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A review by w0lfyfr3n
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
reflective
fast-paced
3.5
This was interesting: the trolley problem as a fantasy story. I liked thinking about the elements that would constitute a good modern utopia. There were also some nice lines about the artistic bias towards pain and suffering (though ironically even this story eventually gravitates towards it !)
The trouble is that we have a bad habit [...] of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting.
But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else.
I grew tired of the fourth wall breaking though, and imo the story ended too abruptly, in a way that made it feel incomplete.
Graphic: Child abuse