The ones that ran from Omelas: Humans can't achieve Utopia... Because they can't grasp it

Bakuma1997

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Five years ago (Just in time for certain virus to start keeping everybody in their homes) i finished my Online High School, i can't remember even at gunpoint most of what i did in those two years of class... until yesterday, where i found a USB with the texts i wrote, i deleted them since they were from no use for me anymore, except one that i recalled being fascinated, it was a small read (Five pages in my file with one being dedicated to a single line of citation) So you may consider giving it a read before proceeding ... done? great

In case you don't want to read it anyway, here is a real quick resume

Omelas is a Utopia, Poor people has been erradicated... by making poverty a thing of the past, war is over, and the worst that can happen is simply having bad luck, one day some people flew from this idillic town, just in time for a festival to take place...
Now, if you read stuff suck as Logan's Run where all the happy luvywuvy thingamajigs hide horror, you may expect a twist regarding said festival's true meaning, right?
THERE IS, MORE SPECIFICALLY, A KID IS FORCED VIA A LOTTERY TO BE THE FUEL OF OMELAS' UTOPIC SAFETY!!! except there isnt actually...

The story is less a story about humanity/Capitalism/Thingtheauthorhates bad and more on how people simply want fiction to be "realistic" by being edgier than a knife shelf, the Utopia is legitimally great, yet the author, realizing we may not be buying it, decide to add "Adult stuff, first by making adding drugs as normalized, second by making promiscousness also commonplace, it isn't until the story starts to close that the narrator, less a narrator and more like a second person talking to you throwing "By the way a single child is trapped in a dark room and made to suffer to keep this place wholesome", and even then, by the wording used, said child and the lottery may not even be real, but hey, that will make Omelas a realistic setting even if by the end of the day a single kid being isolated somehow means a paradise on Earth can keep going, ¿RIGHT?

The story is a meta deconstruction of the Dystopia, but also of the "Edgy art is realistic" mentality, since the narrative brings in attention that people may actually want less satisfactory calm and more tragedy for the sake of tragedy, the twist is less a organic twist and more like the author saying "There, the Utopia isn't a saint and suffering perpetuates the happiness of the many even though the way it does make no sense", HAPPY READER!?" clearly condemning them, heck, may be at the day of the day, Omelas got a corrupting force, it was you all along, Omelas is happy until the reader starts to question it and the narrator has to make it "dark" so you can fin it plausible

I facepalmed with my classmates taking at face value the twist, even when the narrator vaguely implies it was made up to "satiate" the reader,completely missing the point and ironically giving the author a point, especially with one of the best lines of the book
This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain
The book's meaning can be attributed at three things, an attack at "misery builds character" mentalities, a jab at cynicism in general, or most importantly, a jab at people thinking hopeful fiction is boring, think about it,

  • ¿How many people want Superman to kill Luthor despite the point of him being hope?
  • ¿How many people dismiss the likes of, say, Sailor Moon and prefer Madoka for being "edgy" despite the fact they at the end of the day they have the same moral?
  • ¿How many people miss the message that that mentality is Toxic in Berserk and instead see Guts as a badass while complaining when he acts like, you know, A HUMAN BEING?
  • ¿How long until people stop complaining abuot a good lighthearted movie just because it is lighhearted?

Maybe, those are the ones that truly are leaving Omelas,,,
 
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