I’m about a quarter of the way through The Dispossessed, and I’m pretty disappointed so far. It seems like a flat character expounding on the virtues of Anarcho-syndicalism, but I just have a hard time believing it.
It honestly reminds me of Atlas Shrugged. It’s this ideal world where an idealist system works, and it’s hard to make it believable.
Maybe I’m just a hater. I guess I shouldn’t have an opinion until I finish it.
I’ve read Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” and found it quite compelling. On reflection, it’s essentially just a presentation of the trolley problem which goes out of its way to humanize the people on both sets of tracks.
It sounds like her world-building in Dispossessed leaves a lot of holes; that’s also very true in Omelas, where the narrator literally says they’re details that don’t matter. But as it’s a short story it’s easier to waive it, especially when the questions the story poses don’t hinge on the omitted information. Perhaps she intended the same thing with Dispossessed?
I guess it’s the “details that don’t matter” that may be bugging me the most here.
I’ll have to pick up Omelas!
https://shsdavisapes.pbworks.com/f/Omelas.pdf