Le Guin Part 4: The Ones Who Stay – N. K. Jemisin

5 Sept 2025

Episode 6.12 – Le Guin Part 4: The Ones Who Stay – N. K. Jemisin

Can we pull this utopia dilemma together? Or will we add even more levels of complication? When we wrestle with Le Guin, take solace knowing that others have, too, and so we enter into the dialogue of building utopia, together with its responsibilities!

As we explore today, we add Mikhail Bakhtin and George Bataille into the mix together with writers Sadoeuphemist and N. K. Jemisin!

Our Main Texts:

• Ursula K. Le Guin: “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”: https://archive.org/download/the-ones-who-walk-away-from-omelas-ursula-k-leguin/The%20Ones%20Who%20Walk%20Away%20from%20Omelas%20-%20Ursula%20K%20LeGuin.pdf 
• Jemisin, N. K.: “The Ones Who Stay and Fight”: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-ones-who-stay-and-fight/

Important Links Mentioned:

• Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag: https://forms.gle/WKGp1YWrazNZ3TLt8 
• Sadoeuphemist: “What Else, What Else, in the Joyous City?”: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/what-else-what-else-in-the-joyous-city/
• Literary Nomads, Journey 5, “Reading and Living in Uncertainty”: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords_podcast/reading-and-living-in-uncertainty/ 

Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/

CHAPTERS

00:00.00     When a Place Is Not a Place
00:04:22     Opening Theme
00:04:55     From Complicity to Resolve
00:11:30     Counter-Narrative and Dialogics
00:20:05     Jemisin’s “The Ones Who Stay and Fight”
00:34:03     Narratives of Power and Normalization
00:43:55     The Ambiguity of Moral Action: Bataille
00:51:28     A Call to Ethical Attentiveness
00:54:57     Book Clubs & Classroom Engagements
01:00:40     Where We Haven’t Explored
01:08:51     Closing Credits

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New to Literary Nomads? Check out episode 5.00 to find out what we’re all about: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords_podcast/an-introduction-and-irony/

Transcript:  https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-12-le-guin-part-4

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Literary Nomads is the primary program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.

Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.

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CREDITS:

Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)

Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski

USING THIS WORK:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.

MLA CITATION:

Chisnell, Steve. “Le Guin Part 4: The Ones Who Stay – N. K. Jemisin,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 5 Sept 2025, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.