Science

Fiction
URSULA K. LE GUIN
New Wave of SF
• Postmodernism is perhaps one of the most
ambiguous words deployed within the
humanities. It can mean multiple different things
depending of the field of studies is expressed in.
Are you familiar with this word? What do you
associate as being postmodern?
New
Labelled as a negative term after the “Golden
Age,” the “New Wave” of SF emerges in the 60s
through the works of women writers such as
Octavia Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin and Joanna

Wave of Russ.
It rejected the “hard” science fiction of past male
writers and their technocratic visions of the world.

SF It manifested an interest in politics, sexuality and

anthropology.

Science and technology are not the cause for the

development of societies and the organization of
power structures. Economics and politics are the
dominant forces.
New
• hiding greyly behind that sexy rockstar, technology, is
a much more sinister and powerful figure. It is the
entire social system that surrounds us […] It is

Wave of
because technology is a mystification for something
else that it becomes a kind of autonomous deity, one
that can promise both salvation and damnation […]

SF
Both technophobes and technophiles demonstrate, to
my mind, a kind of megalomania: the imperial nature
of capitalism, the desire to own and control
everything, whether in its ascendant or disappointed
phase. The technophiles certainly embody the fallacy
that more is better and the thingification of people and
social relations. (‘SF and Technology as Mystification’
37; 38)
New wave of SF
New Wave was responsible for bringing sexuality into a genre that had long
ignored it or refused to treat it seriously.

Technology, either in its technophobic or technophilic version, operates as an

ideological discourse for those in privileged positions of power.

Technology conceals the economic and social components in political issues.

Ursula K. Le
Guin
• American author best recognized for her works
in speculative fiction, science fiction and
fantasy.
• She produced more than twenty novels and over
a hundred short stories. She also wrote poetry
and essays on literary criticism.
• Some of her most acclaimed novels A Wizard of
Earthsea (1968), The Left Hand of Darkness
(1969) and he Dispossessed (1978).
Ursula K. Le
Guin
• Cultural anthropology, feminism, Taoism
and the writings of Carl Jung were major
influences in her work.
• Exemplified the potential of speculative
fiction to deal with political issues in
progressive terms (feminism, capitalism
and ecology).
• Expanded what science fiction can speak
about and address.
“The Ones Who Walk Away From
Omelas”
“The Ones Who
Walk Away From
Omelas”
• Philosophical short story of speculative
fiction.

• Deliberately vague about the location and

temporal coordinates of the society it deals
with.

• The city of Omelas is a utopian society

whose prosperity is sustained from the
perpetual suffering and neglection of one
child.
“The Ones Who Walk Away From
Omelas”
Lack of Plot: There are no major plot twists or action in the short story. The narrator offers
an overview of the city and its functioning.

Narrative Voice: The narrator is an advocate of the city of Omelas and its unmatched
standards of living. It accounts for the greatness of the city at great length.

Characters: No characters. No hero or antagonist. Only the neglected child that is not given a
narrative voice during the entire narration.
“The Ones Who Walk Away From
Omelas”
Trajectory: The idyllic description of the city gradually advances towards the suffering child
and her situation: “Joyous! How is one to tell about! How to describe the citizens of
Omelas?” (213)

Happiness and Utopia: The narrator celebrates Omelas and focused on joy rather than
suffering: “The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates,
of considering happiness as something rather stupid” (213).

Addresses the Reader: Explicitly addresses the reader as a you throughout the narration.
Attempting to convince you of the greatness of Omelas: “I wish I could describe it better. I
wish I could convince you […] If so, please add an orgy” (214).
“The Ones Who Walk Away From
Omelas”
Classless Society: Omelas is a classless society that does not maintain any discernible type of
hierarchical structures. There are no slaves or monarchy. No poor enriching the few.

Sexually Liberal: Describes orgies between “any man or woman, lover or stranger, who desires
union with the godhead of the blood, although that was my first idea” (214).

