Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin

26 reviews

firefly's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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dastardly_red_witch's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No

4.0

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ogik's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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panidals's review against another edition

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dark inspiring reflective fast-paced

3.5

This book is recommended if you want a (very) quick read which will make you think after reading.
To me rating a story like this is quite difficult, as I have just finished reading it. It’s even difficult to call it a story as this is more a situation created by the author. Even though what happens in Omelas doesn’t make sense in reality, something true is hidden between the lines. It rises the question: Are we in Omelas? Are we the child? Or maybe we are the ones who walked away from it?
I might update this if I have drawn my own conclusion, but I don’t think there’s a right answer to these questions.
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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS is a brief story of complicity and abuse in a city where most have decided that the happiness of many is worth the abject misery of one.

This story is short with a simple but heartbreaking premise: that the happiness of an entire city depends on the abuse and misery of a small child, where the justification for the child's mistreatment is that its low intelligence and the abuse it has undergone until this point mean it wouldn't even know what to do if it were freed. Anyone who stays in the city past a certain age where they are shown the child does so with the knowledge that everything good for them is dependent on this child suffering. It's brief and well worth reading.

For me one of the most interesting parts of the story is the way that the abuse until the point is used to justify further abuse. The idea that only by thinking about one child suffering can these people be kind to the other children, and that now that the child has been abused they may as well stay that way because rescue and rehabilitation would be difficult and might never fully work... it's unfortunately (and clearly purposefully) close to the attitudes that are used in the real world to justify a whole host of ills.
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nyappytiramisu's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad fast-paced

4.0

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