"Realistic fiction leaves out too much." - Gene Wolfe

Gwern Branwen · 30 Apr 2011, 21:35 · from 2011-April.txt.gz

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From: gwern0 at gmail.com (Gwern Branwen)
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:35:01 -0400
Subject: (urth) "Realistic fiction leaves out too much." - Gene Wolfe
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On Sat, Apr 30, 2011 at 5:08 PM, Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com> wrote:
> Yeah, I know that feeling. I read, "Those Walk Away From Omelas," and
> thought, "This is supposed to be some kind of utopian/dystopian comment?
> Thhese people have this tremendously prosperous, liberal, industrialized
> society with the only externality being train smoke and the lower classes
> shrunk to a single person! Boy, are those people walking away in for a
> surprise."

It's funny you bring up that particular LeGuin story - I once wrote a
sort of reply to it:
http://www.gwern.net/fiction/The%20Ones%20Who%20Walk%20Towards%20Acre

(Well, it's funny to me because it so rarely comes up, but with this,
today I have twice had occasion to link someone to the story; the
other link was in the context of a Bitcoin and assassination markets
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_market) discussion.)

-- 
gwern
http://www.gwern.net

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