This has big "why didn't I read this in highschool" energy.

Don't get me wrong, I loved our speculative fiction curriculum in highschool - 1984, brave new world, Harrison Bergeron...

Spec fic remains one of my favorite genres. It's weird as an adult to be both super excited that other amazing classic spec fic exists (imagine my delight when I first read Octavia Butler almost a decade out of highschool) and annoyed that you didn't get to this earlier.

Anyway - that's how I feel about LeGuin. I feel like she was kept from me, and I feel like this story specifically was kept from me. And I'm both annoyed about that and delighted that I read this today. And to think it was because I wanted to understand Catherine Lacey's Pew.

This is such a short story that the summary spoils the plot. But the plot isn't what matters. The ideas explored in these few pages touch on class, race, colonialism, capitalism, morality, Christianity, selfishness, sacrifice, utilitarianism, compassion, responsibility... The story is a seed for a new angle of discussion when thinking about what a perfect world entails. And it seems like we've been collectively wrestling with that question for centuries.

Recommended if you have an overly keen interest in the trolley problem (I should make a list of book recs specifically for this), love classic sci fi but have missed out on the amazing female contributions to the genre, and want a short story to punch you in the stomach.