Seems like there might be enough traction, so here we go!
Our first “book” shall be “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K LeGuin.
It is a short story that is readily available online. If you cannot purchase it, rent it, or find it online please let me know and I will provide more information on how to get it.
Trigger warnings: emotional abuse, grooming, and child abuse
I would like to include some discussion questions that are community specific, and not generic book club questions, so these will likely be questions I ask regarding every work, subject to change of course.
Some things to think about while reading: -Do you think this work is told from a feminist perspective? Why? -Do you think the authors gender or gender identity affected their choice of subject, writing style, or perspective character? -Does the narrators gender or gender identity affect the work? If so, how? -Did this work change your opinion on anything? If so, what and why?
I don’t know if I’ll start adding generic book club questions, but if you’d like more general discussion questions of the works going forward, please let me know and I can include some. There’s just a lot of discussion available already for this specific piece and I don’t want answers to common questions to overshadow more nuanced discussions that center women which is why we’re all in this community. Also, this is not a homework assignment. You can choose to address any or none of the questions posed here, or talk about your general thoughts or whatever else. Please feel free to pose your own questions in the comments as well. These should serve as a handy springboard if needed, but not a mandatory outline.
Our first movie will be Kpop Demon Hunters. There were some other suggestions, but I wanted to keep it a little lighter considering this months book has some serious trigger warnings and I wanted people to be able to participate in at least one of the two, even if they would rather not engage in heavy topics. This is an animated movie available on Netflix. I know this is a little exclusionary, but there are some other ways to watch it as well.
Trigger warnings: animated violence/gore, discussion of demons and the afterlife
Same as above: I would like to include some discussion questions that are community specific, and not generic movie club questions, so these will likely be questions I ask regarding every work, subject to change of course.
Some things to think about while watching: -Do you think this work is told from a feminist perspective? Why? -Do you think the authors gender or gender identity affected their choice of subject, writing style, or perspective character? -Does the narrators gender or gender identity affect the work? If so, how? -Did this work change your opinion on anything? If so, what and why?
I don’t know if I’ll start adding generic questions, but if you’d like more general discussion questions of the works going forward, please let me know and I can include some. There’s just a lot of discussion available already for this specific piece and I don’t want answers to common questions to overshadow more nuanced discussions that center women which is why we’re all in this community. Also, this is not a homework assignment. You can choose to address any or none of the questions posed here, or talk about your general thoughts or whatever else. Please feel free to pose your own questions in the comments as well. These should serve as a handy springboard if needed, but not a mandatory outline.
Comments are spoilers territory. If you want to use spoiler tags in the comments, please do, but it is not required. If you venture into the comments please keep in mind this is a discussion thread for media so there will likely be spoilers.
Going forward This is a community project. I would like to get input regarding written works and tv/movies that would be a good fit for this. I will leave a comment on this thread that you can respond to if you’d like to offer a suggestion. One suggestion per comment please. You can comment multiple times though. I’d like to make sure the selections are widely accessible, so please add that information if you know for sure something is in the public domain or available online, as that makes it easier to recommend. Please vote on the other comments you see there. I’d like to pair heavier topics in one media with lighter topics in the other, just in case you’re wondering why a specific piece was not chosen. Things like language or availability may also affect the selection. I’m also open to changing or adding discussion questions.
Thank you all for your interest. Excited to hear your perspectives!
PS: Even if you have seen or read the media before, I would encourage a reread or rewatch to best participate in the discussion!
small note on formatting: your list failed because you are missing a space after the
-, so this is how you wrote it:**Some things to think about while watching:** -Do you think this work is told from a feminist perspective? Why? -Do you think the authors gender or gender identity affected their choice of subject, writing style, or perspective character? -Does the narrators gender or gender identity affect the work? If so, how? -Did this work change your opinion on anything? If so, what and why?and this is what you need for the list to render correctly:
**Some things to think about while watching:** - Do you think this work is told from a feminist perspective? Why? - Do you think the authors gender or gender identity affected their choice of subject, writing style, or perspective character? - Does the narrators gender or gender identity affect the work? If so, how? - Did this work change your opinion on anything? If so, what and why?which should look like this
Some things to think about while watching:
- Do you think this work is told from a feminist perspective? Why?
- Do you think the authors gender or gender identity affected their choice of subject, writing style, or perspective character?
- Does the narrators gender or gender identity affect the work? If so, how?
- Did this work change your opinion on anything? If so, what and why?
Thanks for organizing this!! 😊
Light comment to start: what other media have you read/seen/heard that were inspired by TOWWAFO? It’s one of those stories that once you’ve read it, you start seeing references to it everywhere.
Star Trek has used it multiple times, most recently the Strange New World Series season 1 episode 6 and the boy who is First Servant to his people.
Jordan Peele’s Us also has notes of inspiration from Le Guins to short story.
I’ve been meaning to revisit LeGuin for awhile now, I’m excited to dig in, thanks for organizing everything!
Glad to see it’s making peoples to read list shorter rather than longer lol. Excited to read your thoughts on it!
Oh good! I’ve had The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas in my kindle library for a while but kept getting sidetracked. I’m excited for this - thank you for taking the initiative!
So glad to hear it’s helping you cross something off your list! Excited to read your thoughts!
This is so exciting! When do we need to read/watch by?
I figure people can read/watch/comment at their leisure through the month of September. Ideally responding to other comments that are there already, then hopefully revisit this thread at the end of September once everyone has posted just to see conversations that might not have been there when you posted. I will link this thread in next months thread and encourage people to revisit it and see if any new comments have been added since they last checked. Hopefully it’s mostly wrapped up by the end of September, but there’s nothing stopping people from visiting this far after that. I will try to respond to all top level comments so people know someone is engaging with their ideas, even if they respond after the designated month. I imagine the earlier comments will get more traction, but I’ll at least read them all regardless.
Good plan
Wow. You’re jumping STRAIGHT into the hard stuff!
Right? It’s relatively short and in my opinion unfortunately eternally relevant, so I hope it’ll encourage more participation! Excited to see people’s takes.
So when do we start talking? I have THOUGHTS on that work. For such a short work there is so much buried beneath it. LeGuin is rivalling Laozi for encoding philosophies here.
The thread is open to conversations as soon as it’s posted! You can comment whenever you’re ready. I’d suggest making it a top level comments though to ensure the most visibility/engagement. Excited to read your thoughts!
I just re-read it to kickstart the memory and I’ll do a detailed read later. Then … THOUGHTS will leak out. This is a complicated work with no good answers to anything.
It’s good you put a trigger warning on that. That’s the short story equivalent of Black Kirin’s “Nanjing Massacre” video: intensely artistic, introspective, and shocking in equal parts.
Yes, definitely! I hope you’ll consider providing some suggestions for future months. I think you posted a song on a different thread and I had not heard it before but it was great and lead me down a rabbit hole of melodic folk metal. You seem to be able to provide lots of novel references, and I really appreciate that! I don’t have a broad base to draw from, so any additional perspectives are always welcome.
Please comment suggestions for next month here. One suggestion per comment. You can comment multiple times. Please include any details you might find relevant (not mandatory but helpful). Please vote on other suggestions as well. Thank you!
