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owensum t1_j3wiu3l wrote

FYI it's actually derived from a scene in The Brother Karamazov by Dostoevsky, in which he explores the doctrine of salvation, i.e., how one individual (Jesus) can suffer for all of mankind, and in the process derived an early form of utilitarianism. Le Guin had forgotten about this scene but was inspired by a short passage by the philosopher William James, which had been adapted from Brothers K.

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logannowak22 t1_j3y0kk8 wrote

Is this from an interview?

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owensum t1_j3y7b07 wrote

Wikipedia cites the source as Kennedy, X.J., and Dana Gioia (ed.): An Introduction to Fiction, 8th ed., page 274. Longman, 2004.

But it sounds like she talked about this on several occasions, probably in interviews. She also included the subtitle "Variations on a theme by William James" to indicate (what she thought was) the provenance of the idea.

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Neverwhere69 t1_j3yqslt wrote

It’s also in the introduction essay in The Unreal and the Real Volume 2: Selected Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin: Outer Space & Inner Lands

I’d go take a picture to prove it, but I’m in bed and it’s cold.

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Miss_Speller t1_j3z3wdm wrote

Also in the introduction to the story in The Wind's Twelve Quarters, where she ties the origin to James's The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life. She quotes this paragraph:

>Or if the hypothesis were offered us of a world in which Messrs. Fourier's and Bellamy's and Morris's utopias should all be outdone, and millions kept permanently happy on the one simple condition that a certain lost soul on the far-off edge of things should lead a life of lonely torment, what except a specifical and independent sort of emotion can it be which would make us immediately feel, even though an impulse arose within us to clutch at the happiness so offered, how hideous a thing would be its enjoyment when deliberately accepted as the fruit of such a bargain?

Right after that she quotes another bit from the same essay, which I've always loved:

>All the higher, more penetrating ideals are revolutionary. They present themselves far less in the guise of effects of past experience than in that of probable causes of future experience, factors to which the environment and the lessons it has so far taught us must learn to bend.

She goes on to say "The application of those two sentences to this story, and to science fiction, and to all thinking about the future, is quite direct. Ideals as "the probable causes of future experience" - that is a subtle and an exhilarating remark!"

Edit(s): typo(s)

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MasterOfNap t1_j457liz wrote

While TBK did explore whether the sacrifice of Jesus can justify salvation for all, the torture of that kid in Omelas would more closely mirror the torture of innocent children in Ivan’s examples in TBK.

Ivan Karamazov quite clearly thought that paradise and the entirety of knowledge are not worth the tears of a single innocent child, and that’s exactly what Le Guin was discussing - not a single willing participant to be sacrificed, but a child who doesn’t even understand why he’s suffering.

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