Happiness and Utopia: Focus on joy rather than suffering. Absence of guilt in this society. The
narrator celebrates Omelas: “The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and
sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid” (213).
“The Ones Who Walk From
Omelas”
• “It is feeble minded. Perhaps it was born defective, or perhaps it has become imbecile through fear,
malnutrition, and neglect […] The door is always locked; and nobody ever comes, except that sometimes –
the child has no understanding of time or interval– sometimes the door rattles terribly and opens, and a
person, or several people are there. One of them may kick the child to make it stand up. The others never
come close, but peer in at it with frightened, disgusted eye” (215-216).

• Notice the effusive tone at the beginning of the narration with the current one to describe the child’s
situation. What is the text attempting to convey through this contrast? Why does the narrator refer to the
child as “it”?
“The Ones Who Walk Away From
Omelas”
Dismissive: The narrator is deliberately vague about the child’s situation and undermines her
conditions of oppression: “It could be a boy or a girl. It looks about six, but actually is nearly
ten. It is feebleminded” (215)

Objectification: The child is referred by the narrator as “it.” This causes a detachment effect
on the child’s humanity by treating it as an object or animal.

Guilt: If citizens felt guilty about the child’s misfortune, they whole structure of Omelas
would disintegrate. Instead they mock him to get rid of their bad consciousness.
“The Ones • “If the child were brought up into the
sunlight out of that vile place, if it were

Who Walk
cleaned and fed and comforted, that
would be a good thing, indeed; but if it
were done, in that day and hour all the
prosperity and beauty and delight of

Away From
Omelas would wither and be destroyed”
(216).

• Is the suffering of the child ethical if is

Omelas”
capable of sustaining the happiness of
the vast majority?
“The Ones Who • Quantitative Judgement: If the ethical equation is
extrapolated to the suffering of the many answers may
Walk Away From be facilitated.

Omelas” • Social Prosperity: Applicable to contemporary

conditions. The prosperity of certain social, racial
groups and nations is sustained by the misery of those
marginalized.
• Social Commentary: Is the happiness of many ethical
if it is supported by the extreme torture and suffering
of one?
“The Ones Who Walk Away From
Omelas”
• “They may brood over it for weeks or years. But as time goes on they begin to realize that even if the child
could be released, it would not get much good of its freedom: a little vague pleasure of warmth and food, no
doubt, but little more. It is too degraded and imbecile to know any real joy […] They know that they, like
the child, are not free. They know compassion. It is the existence of the child, and their knowledge of its
existence, that makes possible the nobility of their architecture, the poignancy of their music, the profundity
of their science […] Now do you believe in them? Are they not more credible?” (216-217).

• Consider the ritual of taking children to witness the tortured child and their following acceptance of “its”
tragic fate. Is the narrator a reliable source in the short story? What is the narrator attempting to accomplish
here by addressing the reader?
“The Ones Who Walk Away From
Omelas”
Dissidents: They walk away from Omelas. Something which is inconceivable to the narrator who
celebrates the “utopian” city. They seem to know where they are going. Where could this be?

Ethical Conundrum: The suffering of one serves a major “good” from the narrator’s standpoint. Should
we aspire for more? Should we walk away from it? Where else would we go?

Qualitative Judgement: If social reality is supported by oppression, no matter the quantity or extent,
then its structures are unjust from the outset and need to be changed. It confronts us with our own
pessimism, we assume that no alternatives are possible.
“The Ones
• “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” is one of
the most celebrated short stories written by Ursula K.
Le Guin and encapsulates the philosophical depth

Who Walk afforded by speculative fiction. Its legacy can be

observed in Jemisin’s short story “The Ones Who Stay
and Fight” (2018), the video game series Dishonoured

Away (2012-2022) and, even more surprisingly, the 2017

music video of “Spring Day” by BTS. What makes

From
this story so captivating across the globe today? Can
we read this short story in allegorical terms? To what
situations can we compare this in contemporary

Omelas” conditions of existence?