Omelas

Here's a little help for you guys as you read this story.

Omelas is an imaginary city. The story is an allegory; it is a giant metaphor and stands for something else. In the first part of the story, we get a general description of the city, and the author is trying to convince us that the city is real. When the author says you, she means you, the reader. Each of you.

Questions:

1. In paragraph 1, what is the dominant theme? What's going on?

2. In paragraph 3 and the top of 143, what does the author say about happiness? Do you agree (why)?

3. In paragraph 8, what kind of place is the child in? What is the child like? Why is it there?

4. Paragraph 10, What do you think the ending means?

Words to help you:

avenue = small road, lane
mauve = purple
grave = somber
merry = happy
shimmer = sparkle (bright lights, twinkling)
dodge = to avoid (move out of the way
lithe = flexible, agile (moves well)
halter and bit = equipment for riding horses
flare = to open
prance = dance/skip
archaic = prehistoric
litter = bed
pendant = friend/equal
sophisticate = intellectual
treason = betrayal
naive = ignorant
puritanical = strict without any vices (bad habits)
languor = laziness
arcana = ancient mysteries
trivial = unimportant
seep = trickle
clotted = clustered
fumble = touch, hold
hunch = slump, crouch
festered = irritated (a festered wound is a really bad wound)
excrement = poop
impotence = weakness
vile = wicked, evil
paradox = puzzle
imbecile = stupid person
vapid = empty
snivel = to cry

Ha Jin

From an interview, Ha Jin's views on writing:

"You can get into a short story and get it out easily. If I work on a novel, I have to immerse myself in it for a long time completely. You are just absorbed by the work, so it is a very hard process, and sometimes I don't have the time and leisure to do that. As for poetry, it's pure luck. You don't know whether this will work, and you just try and try. I abandon a lot of poems, so I think it is a high order of writing. It's harder and it depends on luck. Sometimes you write a poem without much effort but it works well and sometimes you just work for months on one but it doesn't work."

For more information and interviews, check out:

www.guernicamag.com/spotlight/258/post/
www.powells.com/authors/jin.html
www.onpointradio.org/shows/2007/11/novelist-ha-jin/
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1246_the_forum/page17.shtml

Save the English Language!

That's right! Just like some animal and plant species that are endangered, some words--and languages--are about to become extinct as well!

Ah! What a sad day, the day when fucivorous cannot be used in conversation or exclamation! Or when humans have lost the ability not only to translate, but to think about reality in different langauges.

You can all be joblers (people who do small jobs =) and "adopt" a word to keep it from going extinct! This may sound silly, but there is a standard for how much a word must be used and appear in print to be in a dictionary. That is why there are new words that come into existence every year. Little baby words.

But you can save the ones that need a Mom and Dad. Words that have no one to speak or write them. What? Why do this?

In a world of economics and fear about the future, which is mediated by too much information, understanding each other will be more and more important. Countries will probably close themselves off to others for a while, in terms of trade. Talking about commonalities and issues that pertain to humans everywhere will be more important.

And these silly words that are almost dead?

Maybe they represent ideas that need to be saved, too.

Good luck. Go adopt a word.