The opening story of N. K. Jemisin’s collection How Long ’til Black Future Month?, in which social workers kill an “information-gleaner” in Um-Helat, responds to a story set in this city. For 10 points each:
[10m] The ethical writings of William James inspired a 1973 story set in what ostensibly perfect city, whose happiness depends on the perpetual suffering of a scapegoat child?
ANSWER: Omelas
[10h] Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” inspired the title of this author’s sci-fi novel Walkaway. This blogger and Creative Commons advocate wrote the novella Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.
ANSWER: Cory Doctorow (Doctorow confirmed that the title of Walkaway alludes to “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” in an email correspondence with this tournament’s American Literature editor.)
[10e] Isabel J. Kim’s Nebula-winning story “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” was published in an online magazine named for this surname. An author with this surname wrote the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey.
ANSWER: Clarke [accept Clarkesworld or Arthur C. Clarke]
<UCLA A, American Literature>