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For Monday: Kim's "Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole"?


 

For Monday's class, read Isabel J. Kim's story, "Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole" (pp.202-210). This story is a direct response to a very famous sci-fi story by the great writer, Ursula K. Le Guin, called "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas." If interested, you can read that story before or after the one above at this link: https://files.libcom.org/files/ursula-k-le-guin-the-ones-who-walk-away-from-omelas.pdf

The original story is a satire, or perhaps dark commentary, on Utilitarianism, or the idea that certain things are for the common good--even suffering, poverty, and other systematic abuses. It also questions whether people really know what our society is based on, and how many of us would turn a blind eye to the horrible realities of our modern conveniences--including our food--if it meant we could continue to live the same life without interruption. So think about how Kim extends this a bit further, and question whether here's a third option besides living with the horrible reality or leaving it forever. 

As Kim says in her writer's note: "If Omelas was not a place from a story being told to you, but a place that has news broadcasts, a place people go to vacation, a place that has internet, how would you respond to it?" (385). 

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