Mastodawn

3/3
And I can't stress enough that this isn't about being a jaded or cynical. Take the inverse, let's call it Salemo. "This place has only unending suffering where everyone is tortured all the time and there's no hope." Boring. Literally the tvtropes page of Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy. "They do this because it ensures a perfect life for one child." Wow! Mass self-sacrifice! What's so important about the child that they all agree to undergo extreme suffering? Tell me more! Is there a lesson I could apply to my own life? I don't believe in perfect joy without a catch, sure, but I don't believe in perfect pain without a catch either. Even stories that start bad and end bad don't stay bad all the way through. Instead it's "Ah, things are terribl. Oh look, the main chracter is trying to turn things around! Oh no, they failed because of some tragic flaw in their character that they couldn't overcome!" And I say "Wow, what a bad fate, I should think about what kind of flaws I have."

I'm almost wondering if this was her actual point? To play around with what makes a story complete? Not just call me an edgelord?

#omelas #ursulaleguin #books

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tentiv 2d ago

2/3
I think where the disconnect lies is that I'm engaging with her story as just that, a story. The purpose of a story is both to entertain and to convey some information to get us to think about our own life and experience. An interesting story makes us have interesting thoughts. The story of "this place is perfect and nothing ever goes wrong" isn't interesting, but not because we think that's naive, it's because there's no useful information being conveyed there. Okay, they're perfect. Why? How did they become this way? Can I apply anything they do to my life so that I can make things better? Oh, you don't want to tell me? Then it's not a full narrative, it's only a snapshot of a setting. My brain is starving here.

Oh, they torture a child! Wow, what a shocking moral dilemma. One innocent's suffering for the welfare of thousands, hm, that makes my brain think about whether I would want to live there. Now I'm engaged and interested, not because a child is being tortured but because there's actually a topic of discussion.

#omelas #ursulaleguin #books

tentiv 2d ago

So, I'm thinking about Omelas. Maybe I'm misreading, but the point is to make you think about why you didn't believe in the perfect place and felt it's more believable when a kid was being tortured to make it perfect, right? The whole "The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting." Like, not really? Maybe that was true in her context. All the pedants and sophisticates I see constantly stress that things are terrible right now and that we have the power to make them better. (This could be just a byproduct of social media used for mass political mobilization?)

1/3

#omelas #ursulaleguin #books

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bluemilla 4d ago

@heiky @sfLiteratur
Ohja, früher mal gelesen, seit einiger Zeit wieder auf der Liste.
Hab eh den leisen Verdacht, dass sich so manch "moderner" #sciencefiction kräftig bei #ursulaleguin bedient.

Noam writes Apr 19

Member of my (online) #writing group says my world building and style remind him of Ursula K Le Guin. 🥰

mouse drop!

#LeGuin #UrsulaLeGuin

Sofía Belén López Vicens Apr 19

I just finished The Dispossessed and it hit me at a particular moment of my life of transition (and of coming back home), so I ended up writing a longer piece unpacking some of the ideas. I adored the book, it's so rich in ideas, and the writing is just exquisite. I loved her use of metaphors and symbolism, while still feeling very down-to-earth (no pun intended) and readable.

https://sofiabelen.github.io/literature/the-dispossessed/

#TheDispossessed #UrsulaLeGuin #SciFi #BookReview #ScienceFiction

The Dispossessed: Putting Together The Puzzle

He had come to love Urras; but what good was his yearning love? He was not part of it. Nor was he part of the world of his birth.\nSuch a rich work, the reading experience was a rollercoaster of ideas and shifts in perspective. This book has met me at a transition time in my life revolving around the theme of coming home. Like Shevek, I have been on a constant journey seeking home. I feel that everywhere I’ve been, I’ve found pieces of what I would call home. What I mean by this is that different aspects of ‘me’ have felt at home in the different ‘realms’ I’ve inhabited. Each time, I was overjoyed; each time, I thought, I had finally found it. Each time, though, I learned to realize that other parts of me were left without a home.\n

Sofía Belén López Vicens

Boldly.Blue Apr 16

American Nightmares: The Near-Future Dystopia as Political Warning, from Bradbury to Butler to the Present
https://boldly.blue/near-future-dystopia-political-science-fiction-guide/
A guide to the American political dystopia. Enter at your own risk.
#Dystopia #ScienceFiction #RayBradbury #OctaviaButler #PhilipKDick #UrsulaLeGuin #NKJemisin #PoliticalFiction #SpeculativeFiction #LiteraryAnalysis #Fahrenheit451 #ParableOfTheSower

American Nightmares: The Near-Future Dystopia as Political Warning, from Bradbury to Butler to the Present - David Somerfleck | Science Fiction Author

A definitive guide to the American political dystopia — from Fahrenheit 451's burning books to Octavia Butler's eerily prescient 2024, Philip K. Dick's manufactured realities, Ursula Le Guin's anarchist ambiguity, and N.K. Jemisin's enslaved geological workers. Why these five writers share a single tradition, and what that tradition demands of the reader.

David Somerfleck

Jan Apr 8

https://www.tor-online.de/magazin/science-fiction/lieben-was-wir-nicht-verstehen-science-fiction-als-praxis-der-unmoeglichen

#Sciencefiction #ursulaleguin #octaviabutler #feminismus

Lieben, was wir nicht verstehen. Science Fiction als Praxis der unmöglichen Empathie

Der Beitrag untersucht Science Fiction als eine Praxis, die uns in Beziehung mit radikaler Fremdheit bringt. Anhand von Werken wie Le Guins Die linke Hand der Dunkelheit und Butlers Bloodchild zeigt Aiki Mira, wie Science Fiction uns ermöglicht, Liebe und Verbundenheit jenseits eines vollständigen Verstehens zu denken. Eine Fähigkeit, die in Zeiten von KI, Neurodiversität, queeren Identitäten, aussterbenden Arten und ökologischem Kollaps zunehmend notwendig erscheint.

Tor Online

Boldly.Blue Apr 3

Solarpunk: The Genre That Dares to Dream the World Repaired https://boldly.blue/solarpunk-genre-guide/ #Solarpunk #SpeculativeFiction #ScienceFiction #ClimateFixtion #Hopepunk #Lunarpunk #BeckyChambersAuthor #KimStanleyRobinson #NnediOkorafor #UrsulaLeGuin #GenreGuide #CyberpunkAlternative

Solarpunk: The Genre That Dares to Dream the World Repaired - David Somerfleck | Science Fiction Author

Solarpunk is the speculative fiction genre that replaced dystopian doom with solar panels, community gardens, and radical hope. A complete introduction to the genre's origins, subgenres, key writers — Becky Chambers, Kim Stanley Robinson, Nnedi Okorafor, Ursula Le Guin — and how it compares to science fiction, dystopian fiction, fantasy, and horror.

David Somerfleck