One of the more fortuitous meetings of my life happened in my Sophomore year in college. Randy Buck was younger than me but intellectually he was much older. I was a hick from the sticks and he was a piano prodigy, an intellectual prodigy and the most well-read person I ever met (still is) with a wit sharper than a serpentss tooth. Something in him (Heaven knows what!) led him to become the Higgins to my Liza (Now, THERES a production Id like to see.) Part of that process was suggesting books for me to read. I usually took his advice and Im much the better person for it. (We once decided to adapt a book into a film and the one we chose was The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. We never got around to it, but someone else did and it was a huge success.) Long story short, one of the authors he introduced me to was Ursula K. Le Guin. One of her stories is called The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. When I read it, it smacked me down, picked me up and slammed me back down again. It raised issues Id never thought about before and had more effect on my philosophy of life than anything else Ive read, before or since. You can read it right now on-line. Just google the title and youll find a pdf. version. It may not affect you the same way; you may find parts of it objectionable; you may draw completely different conclusions than I did. Give it a try, then discuss!
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 12:29:07 +0000
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