Geek Feminism Book Club first pick: The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
It’s less than three weeks ’till our inaugural Geek Feminism Book Club! The results are in, and Ursula Le Guin’s short story The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas has tied with Gail Simone’s Batgirl, Vol. 1 for first place.
So we’ll read them both! Omelas on Thursday February 28th, and Batgirl on Thursday March 25th.
Our other book choices also scored well – people are keen to read Biella Coleman’s Coding Freedom, bell hooks’ Writing Beyond Race and Sarah Schulman’s The Gentrification of the Mind. If there’s enough enthusiasm, we can go ahead and read those; otherwise, we can hold another poll and read something else.
If you can’t get hold of a copy of Omelas, drop me a line at yatima at gmail dot com and I’ll share mine! See you back here on the 28th. I’m looking forward to it!
Update by Mary: if you want to find it in print, look for it in this collection: Ursula K. Le Guin, (1975). The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, Harper & Row.
There’s a 1993 edition of just the short story, but it’s much harder to find, at least where I am: Ursula K Le Guin, (1993). The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, Creative Education.
Weiss:
February 10th, 2013 at 11:59 pm
I think I found it as a pdf. Does that look complete, to anyone who’s read it before? I don’t know how long it’s supposed to be.
Weiss:
February 11th, 2013 at 12:00 am
Because I expect everyone to be able to read my mind, I didn’t fill in the blanks there. That’s the Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.
Julie:
February 11th, 2013 at 5:11 am
I think it’s supposed to be about 30 pages. I’m actually having a hard time finding it; only see the study guide for the Kindle and my library’s website isn’t showing it either. I’ll call around when I get home :)
Shauna:
February 11th, 2013 at 8:50 am
There’s also this link, which is how I first read the story.
Mary:
February 12th, 2013 at 1:10 pm
I don’t think Yatima put it in either of her posts: if you want to find it in print, look for it in this collection:
Ursula K. Le Guin, (1975). The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, Harper & Row.
There’s a 1993 edition of just the short story, but it’s much harder to find, at least where I am:
Ursula K Le Guin, (1993). The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, Creative Education.
Vincent:
February 13th, 2013 at 4:52 pm
This collection The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands seems to have it and it’s still (somewhat) hot from the press! Speaking about fresh from the press; Gail Simone’s Batgirl, Vol. 2 was published yesterday :)
Jase:
February 21st, 2013 at 4:51 am
I love “The Ones Who Walk Away…” such a great piece. Anyway, I can’t find where to contact the folks who run this site, but I am working on a progressive/lefty project called The Weekly Ansible. We got a bit too ambitious and had to close down for a while, but we’ve got a website, a much more active tumblr, and eventually want to start a podcast. Most of us working on it are leftists of various sorts for whom feminism is a central component of our work. I love this site and would like to discuss more about the struggle within geekdom against oppression :) You are all fabulous. Keep up the good work.
Ashe Dryden:
February 27th, 2013 at 8:54 pm
This was a great story that I hadn’t read before. The impact reminded me a lot of The Lottery – a build up to something you weren’t expecting and then were horrified by. It’s a great metaphor for society in that we tend to allow things that we think benefit the most people and punish the fewest, though we don’t think about how negatively those people are impacted. I’m not sure how to feel about the people who walk away – is it to say they didn’t want to participate in the culture that allowed that to happen? If so, why didn’t they fight for the child?