Tobi Okanlawon
Okay. Most people seem to think they'd walk away from Omelas.
How about the Omelas in front of us? Why haven't we all walked away from this?
Not to call us hypocrites, but... We are hypocrites, and that's okay. Perhaps walking away asks so much of us that it's a losing strategy just because of how difficult it is. Perhaps reformation, with all its ability to be co-opted is still a better strategy because it's one people can get behind.
This is me playing devil's advocate, while slightly drunk
tech? no! man, see...
@sherlock_holmes the way I see it, it's very hard to interpret the Omelas story as anything other than a fable pointing out hypocrisy (the presumed hypocrisy of the reader but also of the author)
the story depends on the assumption that people *can* walk away from Omelas, but it never mentions where they're walking to, which doesn't really reflect the way things work in reality
what does it mean to leave? I can't walk away from my country of birth, because no other country will let me in without something like a work permit or a visa sponsor, which are only available to people who haven't walked away! if I walk away from my job and my mortgage, I'm considered a vagrant, which is illegal, and I get arrested
if walking away were a thing you could actually do, I suspect people would do it! but society is structured in such a way that ensures it can't ever actually be walked away from
tech? no! man, see...
@sherlock_holmes the novel Walkaway goes into this in much more detail, but it posits a sci-fi scenario in which large-scale 3D printing just like ... magically solves housing problems, so ... it's a fun read but not actually that relevant to current events
Tobi Okanlawon
@technomancy that's very insightful, thanks.
I think I agree with you. The Omelas story is very open-ended, and I think that's why I like it so much. It definitely does expose the hypocrisy and myopia of the reader.
We can feel high-minded and claim that we'd leave, but it takes a certain foresight to question the story in the way that you have just done. To realise that leaving is much easier said than done. To even decide that leaving isn't worth it, because it does nothing for the child.
tech? no! man, see...
@sherlock_holmes one of my favorite books! a friend of mine recommended Walkaway precisely because I told him how much I liked The Dispossessed =)
Tobi Okanlawon
@technomancy have you read "The Dispossessed" by Le Guin?
tech? no! man, see...
@sherlock_holmes lmao sure why not
my recent faves are the Gideon the Ninth series (sarcastic queer necromancer space opera) and Babel (anti-colonial lingustics-magic historical fantasy)
also been reading some great fiction by fediverse residents including Situation Normal (gritty space opera-ish), git commit murder (unix crime mystery), and Black Water Sister (urban fantasy set in Malaysia)
[complete log is at https://technomancy.us/books but that includes everything, not just the ones I loved]
Tobi Okanlawon
@technomancy Recommend some literature. I wanna crawl into your head.
Sorry, I'm drunk 😂
tech? no! man, see...
@skaeth @sherlock_holmes how I have I never heard of this before? I loved Broken Earth and she seems like someone worth listening to on this topic
thanks for the link!
S. Kaeth
Have you read The Ones Who Stay and Fight, NK Jemisin's response to The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas? https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-ones-who-stay-and-fight/
They are definitely a pair of stories I've pondered a lot!
Tobi Okanlawon
@technomancy @skaeth what's broken earth?
tech? no! man, see...
@sherlock_holmes @skaeth Broken Earth is a future-fantasy series by NK Jemisin I read a couple years ago; I should have listed that in my recommendations earlier; it's kinda dark but it's a great story
tech? no! man, see...
@sherlock_holmes great! here's some links to the authors I mentioned who have fedi accounts: (https links to avoid bothering them by mentions)
Zen Cho (Black Water Sister) https://wandering.shop/@zencho
Leonard Richardson (Situation Normal and Constellation Games): https://botsin.space/@leonardr
Michael W Lucas (git commit murder): https://io.mwl.io/@mwl
Tobi Okanlawon
@technomancy I have not heard of anything on this list before. I have found something to do for the next few days/weeks.
Don't nobody on the fedi disturb me, I will be knee deep.
Gadfly (-booq-)
@technomancy @sherlock_holmes My Omelas opinion is that any response to Omelas that doesn't also respond to The Dispossessed has not actually, in fact, responded to Omelas.
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