploitation of countries in the global South.
Some topics that came to mind while reading this: the exuberance of gilded age stood on the backs of the working class; slavery; colonisers profiting off of the colonies; and, in a way, the infringement of women's rights allowing patriarchal structures to exist and thrive.
One of the most interesting reads of 2022!