Overview
For Week 3, we’re going to dive into a famous SF story. That story is “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.” You can find the English and Korean translation texts of the story at the bottom of this page.
Preparations:
Read through the story linked above (yes, even if you’ve read it before), and think about it.
Day 1
We worked together to create a basic summary of the story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.”
Then we worked on the first page of the handout (linked below). Students discussed the meanings of the sentences and the phrases focused on in the Vocabulary section, and a few groups started discussing the questions on page 2 (the back) of the handout.
Day 2
We dug into the discussion questions on the handout in small groups, and then discussed them as a large group. With each question we dug a little deeper into the story, developing our understanding step by step. (Or maybe getting more confused, but in a hopefully good way.)
After that, groups assembled and each group discussed the questions on page 2 of the handout, with a special focus on Questions 1, 4, and 5.
Finally, I discussed a somewhat related story—Tom Godwin’s “The Cold Equations”—and how it might relate to “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.” If there was time, I also introduced the idea of SF being a “dialogical” genre.
Journaling
Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” presents a specific and direct challenge to you, the reader.
What do you think this challenge is? Write about that, and also write about how you personally respond to her challenge. You can also write about:
- any questions about the story that still remain for you,
- things that bother you or stick in your mind about the story,
- speculations why Le Guin wrote the story the way she did,
- vocabulary that you learned while studying the story,
… or whatever else is useful to you.
Looking Forward
What are we doing next time?
We’re going to continue with Omelas for at least one more class meeting. We’re going to explore how Le Guin’s story relates to a specific philosophical problem—the famous “Trolley Problem”—and also ewatch a couple of short videos about the Trolley Problem. Hopefully, this will help us figure out what Le Guin is up to (what game she is playing) in “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.”
For More
Many authors have written response stories to “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.” Among the most recent and famous responses to the story are Isabel J. Kim’s recent “Why Don’t We Just Kill The Kid in the Omelas Hole?” and N. K. Jemisin’s “The Ones Who Stay and Fight.”
I recommend checking out both stories if you have time and energy. They argue with and against Le Guin’s story in different ways. Unfortunately they are not, as far as I know, available in Korean or Chinese translation yet. For that reason, they’re optional (and not required for the class).
Story Texts
Here’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” in English and in Korean translation: