#omelas mentioned

[opalfairy]

The Ones Who Walk Away from PIDW

Ok so, I’ve been thinking about this for a while now (as in, since 2023) but never put it in words before—or at least I don’t remember doing so—and I think it’s finally time I write it down, so without further ado:

I think the world of PIDW works exactly like Omelas (from that one Ursula K. Le Guin short story)

(all my yapping under the cut bcos this is long)

With that I mean that it works throw a scapegoat system in which there must be an individual (or group) that suffers infinitely so that everyone else can have a happy and comfortable life.

I know that The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas is already a criticism of the real world and the society we live in where many are exploited for some others to live comfortably, but that’s not what I am talking about here.

What I am talking about is a much smaller scale version, in which a city condones and encourages the suffering of a single person, a child, because the suffering of said child means that everybody else gets to have a good time.

Some may feel bad for the child, but they know that removing that child from the situation will mean a great calamity will fall upon the city. Those who disagree with the exchange of the child’s suffering for their own good fortune are free to leave and not come back.

What happens if you take the child away? Nobody knows, the story doesn’t tell us. Some speculate that the gone child can be replaced with a new one; some think that calamities, be it of natural or supernatural nature, will befall the city; some think it is a hoax, and some get so mad about it all that they write their own version, like that one guy, N.K. Jemisin, who wrote The Ones Who Stay and Fight¹.

Now with all that explained, let’s get to what really matters here: our blorbos.

So, the interesting thing here is that “the child” could be many of the story's characters, but there are two that I would like to point out in this post, starting with everyone's favorite stallion protagonist: Luo Binghe.

In Qing Jing Peak he was singled out as the scapegoat the moment Shen Qingqiu (Jiu) poured hot tea over his head. He must be isolated from everyone else, and he must be neglected. He is the one who the master of the peak can safely take his hatred on without repercussions. The other disciples are safe because Binghe is the one being beaten. They can also expiate their own frustrations using the same method: crushing this child under their hill.

Then, at the Immortal Alliance Conference, he is removed from his scapegoat position. At first everything seems to be fine, five whole years in which we do not know what really happened in Qing Jing Peak (maybe they found a new scapegoat, maybe not, who’s to say); and the Binghe returns. Except he is no longer the hopeless child that they could easily lock in the woodshed, but a destructive force that razes the entirety of the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect to the ground.

It doesn’t end there, though. One could argue that just like Binghe under Shen Qingqiu, Shen Jiu under Bingge is also the Omelas’ scapegoat.

And how interesting, that Shen Jiu is cast in this role, as it is but a reprisal of his past under the tender care² of the Qiu. His role there, however different, ultimately was the telling of the same story:

An abused child, made to take over the ire of the master of the house over and over again. A child whose only purpose is to suffer so that others may be spared. In the end, that child also left Omelas, he left it and killed most everyone there, burning it to the ground.

Except this time Omelas is not the Qiu manor, nor Qing Jing Peak, but Bingge’s palace: a shining, shimmering bastion, where he and his many wives can be happy. Where, in a dungeon hidden in the palace’s bowels; dangling from chains and unable to speak or move, Shen Jiu suffers by himself.

Every time Bingge is irritated, he can descend to the dungeon and torture the other man. Just like he was Shen Qingqiu’s scapegoat for violence and ire, so now the roles have reversed. And Binghe is happy³, he is surrounded by affection, and if he feels like punching a wall, he can punch his prisoner instead.

Eventually, tho, Shen Jiu manages to escape the metaphorical Omelas’ basement once more. Not by being cast away nor by destroying the place, but by dying. The result of the child (the adult, here) leaving is the eventual merging of the realms, as Bingge now must find new characters to expiate his ire and pain.

And, interestingly, in a way the narrative itself can be seen as the Omelas basement, with Binghe never being able to leave. Suffering forever for the happiness of the readers of the novel. His whole existence is linked to the pleasure⁴ of those who do not really care about him⁵. Those who find his suffering too horrible are free to go. And yet, there is this one guy who just can’t let it go, except he is not N.K. Jemisin this time, but our most beloved Peerless Cucumber.

(I also want to talk about how Tianlang-Jun fits the Omelas narrative so well too, but this post was already long enough, so maybe there will be a sequel, who knows)

¹OP (hi! Hello! I’m OP!) has not read this one, y’all, so I can’t really delve into it.

²Terrible place, terrible service, 0/10.

³Or he thinks he is, but we all know how to read between the lines.

⁴not only sexual, it is a whole ass power fantasy after all.

⁵and, like, he is literally a character to them, so no fingers pointed, that would be hypocritical of me.

[mingot-studios]

what if Omelas Child was a middle-aged 40-something closeted gay and genderqueer British man with a wife and three kids, living in the late 1900s in the suburbs of Utah, who was being routinely SA'd and roped into helping to murder people by his twin brother since they were seven, and when faced with the chance to leave the basement in Omelas, decided to stay instead because despite how awful it and how much they hate it, the basement and the pain is all they've ever known. So they dig their heels into the ground and stay because they believe they deserve it.

[nuttersincorporated]

The Narrator wanted to found Omelas and the Contrarian would choose to walk away

There is a short story by Ursula K. Le Guin called ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’. You can read it here or listen to it here.

The basic summery is that Omelas is a wonderful city. People are happy, kind and intelligent. The arts and science are celebrated and people can pursue their passions. There are no kings, police or army because they aren’t needed.

However, for all this to work, one child is locked in a basement. They are frightened, abused and underfed. Everyone knows that the child is there and they all accept it. The child must suffer so that everyone else can be happy.

If the child leaves the basement or is ever shown any kindness at all, then the good fortune and happiness of everyone in Omelas ends. Omelas would become like any other city. Instead of one child suffering and everyone else being happy, most of the population would suffer so that – like in the real world – 1% of people could have their every whim satisfied.

Everyone in Omelas knows that the child is there. A lot of them go to see the child but even those that don’t know the child suffers for them to be happy.

Sometimes, someone in Omelas will go quiet for a few days before they leave Omelas forever. Where they go to no one knows, it is a place even less imaginable than Omelas.

Anyway, the point of all this is that the Narrator is trying to turn the universe into Omelas. One person has to suffer so that everyone else can be happy. Unlike the child in the original story, the Princess wouldn’t even have to suffer for very long. She would die and then everyone else would be saved.

I think the Contrarian would be one of the people that walk away from Omelas. He thinks everything is all fun and games and enjoys annoy people. However, the moment he realises that his actions have actual consequences and that the Princess is being hurt by them, he stops and wants to help.

I think, if he was in Omelas, since he couldn’t save the child, he would choose to leave rather than be part of the reason the child has to suffer. For the same reason, if he had to slay the Princess to ensure everyone else’s happiness or save her a damn everyone else, I think he’d choose to leave. Even if he can’t save her, he wouldn’t want to be one of the people she had to suffer for.

[chamerionwrites]

Idk man but as a person whose primary source of outsized flinch responses was an environment where everything had to be sunny and fluffy and harmonious all the time at least on the surface (and this meant you were never allowed to make anyone uncomfortable by questioning the status quo, or processing grief or complexity except in the most rigidly policed and specified ways, or pointing out injustice), the idea that anything vaguely upsetting isn’t fit for public discussion or consumption and should be relegated to shameful dark corners plastered with the equivalent of long term nuclear waste warnings because Think Of The Trauma Victims feels uh. Fucked up

[grandwitchbird]

“Omelas” is a tragic narrative reworking of the trolley problem. What if the trolley problem had been solved, and actually you could sacrifice one person to save everyone? Can everyone be saved? It’s a creative exercise. It’s meant to disturb our desire to be right and to be rewarded for being right, and it’s designed to provide emotional elevation and catharsis through that disturbance.

You cannot “walk away” from real life systems no matter how unbearable they are. That was not the point. Stories are not political pamphlets or Sunday school lessons. Or, at least good stories aren’t those things. Good stories make us confront our anxieties and then provide some kind of release. Those who walk away prods at the very sensibility evident in the desire to read the story as a practical lesson of some kind. The ones who walk away, walk away to nothing. There’s no reward for being good or right. The end of the story is tragic. They suffer the consequence of conviction to provide us with emotional catharsis without retreating to “wishful thinking.”

“If we insist that in the real world the ultimate victor must be the good guy, we’ve sacrificed right to might. (That’s what History does after most wars, when it applauds the victors for their superior virtue as well as their superior firepower.) If we falsify the terms of the competition, handicapping it, so that the good guys may lose the battle but always win the war, we’ve left the real world, we’re in fantasy land — wishful thinking country.”

LeGuin’s thoughts on tragedy.

[rustchild]

one of the wild things about people’s stubborn insistence on misunderstanding The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas is that the narrator anticipates an audience that won’t engage with the text, just in the opposite direction. Throughout the story are little asides asking what the reader is willing to believe in. Can you believe in a utopia? What if I told you this? What about this? Can you believe in the festivals? The towers by the sea? Can we believe that they have no king? Can we believe that they are joyful? Does your utopia have technology, luxury, sex, temples, drugs? The story is consulting you as it’s being told, framed as a dialogue. It literally asks you directly: do you only believe joy is possible with suffering? And, implicitly, why?

the question isn’t just “what would you personally do about the kid.” It isn’t just an intricate trolley problem. It’s an interrogation of the limits of imagination. How do we make suffering compulsory? Why? What futures (or pasts) are we capable of imagining? How do we rationalize suffering as necessary? And so on. In all of the conversations I’ve seen or had about this story, no one has mentioned the fact that it’s actively breaking the fourth wall. The narrator is building a world in front of your eyes and challenging you to participate. “I would free the kid” and then what? What does the Omelas you’ve constructed look like, and why? And what does that say about the worlds you’re building in real life?

[bauliya]

i think most of you would hear the omelas' kid cries of help and say hey, that syntax is very stilted, and he's using the same vocabulary in all of his aggressive demands to not be tortured in isolation, because after all being raised in a dank cell is no excuse for unnatural sounding english, not to mention it's VERY sus that three or four people standing near the gate begging for his freedom who claim to be his family are all from the same district and know each other and are constantly there, don't they have jobs? they are obviously from a complex underground scam ring, ergo this is an AI-generated sexbot, and then walk away patting yourself on the back feeling like sherlock holmes.

[qoldenskies]

do the witch town residents ever find out donnie is indeed still alive

its left open-ended just in case i, or anyone else, wants to play around with it-- but ngl ive been pretty certain that the answer is yes for a while now. at the very least they will when the invasion happens, because ive always seen the result of that being relative fame. donnie wouldn't exactly be a secret.

ive kind of found the idea of most of them being apologetic to be my ultimate conclusion on it. it's hard to actually be angry at donnie when he's a person in front of their faces-- especially because he's a shy, sweet kid. this is the enemy, the terrorist that they irreparably destroyed the life of? this was the concept of the person they were meant to project all of their anger and grief onto? it doesn't feel right.

i kind of imagine witch town has a very "go with the collective" view of everything-- when they really turn on someone or something, you're expected to express disapproval even if you disagree with it. i think actually speaking to donnie would change the sway and potentially even cause infighting.

might seem stupid because he's just one kid, but if this is post-invasion he's famous for saving the world with his brothers, and he is the reason their god died. also not to mention the property damage lol. at this point he would be considered extremely significant to them. he suffered so much and there is so much refusal to take responsibility for it, and he doesn't even want to be their enemy anymore. his family may be aggressive and territorial, but donnie isn't. he's only scared.

,,,,,,, so ummmmmmmmm have you ever read the ones who walk away from omelas

[chjroptera]

you’ve mentioned tftsmp a bit before, did you/do you have an ideal ending, or continuation, of that lore and c!karl’s connection to it?

i actually wrote this while i was writing that c!Q rant yesterday but this is how i like to think ckarls memory loss works. i think it’s less of forgetting actual events but forgetting context. i don’t see ckarl lashing out on cQ as him forgetting all the good like it’s commonly believed (or stated, i don’t remember) i see it as confusion, followed by anger. cKarl was def thinking “why would i kill myself for a stranger?” and assumes cQ killed him to explain his death. early ckarl never did anything if he didn’t get something out of it, he was selfish and slightly hedonistic until he gets with c!sap and c!quackity who confront him about being irresponsible. they stake their marriage on the completion of a group effort, c!Q and c!K have to successfully govern new lmanburg and c!S has to detach himself from c!dream. c!karl becomes notably checked out and lazy whenever he comes back from the inbetween which makes sense if he’s forgetting his duties like ruling over kinoko ad well as all the work it took to earn that role, he’s regressing. that much can be seen in how little he wants to be involved with c!d escaping the prison and throws the responsibility on c!sap. (side note: i think c!q held c!k accountable and c!s trusts him which is why they worked well as a team, c!s focuses more on doing what he can to protect c!k rather than working together, so when his leader and lover tells him “you got it” he has no choice but to believe him)

