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The Omelas basement has a physical address in America: the prison-industrial complex.
This week, we use the lens of Toni Morrison’s literary criticism to interrogate the 13th Amendment and the ‘Hideous Bargain” of mass incarceration. If the basement is built into our laws, can we ever truly ‘walk away’?
We analyze Toni Morrison’s book Playing in the Dark and the prison-industrial complex through the documentary film 13th. We discuss the ‘Architecture of the Dungeon,’ and the ‘Hideous Bargain’ of American systemic racism. We discuss how ‘white silence’ sustains the Omelas basement and why dismantling the ‘Utopia Illusion’ requires an open and strenuous engagement with marginalized narratives and those of the Western white canon.
The Omelas framework is both the literal and literary architecture of the American dungeon: the prison-industrial complex. We identify the 13th Amendment’s ‘punishment clause’ as the legal anchor for the ‘Hideous Bargain,’ where the civil liberties of the majority are tethered to the systemic extraction of life from the imprisoned. Through Morrison’s lens, we recognize that ‘white silence’ acts as the mortar in these walls, sustaining a ‘Utopia Illusion’ that requires the intentional obliviousness of the privileged class.
00:00 Advisory
01:51 Turning the Camera Around
07:24 Intro Theme
07:59 Personae
19:20 Studies in Morrison
26:18 Legal Loopholes: 13th
38:39 Spare Parts
41:01 Closing Credits
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Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/
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Literary Nomads is the main 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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Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)
Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski
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.
Chisnell, Steve. “6.28 The Architecture of the Dungeon: Toni Morrison and the 13th Amendment,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 27 February 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
No transcript available for this episode.