Bumped up .25 stars for the acknowledgement. i love le guins discussion of the reception this story received especially when she shares a letter that was sent to her by a young reader, discussing the various ways they interpreted the story. my feelings for this story are of course complicated by le guins family's own involvement in a similar practice to what was going on in her fictionalised Omelas -- her father Alfred Kroeber, an anthropologist who exploited an indigenous man he named Ishi who was the last surviving member of the Yahi people. I think it's important context to have to consider how fiction doesn't exist in a vacuum -- I feel like this context adds an element of intrigue to the story itself.