Neither Le Guin nor James, however, would necessarily applaud the members who choose to leave this community, for to do so, would not change the status of the suffering child. Some mistakenly argue that Le Guin supports the non-compliance of those who walk away. The author pits brute reality against fiction’s capacity to conjure illusory solutions and offers no easy answers. The Omalasians subscribe to a social contract contingent upon the exploitation of one child to ensure the happiness of all other citizens. Le Guin contends that in this passage, “The dilemma of the American conscience can hardly be better stated.” In the story, a community inhabits a wonderful, fairytale world free of illness, anxiety, and social strife. “If the hypothesis were offered us of a world in which … millions kept permanently happy on the one simple condition that a certain lost soul on the far-off edge of things should lead a life of lonely torment… even though an impulse arose within us to clutch at the happiness so offered, how hideous a thing would be its enjoyment when deliberately accepted as the fruit of such a bargain?” culture at the time of the Vietnam War, inspired by the “shock of recognition” she experienced upon reading this passage from William James: Le Guin considers the story an allegory of U.S. The tension between these two heaven-and-hell extremes could be summed up in a pull between the impulse to leave in the title and the joyous arrival of the festival that sets the stage.Ī carefree community that seems pleasing and just, turns out to be structured on injustice and ultimately untenable for some of its citizens.Įthical confusion arises both within the fictional world of the story and when the reader attempts to reconcile that textual space with the real world counterpart to which it refers. Its chapters closely investigate specifically East Asian manifestations of the political and aesthetic decisions made, or not made, in the construction and representation of creative cities, with Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Shanghai coming in for special consideration" (from Bridge 21 Publications website).In the short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” (Variations on a Theme by William James), Ursula Le Guin presents us with a utopia that turns out to include an imperfect, even nightmarish dystopia. This book offers a corrective to these trends. Moreover, most of them are interested in Western cases and the ideological, cultural, economic, and social backdrops that can hardly be taken for granted for other societies in the non-Western countries. Within many exiting literatures on the idea of creative cities and creative clusters, much attention has been focused on its relation to society on a macro level: creative cities are understood through the lens of creative economy, government policy, creative labor market analysis and management, adaptive urban re-development in the postindustrial cities, and strategic urban planning. "This volume of original essays critically examines the intriguing interplays among major actors and venues of creative practices in contemporary East Asian cities. The authors provide a critical evaluation of the movements presented in relationship to their overall goals and architectural transformations" (WorldCat). This structure allows readers to see the development of multiple and parallel branches/historical strands of architecture and, at times, their interconnections across countries. The book is structured so that it can be read in a variety of ways-as a historically developed narrative of modern architecture in Latin America, as a country-specific chronology, or as a treatment of traditions centered on issues of art, technology, or utopia. Designed as a survey and focused on key examples/paradigms arranged chronologically from 1903 to 2003, this volume covers a myriad of countries historical, social, and political conditions and projects/developments that range from small houses to urban plans to architectural movements. Modern Architecture in Latin America is the first comprehensive history of this important production. The number and types of projects varied greatly from country to country, but, as a whole, the region produced a significant body of architecture that has never before been presented in a single volume in any language. "Modern Architecture in Latin America: Art, Technology, and Utopia is an introductory text on the issues, polemics, and works that represent the complex processes of political, economic, and cultural modernization in the twentieth century. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Accessibility.
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