by Ursula K. Le Guin
“There's a point, around the age of twenty, when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life, or to make a virtue of your peculiarities.” In “The Dispossessed” by Ursula K. Le Guin. Thank you, Ursula k. Le Guin, for encouraging me to celebrate my peculiarities. The...
Having known nothing of this tale but rumors that it was striking coming in, I would have preferred that the introduction had been placed at the end. I entered instead forewarned, spoiled, because I could deduce it'd be some beautiful Le Guin version of The Lottery. Then again, this is less a story ...
I… really don't know what to say. The beginning was fun and the end destroyed me emotionally - I enjoyed it a lot. The thoughts it sparked about perspective and inclusion in utopia, and the construction of utopian societies, were wonderful as welll. At the same time though, the way this disabled chi...
A brilliant, meticulously constructed thought experiment that asks us to consider if the happiness and contentment of a whole city is worth the constant suffering of a single, innocent individual.Thought-provoking, beautiful and haunting. This is the kind of short fiction that will stay with me fore...
Read 20/07/2014.
I don't typically read short stories, but when offered the chance to read dystopian fiction (my fav genre) by the renowned Ursula K. Le Guin with other dystopian fans? That's already a pretty sweet deal. And the fact that it's a short story means I don't have to fret over my previously scheduled rea...
Is the happiness of thousands worth the suffering of a single innocent person? Of one innocent child? Think about that. And hold your loud and resounding and outraged NO! for a minute.A background - this is what the brilliant Ursula K. Le Guin brings up in her very short 1973 story The Ones Who Walk...
To me, this short story offers one of those "open question" scenarios. Apparently it was written in response to Le Guin's reading of the following passage from The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life by William James:Or if the hypothesis were offered us of a world in which Messrs. Fourier's and Bel...
I recently had occasion to reread this story, and am once again absolutely blown away by the brilliance, significance and modern relevance of this, especially in view of current events (Penn State.) Quite possibly the best thing Le Guin has written, in a very deep pool of excellent work.
I'm in agreement that this is probably a great story to teach to high school students. For adults it's probably less earth-shaking.
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