karl desperately tried proving his worth/importance to others after manberg was established so he could be in animatics by building countries, switching sides to have more clout, joining cabinets, sacrificing himself, and constantly frying his brain to keep looking for a way to save everyone. i believe all those karls walking around in the inbetween were trying to fix whatever went wrong or caused the current state of the dsmp, like what set off the chain of events (past) and what ends it (future) and end up getting stuck in this nonstop cycle. karl’s arc should’ve been focused on how selfish and cowardly he was but loses himself in trying to correct his wrongs by saving everyone. he shouldn’t have to bear that burden alone especially when he’s engaged to two of the most selfless people on the server. c!sapnap has a similar arc when he sees c!dream for who he rlly is and starts using his power to help the weak rather than punching down. maybe it’s corny but it makes the most sense for someone to find his journals and try to help him or him directly asking for it. he can’t fix the past or future directly but he can change the present type deal

if you wanna get more meta i also see karl’s role as a time traveler like that of the caged child in “the ones who walk away from omelas” where his existence/suffering is needed for the current dominance life/XD (3 lives system) has over death/kristan to exist. i dislike the dsmp ghosts a lot im not gonna lie but i think they work with my understanding that having 3 lives means death is kinda fucked and weird in exchange (ex. souls being split in two, limbo, jack crawling out of hell, whatever was up with c!george). the gods felt like they were working towards being more significant, especially XD which makes so much sense with c!dream also abusing tf out of the life books power

i really like ckarl and i wish time travelers tales didn’t get fucked last minute because tftsmp is still such a cool concept. it was just executed poorly because cc!karl kinda sucked at writing and lowkey had no idea what he wanted to do with karl (also bc nobody knew where the story would end) and i think he was afraid to address into his character kinda being a brat when everyone else was getting serious

[pinkieroy]

"I love that much like Le Guin there IS no textual answer because a right answer would require omnisciently knowing all outcomes and choosing the "best" people to sacrifice. Much like The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, it's simply a question of what anyone would really do faced with an impossible situation. (I love reading other author's responses/rebuttals to that question based on their own experiences.) "Heroism" is only a lens applied to past events. The present is inertia or change." @deramin2

I was thinking about this reply to my post and the concept presented in both Omelas and the episode The Beast Below from doctor who, and some of it's similarities to Predathos as a sentient being trapped for a perceived "greater good".

I think I would be shooting myself in the foot by not explaining either of those things before jumping into comparisons, so here we go. (In very simplified and broad terms)

In The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas (it's a very short and easy to find story, btw, I highly recommend it) Le Guin describes an utopia with a caveat, the wellbeing of that society depends on the suffering of this one child, trapped alone in a basement, and as @deramin2 put it, Le Guin leaves us with the question of what to do in this impossible situation.

The doctor who episode I mentioned has a much more positive spin to it, there is an objective answer, and there is a way of releasing the trapped space whale and not sacrificing the people depending on it, but still, for the most part of that episode you are asked is the suffering of one worth the wellbeing of many?

Back to Predathos, being a godeater and all, he is presented as a less innocent being as the aforementioned ones, his entrapment is directedly linked with the fact that if released he will go after the gods. Now, as the story is still on going and I can't say for certain if Predathos is indeed just like a child, or if that was just a way for him to manipulate the situation, I'm not going to make some grand assumption of his actual personality and will here, what I'm saying is that I see a similar question being asked of Bells Hells here, what to do? Is this one creature (that now they've been able to talk and empathize with) doomed to be imprisoned forever?

Bells Hells did make their choice at the end (and I know there were many other factors at play influencing the decision) but, suffice it to say, I'm excited to see what happens next and how this particular answer to the impossible question evolves.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

i'm re-reading curse words but this time i actually stopped to read scanners live in vain and they're made of meat before moving on (my first read through i was only familiar with omelas) and. well. i knew that you mentioning the short stories by name should have clued me in on my first read but i literally had to stop to shake my head. the nefarious foreshadowerrrrr

Me being addicted to red herrings is a lie I'm actually addicted to foreshadowing

[sparklyaxolotlstudent]

I found a Mattel Asha doll while thrifting, and having learnt of the early concept of Star being a humanoid figure and someone wanting to make a custom doll of him, my brain went into overdrive.

