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I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 1:14:39 AM

Bishonenjim

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There was an old scifi short story I had to read in highschool, and I'm wondering if anyone would remember the name if I described it since I can't.

It took place in a futuristic utopian city where everyone lived long lives without disease and everyone was happy about their lives. This came at a cost however and one child was required to stay in a closet in a basement deprived of light, reasonable food, interaction (I know some slaves dream come true... but that wasn't what interested me)... basicly everything. The story doesn't go into the how it all works or why the boy is nessacary.

It mostly describes the situation from the point of view of someone who has to go see him. In this society everyone is required once in their lives to go see the boy that makes everyones happiness possible and then they make a choice to either stay and be happy in the city or venture out into the unknown because they can't live with knowing about the boy.

It wasn't really explained the significance of it in high school, but years later in a college ethics class I had an epiphany and realized it was an example of a utilitarian ideal (scaraficing one person for the good of the many) taken too far, but by then I couldn't remember the name of the story! : ( So... anyone know the name?

Post #: 1

RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 1:17:17 AM

SusanofO

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It sounds a little like "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, but I know it's not, because that wasn't a Sci-Fi story. Wish I could help. Sorry.

- Susan

_____________________________

"Hope is the thing with feathers,
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all". - Emily Dickinson

(in reply to Bishonenjim)

Post #: 2

RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 1:28:09 AM

slaveboyforyou

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"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin

edit: I should add that the story is in the book, The Wind's Twelve Quarters

< Message edited by slaveboyforyou -- 9/5/2007 1:36:10 AM >

(in reply to Bishonenjim)

Post #: 3

RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 1:57:38 AM

SusanofO

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I know what you mean about an epiphany. Our teacher made us read "The Lottery" in 6th grade English Lit - but I didn't really "get it" until years later. I always thought it was about people's seeming need for a "scapegoat" for their problems (that are either inexplicable, or of their own making, but they don't want to admit it).

Either that, or - that people don't want to evenly distribute (or attempt to) wealth, goods and services, etc.- even if people all work equally hard for them, or they don't want to provide for some that obviously have a more difficult time making ends meet, or have some other social dis-advantage that necessitates others collectively watching over them somehow. About "Blaming the victim."

Basically, I guess I thought it was about peeking behind the curtain re:Society's need to fool itself about how things get done that are apparently advantageous for "all".

It is a similar (but not exactly the same) story.

Ursula K. LeGuin is a great writer, IMO. Yours (the one you mention) sounds like a great story (to me).
Are you writing some kind of book report? Or just wondering about it?

- Susan

< Message edited by SusanofO -- 9/5/2007 2:15:04 AM >

_____________________________

"Hope is the thing with feathers,
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all". - Emily Dickinson

(in reply to slaveboyforyou)

Post #: 4

RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 2:15:58 AM

slaveboyforyou

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It's been a long time since I read this story. I read it in high school too, which was 15 years ago. I knew what you were talking about when you asked the question. I went and found a copy of it online and read it again. I remembered what I thought about it. The child (the sex of the child is never revealed.) can represent anything we don't want to think about when we go about our lives. The sick, cruelty, disease, war, famine, injustice, etc. We know these things exist, but to do anything substantial about them would interfere with our own happiness. Just like the people who see this boy, most of us make a choice. We deal with the pain of knowing about it and continue on with our lives. We even make rationalizations for these things to ourselves, just like the people in the story. Or, we walk away and ignore the problem all together leaving it to be someone else's problem. I think the story makes the point that neither of those options are better. They both make a person equally guilty. Sometimes in order to make things right, everyone has to feel pain and place their own happiness aside.

(in reply to SusanofO)

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RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 2:25:44 AM

SusanofO

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I remember one time in college, I got really infuriated listening to my parents' Book Club talk about stuff like this (terrible world problems, economic ones, mostly) over their Martinis and chips from the other room. After listening to them banter for awhile about it (I thought they were all hypocrites, of course), I went out and got drunk at a bar (my typical routine on week-ends in college).

When I got home (very drunk) there was this Infomercial on TV for the "International Christian Children's Fund". It just made me cry and cry, and I called up their hotline that minute, and "adopted" a child for $26 a month, because at the time, it just really got to me.

I still send them a check (but for a different kid) today (plus 2 more from World Vision), and I donate clothes to the Salvation Army, and to a Mission in town for the homeless. But so do lots of people.

However, the story is right - because If I really cared as much as I could, I'd probably join the Peace Corps or something. I console myself with the thought that "everybody acts like this". And I think maybe everybody does - even "less advantaged" people -but that still doesn't make it right, IMO. I could undoubtedly do more than I do.

Sorry to be such a "wet blanket" - it must be my mood. This stufff can be depressing, and I do think it's terrible, and there is no end to it, really. But so far, I haven't picked up and moved to Somalia (or Ethiopia) to help. Is that wrong? Personally, I just don't know. Maybe I have more of a "mission" where I live - and I am not meant to move to another country.

I honestly don't know (am not kidding). Stories like this really can make one think. I am not trying to rationalize it's meaning - because I think that story packs a real punch.

It might seem like it, but am truly not trying to put a damper on this discussion (if there is one). Just saying what happened to me re: The topic once many moons ago when I was in college. I do think there will always be poor people, no matter what. Well I guess that is the job of some very good authors - to observe and report on things like this. Maybe I should just go to bed. The topic is certainly food for thought, though, IMO.

Glad you wrote about it, OP.

