Three Years of Hell to Become the Devil: Curses

I've done a great deal of Con Law reading, but the conversation that inspired the entry below has me a bit befuddled. And as is often the case when logical exposition doesn't quiet the soul, I'm happy to turn to fiction. So a question for my readers, particularly some of my older readers, since I think this one is slightly before my time.

I'm looking for an anthology that has Ursula Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" in it. Folks have been telling me to read it for years, and this summer seems like a good time to do so. Amazon is only helpful inasmuch as it gets me to a very expensive kiddie-reader and an even more expensive collection of short stories. (The latter looks astoundingly good, which is why I've included a link below.) Barnes and Noble is similarly unhelpful.

Any suggestions?
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Giving The Devil His Due

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The story seems to have been posted online: http://www.crosswinds.net/~marlerjc/omelas.html http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/dunnweb/rprnts.omelas.html http://harelbarzilai.org/words/omelas.txt I would have suggested that you try abusing the "Search inside this book" feature but oddly, a search for 'omelas' in the collection you link to yields: "No reference to omelas in this book"

Posted by: Zev | April 27, 2004 4:14 AM

yeah, that is a good story. but i'm sure other comments to that effect have been sufficient. :)

Posted by: monica | April 27, 2004 11:19 AM

Thanks for the sources. Probably not legal, but since I can't seem to buy the bloody thing... ;)

Posted by: A. Rickey | April 27, 2004 5:52 PM

No library at Columbia?

Posted by: Mark | April 27, 2004 9:46 PM

I believe it appeared originally in The Winds Twelve Quarters which is available used via Amazon.

Posted by: Steve | April 27, 2004 10:51 PM

Well there are dissenting opinions about it's wonderfulness: http://www.uic.edu/depts/engl/projects/dissertations/kdorwick/engl214/Bruce/ones.html Found that randomly via google; since it's short and online in bootleg form, maybe I'll read it and take a gander. But it sounds like movie of the week treacle (WHY does the central premise work? What's different about actual, you know, humans in the wild and the utopia presented? WHAT keeps them happy like that, some arch-tyrant supercomputer?) From the few brief discussions I hit on, those all seem like good questions. Oh well, another reason why I'm not a fan of Ms. Legume.

Posted by: David Mercer | April 29, 2004 5:01 AM

LeGuin makes clear in writing about that story that she's not the first author to face the issue, referring back among other sources to The Brothers Karamazov: Quote: "Tell me yourself, I challenge you - answer. Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature- that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance- and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you consent to be the architect on those conditions?..." Probably the devil's law firm would have no problems working on that project, eh?

Posted by: Hank | September 9, 2004 2:06 PM

Curses

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Giving The Devil His Due

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