"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (Variations on a Theme by William James)"
| Title | "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (Variations on a Theme by William James)" |
| Year for Search | 1973 |
| Authors | Le Guin, Ursula K[roeber](1929-2018) |
| Secondary Authors | Silverberg, Robert(b. 1935) |
| Secondary Title | New Dimensions |
| Volume / Edition | 3 |
| Pagination | 1-8 |
| Date Published | 1973 |
| Publisher | Nelson Doubleday |
| Place Published | Garden City, NY |
| Keywords | Female author, US author |
| Annotation | Flawed eutopia. The suffering of one child is necessary for the existence of a eutopia. See Sarah Pinsker, “The Ones Who Know Where They are Going.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 41.3 & 4 (494 & 495) (March-April 2017): 67-69 for a brief version giving the perspective of the child. Corey Doctorow’s Walkaway. New York: Tor, 2017 is clearly related. P. H. Lee’s “A House by the Sea.” Uncanny A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, no. 24 (September 2018). https://uncannymagazine.com/article/a-house-by-the-sea/ is about the lives of the children after they are released from the basement and replaced by another child. Nora K. Jemisin’s, “The One Who Stay and Fight.” In her How Long ‘Til Black Future Month (New York: Orbit, 2018), 1-13; rpt. Lightspeed Magazine, no. 116 (January 2020). https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-ones-who-stay-and-fight/ reflects the story’s title. Cynthia Gómez’s “The Ones Who Came Back to Heal.” Strange Horizons (July 17, 2023). http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/the-ones-who-come-back-to-heal/ concerns a trans person who had left but returns to try to help the child. A related story that connects the children in Omelas to the refugee crisis is Rene Denfeld, “The Ones Who Don’t Walk Away.” Dispatches from Anarres: Tales in Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin. Ed. Susan DeFreitas (Portland, OR: Forest Avenue Press, 2021), 112-116. |
| Additional Publishers | Rpt. in her The Wind’s Twelve Quarters: Short Stories (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), 224-31; in Utopian Studies 2.1 & 2 (1992): 1-5; in The Secret History of Science Fiction. Ed. James Patrick Kelly and John [Joseph Vincent] Kessel (San Francisco, CA: Tachyon, 2009), 39-44; without the subtitle in Brave New Worlds. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2011), 33-38; 2nd ed. ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2012), 33-38; and with the subtitle in her The Real and the Unreal. Selected Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin. Volume Two Outer Space, Inner Lands (Easthampton, MA: Small Beer Press, 2012), 1-7; with the subtitle in the one volume edition The Real and the Unreal: The Selected Short Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin (New York: Saga Press, 2016), 329-36; with the subtitle in Grave Predictions: Tales of Mankind’s Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian and Disastrous Destiny. Ed. Drew Ford (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2016), 87-94; and without the subtitle in Futures and Fictions. Ed. Henriette Gunkel, Ayesha Hameed, and Simon O’Sullivan (London: Repeater Press, 2017), 379-88. |
| Info Notes | See Sarah Pinsker, “The Ones Who Know Where They are Going.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 41.3 & 4 (494 & 495) (March-April 2017): 67-69 for a brief version giving the perspective of the child. Corey Doctorow’s Walkaway (2017) is clearly related. P. H. Lee’s “A House by the Sea.” Uncanny A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, no. 24 (September 2018). https://uncannymagazine.com/article/a-house-by-the-sea/ is about the lives of the children after they are released from the basement and replaced by another child. Nora K. Jemisin, says that her “The One Who Stay and Fight.” Rpt. in her How Long ‘Til Black Future Month (New York: Orbit, 2018), 1-13 “is a pastiche of and reaction to Le Guin’s ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (Variations on a Theme by William James)’” (xi). A related story that connects the children in Omelas to the refugee crisis is Rene Denfeld, “The Ones Who Don’t Walk Away.” Dispatches from Anarres: Tales in Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin. Ed. Susan DeFreitas (Portland, OR: Forest Avenue Press, 2021), 112-116. |
| Holding Institutions | PSt |
| Author Note | Female author (1929-2018) |
| Full Text | 1973 Le Guin, Ursula K[roeber] (1929-2018). “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (Variations on a Theme by William James).” New Dimensions 3. Ed. Robert Silverberg (Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, 1973), 1-8. Rpt. in her The Wind’s Twelve Quarters: Short Stories (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), 224-31; in Utopian Studies 2.1 & 2 (1992): 1-5; in The Secret History of Science Fiction. Ed. James Patrick Kelly and John [Joseph Vincent] Kessel (San Francisco, CA: Tachyon, 2009), 39-44; without the subtitle in Brave New Worlds. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2011), 33-38; 2nd ed. ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2012), 33-38; with the subtitle in her The Real and the Unreal. Selected Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin. Volume Two Outer Space, Inner Lands (Easthampton, MA: Small Beer Press, 2012), 1-7; with the subtitle in the one volume edition The Real and the Unreal: The Selected Short Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin (New York: Saga Press, 2016), 329-36; with the subtitle in Grave Predictions: Tales of Mankind’s Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian and Disastrous Destiny. Ed. Drew Ford (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2016), 87-94; and without the subtitle in Futures and Fictions. Ed. Henriette Gunkel, Ayesha Hameed, and Simon O’Sullivan (London: Repeater Press, 2017), 379-88. PSt Flawed eutopia. The suffering of one child is necessary for the existence of a eutopia. See Sarah Pinsker, “The Ones Who Know Where They are Going.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 41.3 & 4 (494 & 495) (March-April 2017): 67-69 for a brief version giving the perspective of the child. Corey Doctorow’s Walkaway. New York: Tor, 2017 is clearly related. P. H. Lee’s “A House by the Sea.” Uncanny A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, no. 24 (September 2018). https://uncannymagazine.com/article/a-house-by-the-sea/ is about the lives of the children after they are released from the basement and replaced by another child. Nora K. Jemisin’s, “The One Who Stay and Fight.” In her How Long ‘Til Black Future Month (New York: Orbit, 2018), 1-13; rpt. Lightspeed Magazine, no. 116 (January 2020). https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-ones-who-stay-and-fight/ reflects the story’s title. Cynthia Gómez’s “The Ones Who Came Back to Heal.” Strange Horizons (July 17, 2023). http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/the-ones-who-come-back-to-heal/ concerns a trans person who had left but returns to try to help the child. A related story that connects the children in Omelas to the refugee crisis is Rene Denfeld, “The Ones Who Don’t Walk Away.” Dispatches from Anarres: Tales in Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin. Ed. Susan DeFreitas (Portland, OR: Forest Avenue Press, 2021), 112-116. Female author. |