- Susan

< Message edited by SusanofO -- 9/5/2007 2:46:54 AM >

_____________________________

"Hope is the thing with feathers,
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all". - Emily Dickinson

(in reply to slaveboyforyou)

Post #: 6

RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 2:54:19 AM

SusanofO

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To the OP: I hope you are not personalizing the meaning of the story into a D/s context, thinking that all Dominants are simply "dispacing" their need to make someone else "responsible" for them, or that they "need a "scapegoat" simply because they want a submissive or a slave.

Because I actually think BDSM is mostly (even in a D/s "role" and not just BDSM activity sense) much more about sex than it is about anything else - D/s role relationships included. And I am not referring to those who are "just" into "kinky bedroom sex" at the expense of a D/s relationship. I am talking about everything BDSM.

Bottom line: I think it's about the sex. Whether anyone wants to admit it, or not - it's just that for some, the intimacy and sex are better in a D/s context than it is when it's "Vanilla".

I think it's way more about that -than it is about any weird psychological displacement stuff. Of course there are plenty who would disagree, I suppose.

- Susan

< Message edited by SusanofO -- 9/5/2007 2:59:05 AM >

_____________________________

"Hope is the thing with feathers,
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all". - Emily Dickinson

(in reply to SusanofO)

Post #: 7

RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 7:15:28 AM

Alumbrado

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quote:

ORIGINAL: slaveboyforyou

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin

edit: I should add that the story is in the book, The Wind's Twelve Quarters

Also in Orson Scott Card's Masterpieces anthology IIRC.

(in reply to slaveboyforyou)

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RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 9:43:05 AM

satyrsnymph28

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quote:

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

thank you for bringing this unique story into my life.

i added it to my binder of "interesting things" which consists of many a self help article and random pictures and short stories.

anyway,
thanks

and you should read "the giver" by lois lowry

its my favorite book... i'm gonna start a favorite book thread...

(in reply to Alumbrado)

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RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 9:49:24 PM

Bishonenjim

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Joined: 6/3/2007
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Thank you for naming it for me. My attempts to find the name through google/wiki it failed miserably. Now, I need to go read it again as my interpetation of it was based on how I remembered from 4 or 5 years back (now more like 10).

I'm not writing any report. I was thinking of what my favorite book was. While this isn't it, it came to mind, and started driving me nuts that I didn't know the name.

_____________________________

"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away" -Tom Waits

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RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 9:53:01 PM

CuriousLord

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Alumbrado

quote:

ORIGINAL: slaveboyforyou

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin

edit: I should add that the story is in the book, The Wind's Twelve Quarters

Also in Orson Scott Card's Masterpieces anthology IIRC.

I loved Card's "Ender's Game" series- but he made an anthology, too? Not that I've researched him, but I took him for a sci-fi writer.

To OP: It's not futuristic, if I remember properly. It was hypothetical, but I believe the author made a point of it to talk about how it could be any sort of world, including like the Earth in the distant past (outside of the no disease-utopia-etc. sort of thing going on with it).

(in reply to Alumbrado)

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RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 10:05:00 PM

Alumbrado

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LeGuin is sci fi... http://www.amazon.com/Masterpieces-Best-Science-Fiction-Century/dp/044100864X

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RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 10:08:59 PM

CuriousLord

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Ah, I just mean I thought it was odd he compiled an anthology with another's work despite being such an avid writer himself. It's certainly believable, just strikes me as odd enough to wonder about.

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Post #: 13

RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 10:10:23 PM

Alumbrado

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What do you think the editor of an anthology does?

(in reply to CuriousLord)

Post #: 14

RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 10:28:43 PM

CuriousLord

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Compiles the anthology from existing works.

(in reply to Alumbrado)

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RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 10:42:03 PM

Alumbrado

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Often the works of authors other than the editor... otherwise it would be an omnibus wouldn't it?

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RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 10:46:03 PM

CuriousLord

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I can appreciate if you're trying to provide information, but this is a relatively elementary subject. I'm unsure how this meaningfully relates to my curiousity of the man's motivations for such a deviation from his own writing time.

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Post #: 17

RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 10:56:09 PM

Alumbrado

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How is it a deviation, for someone asked to edit an anthology to choose works other than their own? It is like an actor getting to direct a movie...generally considered an accolade, and they wouldn't neccesarily cast themselves in every role.

Most of the many science fiction anthologies I've read have been selected works from multiple authors, with a well known name as editor.

(in reply to CuriousLord)

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RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 11:09:04 PM

CuriousLord

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Blah.

Look, it causes me to wonder why he would edit an anthology instead of writing more. In a way similar to how one might wonder when an actor stops to direct a movie. I'm curious about his motivations.

Please, I feel like you're missing my curousity entirely. Unless you're in his head, or read some articles on the subject, it's unlikely you know the answer. It's just something to speculate and wonder about. Or research, if you should so care.

(in reply to Alumbrado)

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RE: I'm looking for the name of a short story - 9/5/2007 11:17:55 PM

Alumbrado

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I don't have to be in his head, any more than I have to be in Harlan Ellison, or Ben Bova, or Isaac Asimov's heads to know that:

A> They juggle multiple projects throughout their careers, and are not just story producing machines that have to flip the off switch to do something else like editing.

B> They consider it a compliment to be asked to select from among their peer's works.

C> If he wanted to put out a collection of his own works, he could do so and call it the Orson Scott Card Omnibus.

(in reply to CuriousLord)

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