Iâve seen the critique Tobias makes beforeâit is a fair point (though kind of unrelated to the usefulness of the Omelas story). The story itself is really explicitly making a point about the writing/â imagining of utopias, as Tobias says. Itâs really not hard to see this when you read itâit was surprising for me to come back to the story and read it again and see that itâs a very explicit thought experiment about just that.
However I do think thatâs not much of a gotcha against the people who use it to make points about utilitarianism. Theyâre only wrong insofar as their argument relies on the authority of Le Guin or somethingâyou can use and repurpose fiction as a thought experiment however you like. I presume (without reading the context) that Le Guin herself is using her thought experiment for a different purpose in different contexts, and thatâs fine.
Fair, âmisreadingâ is a strong word for whatâs going on. I find it somewhat justified because of how much less plausible the âstandard readingâ becomes once you engage with the whole story. I tried to address the weirdness of disagreeing with the author in the last section.
I didnât intend this post to be a gotcha. Sorry if it comes across this way!
I also agree that itâs fine for people to repurpose stories. There are likely many people with âTwo roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by. And that has made all the difference.â posters, who derive a lot of value from them, which is good. But itâs still interesting to me that those posters misread the poem, and that how common this misreading is may reveal something broader about the readers & what they want to get out of literature.
Iâll continue to defend the âstandard readingâ. I think the story can be critiquing our lack of imagination of utopia andalso be against standard utilitarianism and third world exploitation and so on. I donât think the two are opposed, I think they actually link up.
I think whatâs missing from your interpretation is the climax of the story, which is also the title: the ones who walk away:
They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and theydo not come back. The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us that the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible that it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas
I donât think this finale works, if the story is only about Omelas being absurd. I think LeGuin is arguing that the type of society described in Omelas is wrong, and is arguing that it should be rejected.
LeGuin was a left-wing anarchist and anti-capitalist. Iâm guessing she was probably gesturing to western society as analogous to Omelas, as a place of plenty that benefits from the exploitation of others in the developing world. She was saying that people justify an unjust status quo with utilitarian arguments that exploitation is justified on greater good grounds. I see the story as an attack on peoples inability to think that a world without exploitation and inequality is possible: an attack on fatalistic acceptance of pain and suffering as inevitable.
Iâm guessing that you are not a left-wing anarchist anti-capitalist, which is fine. I think your interpretation is a valid one, but I would guess that it is not the one that is intended by the author, which is also fine. LeGuin was an excellent writer but nobody is obligated to agree with her politically.
I didnât intend this post to be a gotcha. Sorry if it comes across this way!
I think this was just poor word-choice on my partâI was just pointing out that sometimes this point (that people are reading the story wrong) can be used as a point against people making the anti-utilitarian argument. âGotchaâ is a bit harsher than what I meant, and I also didnât want to accuse you of this. Sorry!
Iâve seen the critique Tobias makes beforeâit is a fair point (though kind of unrelated to the usefulness of the Omelas story). The story itself is really explicitly making a point about the writing/â imagining of utopias, as Tobias says. Itâs really not hard to see this when you read itâit was surprising for me to come back to the story and read it again and see that itâs a very explicit thought experiment about just that.
However I do think thatâs not much of a gotcha against the people who use it to make points about utilitarianism. Theyâre only wrong insofar as their argument relies on the authority of Le Guin or somethingâyou can use and repurpose fiction as a thought experiment however you like. I presume (without reading the context) that Le Guin herself is using her thought experiment for a different purpose in different contexts, and thatâs fine.
Thanks, Toby & titotal!
Fair, âmisreadingâ is a strong word for whatâs going on. I find it somewhat justified because of how much less plausible the âstandard readingâ becomes once you engage with the whole story. I tried to address the weirdness of disagreeing with the author in the last section.
I didnât intend this post to be a gotcha. Sorry if it comes across this way!
I also agree that itâs fine for people to repurpose stories. There are likely many people with âTwo roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by. And that has made all the difference.â posters, who derive a lot of value from them, which is good. But itâs still interesting to me that those posters misread the poem, and that how common this misreading is may reveal something broader about the readers & what they want to get out of literature.
Iâll continue to defend the âstandard readingâ. I think the story can be critiquing our lack of imagination of utopia and also be against standard utilitarianism and third world exploitation and so on. I donât think the two are opposed, I think they actually link up.
I think whatâs missing from your interpretation is the climax of the story, which is also the title: the ones who walk away:
I donât think this finale works, if the story is only about Omelas being absurd. I think LeGuin is arguing that the type of society described in Omelas is wrong, and is arguing that it should be rejected.
LeGuin was a left-wing anarchist and anti-capitalist. Iâm guessing she was probably gesturing to western society as analogous to Omelas, as a place of plenty that benefits from the exploitation of others in the developing world. She was saying that people justify an unjust status quo with utilitarian arguments that exploitation is justified on greater good grounds. I see the story as an attack on peoples inability to think that a world without exploitation and inequality is possible: an attack on fatalistic acceptance of pain and suffering as inevitable.
Iâm guessing that you are not a left-wing anarchist anti-capitalist, which is fine. I think your interpretation is a valid one, but I would guess that it is not the one that is intended by the author, which is also fine. LeGuin was an excellent writer but nobody is obligated to agree with her politically.
I think this was just poor word-choice on my partâI was just pointing out that sometimes this point (that people are reading the story wrong) can be used as a point against people making the anti-utilitarian argument. âGotchaâ is a bit harsher than what I meant, and I also didnât want to accuse you of this. Sorry!