Le Guin Part 5: Q&A

12 Sept 2025

Episode 6.13 – Le Guin Part 5: Q&A

Listeners offer their questions from narrator trust to activism to teaching controversy. I rant–or respond–back.

Important Links Mentioned:

• Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag: https://forms.gle/WKGp1YWrazNZ3TLt8 
• Literary Nomads, Journey 5, “Dorian Gray and Difficult Conversations”: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/transcript-5-08-dorian-gray-and-difficult-conversations/

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

CHAPTERS

00:00     Better a Q & R
02:04     Opening Theme
02:43     Getting Questions
04:03     Is the narrator in ‘Omelas’ unreliable?
10:45     Some examples of subverting fantasy tropes?
16:29     How do I keep contradictions in my head?
21:10     How am I supposed to take action in uncertainty?
27:35     How do I find the ‘main idea’ of the story?
32:08     How can we teach controversy without triggering?
41:32     How about some teaching strategies?
50:49     Literary Nomads Model
53:51     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/6-13-le-guin-part-5

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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.

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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 5: Q&A,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 12 Sept 2025, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.