What if “Wish” was a loose adaptation of “Those Who Walk Away from Omelas”. A Very, very loose adaptation.

The Kingdom of Rosas is perfect and Idyllic, no taxes, no homelessness, everyone can dedicate themselves to any job they enjoy, and they will have food and shelter.

The Kingdom was founded centuries ago, when the first King found a fallen star and learned to harness its magic, creating the paradise that is now known as Rosas, a Kingdom that takes care of its people, and also allows refugees from other parts of the world.

There is a price to pay, however, as the magic of the Star is not infinite, and the King must replenish it every now and then, or everything they have would be lost. How they replenish it? Well, it is a Wishing Star, so they use the wishes of the citizens to “feed” the star. Once a child has their 18th birthday, or a new refugee appears, they have to go to the palace, and feed the star their Inner Wish, the thing they want most in the world.

Sometimes, the Star grants the wish at the moment, sometimes it randomly grants it years after it had been given to it. Most people think is a small price to pay for a life of complete freedom, as, while they forget that original wish, new wishes and dreams and hopes can be made later in life.

It has been centuries since the Kingdom creation, and they have somewhat streamlined the process, every year, a week before the Kingdom’s anniversary, all children who have had their 18th birthday since the last year, are summoned to the palace to explain to them the whole thing, prepare them mentally to “surrender” their wish, or prepare them in case they decide to abandon the Kingdom.

Asha is among the group of younglings who will feed the star this year, with her 18th birthday actually being the same day of the anniversary of the Kingdom. She’s a hard worker, and is an apprentice of the local medic, her specialty being with herbs and other natural cures. She’s afraid that giving up her dream means that she will not have a passion for medicine or helping other anymore.

Asha and her 5 friends are preparing themselves to their week at the palace, Asha being the only one having doubts about her dream. (5 friends because I still want the 7 Dwarfs homage, but effectively making Asha into Grumpy… and Star Boy into Dopey)

Once at the palace, they meet with other teens that will feed the star, among those a guy that Asha had never seen before, who introduces himself “Vesper”(Name pending). The others find Vesper’s antics weird, but Asha ends up befriending him.

After spending most of the week together and talking about their respective dreams, Vesper finally confesses that he’s actually a Star, and he’s here to rescue his brother, the Star that was imprisoned by the humans. Asha doesn’t believe him and they fight, with Vesper disappearing from the palace.

Once the ceremony starts, Vesper reappears and tries to rescue the Star, breaking it away from the bonds that the original King put on him.

The Queen tries to fight him with magic, and manages to hurt him, which prompt Asha to help him. Feeling the hurt in Vesper, the dormant Star awakes and is furious with the humans, and starts a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. The Queen is genuinely surprised that Vesper was telling the truth and the Star was alive and wasn’t a mere object, and tries to protect her people from the rampage.

Asha manages to stabilize Vesper with her knowledge in medicine, and soon they realize that the Star is taking back all the magic that was used on the Kingdom, stuff begins to disappear in golden lights, as the magic is returning to its origin… including Asha, who was the result of her parents wishing for a child (Which I guess should be mentioned earlier). Panicking, Vesper goes to confront the Star, as he realizes that the humans truly didn’t realize what they were doing, and doesn’t want to lose the only friend he has made.

Vesper notices the Queen risking her own life protecting the citizens, as he is now casting magic from her own life force, with her hair starting to get white streaks, and decides to join forces with her to stop the Star’s rampage.

Vesper, helped by the Queen’s magic, manages to reach the Star, and begs it to stop.

Of course there’s a happy ending. The Kingdom is absolutely obliterated, but Vesper and Star concede that the current humans were innocent, and help them to rebuild the Kingdom, without using magic. The only wish they grant is for Asha to recover.

The Queen was willing to give her own life in exchange of Asha’s, and anyone else who might have been affected, but they deemed that unnecessary. 

-

Also I'm totally rebodying the Asha and making a custom "Vesper", AKA Star Boy

[wispstalk]

3 + 12? :)

3. What were your top five books of the year?

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. Maybe cheating bc this was a re-read and I already know it's one of my faves, but it has been like 8 years since I first read it

The Name of the Rose warrants a mention for sure 😎 thanks to u for prompting that re-read!

Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge - by Benjamin Y. Fong

Big Fiction: How Conglomeration Changed the Publishing Industry and American Literature - by Dan Sinykin. Explains a looooot

Ursula K Le Guin children's book about cats that I bought offa ebay

12. Any books that disappointed you?

Answered below but I'm a professional hater so I got more lol. I finished the last of the Broken Earth Trilogy and i just don't know if NK Jemisin is my kinda writer. I've enjoyed some of her short stories (that response to Omelas thing she did notwithstanding) but I had the same problem with her Inheritance trilogy. Strong start and intriguing world in the first book, then it just sorta drags.

[mirach]

About Job and coffee (GO2 spoilers)

This is a synthesis of several theories I've seen and some of my own. There are several hints throughout s2 about what is important:

- Gabriel arranges the books by the first letter of their content. The playlists released by Amazon have messages in the first letters of the songs. First letters are important.

- As @cassieoh pointed out, the coffee is, specifically, Oat Milk Latte with Almond Syrup. OMLAS

- Omelas is a city in a story by Ursula Le Guin where everyone is happy and comfortable for the price of one child being kept in misery.

- The story about Job reflects this. Job is good. Job is God's favourite. He loses everything (but not what matters most, thanks to A&C's deception).

- There may be a parallel between Aziraphale and Job. Aziraphale also loses everything at the end of s2. Earth, his bookshop, Crowley.

- We don't see the full conversation with Metatron. Others already pointed out his manipulation techniques and that the coffee might be poisoned. I don't think it is poisoned, but I think the other option offered was in the name of the coffee shop. So predictable that nobody picks death, right?

- (I already made a post about this but I'll mention it again) the Book of Life was mentioned several times, but never used. I think that was the other option: Aziraphale and/or Crowley would be erased as if they never existed. Apocalypse 1.0 would happen (and one of them would be lonely for 6000 years)

- Erasing things from existence is important, too. We saw Nina erasing the Eccles cakes from the board, and they're never seen again where Aziraphale put them in the bookshop (noticed by @ariaste)

- Writing is also important. We see Aziraphale writing a script for what people will say at the ball and we see them saying it against their will. Metatron could do that, too. We can’t be sure about anyone saying anything here... (again @ariaste has a deeper theory about this)

- So what does it mean? Is Aziraphale recruited for the position of the child in Omelas? Is he being tried like Job? Did Metatron erase God since we don't hear God's narration anymore? Did Aziraphale and Crowley talk in a timestop and swapped places as @lonicera-caprifolium suggested? I guess we need to Wait and See. But the plot is much deeper than it looks on the surface.

[butchniqabi]

What are your favourite aspects of sci fi? Themes, tropes, specific stories, anything that comes to mind

i love so much about scifi,,,the unique and creative ways people talk about present day problems and institutions, the way people envision futures. i love dystopias i love utopias i love it saur much! as for specific stories, i (unfortunately) really like harlan ellison and ray bradbury (fun fact, my grandma's friend used to drive him around because he hated it himself) also octavia butler despite our adversarial relationship and ursula k le guin, i hate hg wells, philip k dick (previously mentioned friend was his girlfriend for a time), and adolus huxley. i think i spelled his name wrong but i dont care to check the proper spelling. i love holistic critiques, i love when critiques take into account intersectionality and how things like race, gender, ability, and class all interact with one another. less "this white man experiences subjugation despite all odds, isnt that crazy?" those narratives are usually written by white men and i really do not give a fuck anymore. i think a lot of Iconic Sci Fi is just...uninspired and/or ruined by its own limited perspective. sci fi i love involves involved world building that doesnt feel the need to overexplain and kind of throws you into the experience.

some random sci fi media i enjoy: altered carbon, another life, the southern reach trilogy (stan annihilation!), event horizon, the left hand of darkness, vaster than empires and more slow, the ones who walk away from omelas (basically a lot of ursula k le guin...), the veldt, the episode "far beyond the stars" from deep space nine, the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, the spacesuit, moon, -all you zombies-, no one will save you, the girl with all the gifts, special dreams in which you exist, the thing, kindred, and how long til black future month

did you know while i was refreshing my memory and looking up sci fi books, google labeled th white's the once and future king as sci fi? thats so real.