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Home > MashReads Podcast > 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas' and women who shaped the book world
Podcast: MashReads Podcast
Episode:

'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas' and women who shaped the book world
Category: Arts
Duration: 00:50:55
Publish Date: 2017-03-08 04:43:42
Description:

This week on the MashReads Podcast, we read and discuss Ursula Le Guin's short story "The One's Who Walk Away From Omelas."

The story forces readers to imagine the utopia of Omelas, an idylic land filled with festivals, sun and happiness. But as a part of an undisclosed bargain, the joy of Omelas is only possible if one child experiences extreme pain. This child is imprisoned in a cellar or broom closet, covered in sores and can have no happy thing or kind word offered to him. Everyone in Omelas knows of this child -- citizens usually learn of the child when they are between 10-12 years old – and many accept this child’s pain as a fact of life. The ones who do not walk away from Omelas into the great unknown never to return.

Though only 4 short pages, the story forces readers to grapple with a complex moral and ethical conundrum: should we accept the pain of one person if it makes the happiness of many possible.

Then, inspired by Ursula Le Guin and Women’s History Month, we discuss female authors that shaped the book world, including S.E. Hinton who defined modern YA with The Outsiders, Joan Didion who helped shape creative non-fiction with her books Slouching Toward Bethlehem and The Year of Magical Thinking, M.K. Jemmeson [sp] who is brining more representation to the fantasy genre with The Fifth Element, and Shirley Jackson whose work captured the 1940s and ‘50s anxiety of womanhood.

 And as always we close the show with recommendations:

  • Aliza recommends The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. “It is YA but it so amazing and powerful and wonderful and important. It’s amazing. Every single person on the planet should read it.”
  • Peter recommends The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. “It is just so surprising and fun and full of joy yet challenging. As a person who has always loved Legend of Zelda games, the last several have fallen beneath my standard of excellence and this rises above any expectations I could have mustered.”
  • MJ recommends 20th Century Women. “That movie is so good! Number 1 Annette Benning [sp] is flawless in this movie. The movie is so dynamic, it’s so feminist, it’s funny, it is smart, I cannot begin to describe how thought provoking [the movie is].”
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