i would have named it the doubloon

Stages of grief.

wow she's actually a carpenter!

I didn't recognize most of these, was vaguely aware that the first one was a Warrior Cat, wondered if the Warrior Cats are now owned by Marvel, tried to figure out how many of the others were cats (theorized Silverclaw and a few others before I realized I was playing with things I don't understand)

Like that other LeGuin quote about capitalism and the divine right of kings.

Asking, do we believe it's possible to make the world better without it automatically also becoming worse somewhere?

largely people don't, and therefore don't try

shsdavisapes.pbworks.com/f/Omelas.pdf the narrator never says Omelas is perfect, just good. And keeps breaking the fourth wall, at first, like: do you believe the story now? No? (More pleasant description) How about now?

No matter how little logic there is in the tradeoff (how does a suffering child make Omelas happy? Why spend more money on criminalizing homelessness than giving people homes?)

by leading us through a story where our "logic" follows that pathway, we realize how little sense it makes in reality

Oh, I agree. And the social and political metaphor is intertwined with the story-and-audience meaning. About how we see real life like a story

And see happiness as "something rather stupid" (I think that's the line) and we think it always requires someone else's equal unhappiness in order to work

And through all the descriptions of the good things in Omelas, we go "yeah this is pointless and unrealistic"

And the suffering child (just as pointless, just as unrealistic) suddenly makes it into a valid story

I feel like the original story is more a statement about stories and audiences than anything else.

About how we don't see the point of the story, no matter how nicely the happiness is described, until the suffering child is introduced.

stages of reading this article:
-starting an invasive species?
-oh at least they're all female, so no reproduction
- genetic experimentation company??
-better not have spliced in any frog DNA or Life Will Find A Way

"what is a good description of male arousal"

"BEEFSWELLING"

"um. ok. now, what does the phrase 'little death' mean"

"FEAR THAT BRINGS TOTAL OBLITERATION"

"...I think the only sexual idiom that I ever want to hear in connection to your work is WHAT THE FUCK"

What even is "middle class" anymore? The ultra-rich ruin any attempt to gauge averages. And removing potato skins is wasting both food and time; nobody can afford that

On my way to the bus yesterday a guy was standing at the usual spot by the road for a panhandler to hold a sign asking for money, except his sign just said FUCK THIS.

If I'd had cash on me I'd have still offered him some in solidarity

Which is why any society with this level of emotional repression will eventually change or destroy itself, unless it develops REAL telepathy

(the Vulcans did this with the mindmeld. They will not share with societies that haven't. It's like their own non-interference directive)

EXCEPT-- real life words, written or spoken, can't prove how I actually feel-- even if I want to.

"I'm really not mad at you"
"I'm really okay with either option"

if these things are true, there is NO WAY for me to make another Minnesotan believe it

Yeah, I say writing and reading is already telepathy by most of my definition, and wireless internet on a device in everyone's pocket gets it the rest of the way there.

Only difference is it can't be forced. So, fully consensual telepathy? Better than the prediction maybe