by Ursula K LeGuin - from The Wind's Twelve Quarters
With a clamor of bells that set the swallows soaring, the Festival of
Summer came to the city Omelas, bright-towered by the sea. The ringing of the boats in harbor sparkled with flags. In the streets between houses with red roofs and painted walls, between old moss-grown gardens and under avenues of trees, past great parks and public buildings, processions
moved. Some were decorous: old people in long stiff robes of mauve and gray, grave master workmen, quiet, merry women carrying their babies and chatting as they walked. In other streets the music beat faster, a shimmering of gong and tambourine, and the people went dancing, the procession was a dance. Children dodged in and out, their high calls rising like the swallows' crossing flights over the music and the singing. All the processions wound towards the north side of the city, where on the great water-meadow called the Green Fields boys and girls, naked in the bright air, with mud-stained feet and ankles and long, lithe arms,exercised their restive horses before the race. The horses wore no gear at all but a halter without bit. Their manes were braided with streamers of silver, gold, and green. They flared their nostrils and pranced and boasted to one another; they were vastly excited, the horse being the only animal who has adopted our ceremonies as his own. Far off to the north and west the mountains stood up half encircling Omelas on her bay. The air of morning was so clear that the snow still crowning the Eighteen Peaks burned withwhite-gold fire across the miles of sunlit air, under the dark blue of the sky. There was just enough wind to make the banners that marked the racecourse snap and flutter now and then. In the silence of the broad green meadows one could hear the music winding throughout the city streets, farther and nearer and ever approaching, a cheerful faint sweetness of the air from time to time trembled and gathered together and broke out into the great joyous clanging of the bells.
Joyous! How is one to tell about joy? How describe the citizens of
Omelas?
They were not simple folk, you see, though they were happy. But we do not say the words of cheer much any more. All smiles have become archaic. Given a description such as this one tends to make certain assumptions. Given a description such as this one tends to look next for the King, mounted on a splendid stallion and surrounded by his noble knights, or perhaps in a golden litter borne by great-muscled slaves. But there was no king. They did not use swords, or keep slaves. They were not barbarians, I do not know the rules and laws of their society, but I suspect that they were singularly few. As they did without monarchy and slavery, so they also got on without the stock exchange, the advertisement, the secret police, and the bomb. Yet I repeat that these were not simple folk, not dulcet shepherds, noble savages, bland utopians. There were not less complex than us.
The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can't lick 'em, join 'em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy. How can I tell you about the people of Omelas?
They were not naive and happy children--though their children were, in fact, happy. They were mature, intelligent, passionate adults whose lives were not wretched. O miracle! But I wish I could describe it better. I wish I could convince you. Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale,
and every section is in the middle of a crescendo that brings a powerful textural and volume crescendo to the downbeat of the ever-anticipated fourth movement. The first thing one hears in the fourth movement is a triumphant and loud brass and wind, fanfare-like melody accompanied by multiple stops in the strings. What…
Wind Turbines It is a source of clean and renewable energy which will not generate any greenhouse gases, nor emit pollution or even produce any dangerous waste material. Each unit of electricity produced by a wind turbine replaces a similar unit of energy from a conventional power station. Wind turbines have highly successful where they have been commissioned in the UK, preventing the emission of almost 1 3/4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Wind is an abundant and reliable source of…
no turning back, textbooks would need to be changed. In order to settle the dispute, the International Astronomical Union met in 2006, and argued for, and against Pluto's planethood. Some astronomers advocated widening the number of planets to twelve, including Pluto, its moon Charon, the Asteroid Ceres, and the newly discovered Eris. In the end, they changed the definition of what makes a planet, and sadly, Pluto doesn't make the cut: The Solar System[a] is the Sun and the objects that…
burning in the chest and throat. Mustard gas was similar in that it caused the persons exposed to have internal and external bleeding, vomiting, itching, and blistering skin. The effects of gas were not immediate but could take up to twelve hours to kick in. Gas required great caution in its use because if the wind were to turn in the wrong direction it could result in gassing all of your own men rather than the enemies. These poison gases were either released from canisters that the 1 Weapons of World War 1, Wikipedia http://en…
great warrior, he married Megra and had two children. Hera sent a fit of madness to Hercules that put him in such great rage that he murdered Megra and his two kids. For the unforgivable acts he committed he had to preform the twelve labors as punishment. Some of the twelve labors were, The Nemean lion, The Learnean Hydra, and, The Kind of Ceryneia. Hera wasn’t the only deadliest enemy Hercules had. Nessus who trained most of the heroes in Greek Mythology tried to rape Herculeses wife, he talked her…
risk factors and uncertainties that they take into account when determining their results and could cause them to fail in the future. Volatility in the global financial markets could cause customers to delay or reduce purchases of railcars, barges, wind towers and other products and services. Volatile credit markets will prevent customer’s access to use credit if they are buying products. With that happening product order volumes may decrease or customers may default on payments owed to the company…
times. What did many African Americans say about how the Great Depression affected their culture as a whole? It was harder in the black's because since most of them were too poor they had to go back to working on farms for example "sharecropping". Twelve percent of blacks lost their jobs and in result they lost their farms. Mini-Research presentation. *The Depression originated in the U.S after the fall in stock prices that began around Sept. 4th 1929, became worldwide news with stock-market crash…
Carolina in a large field with high winds. Being intelligent, the brothers always tested their gliders by flying them like a kite to make sure they were structurally sound. They made their second glider bigger and increased the size of the wings, trying to increase the lift of the aircraft. The bigger improved glider wasn’t so improved after all, it was too heavy and the wings were not at the right pitch to increase lift. This inspired the brothers to create a miniature wind tunnel to test the aerodynamics…
Wind Energy Casey Cooper ENG 025 12-9-12 Table of Contents History of Wind Mills…………………………………………………………………………… Wind Turbines of Today………………………………………………………………………… Current Technologies……………………………………………………………………………. Pros & Cons……………………………………………………………………………………… Key Locations…………………………………………………………………………………. Constructing a Turbine……………………………………………………………………….... Turbine Components…………………………………………………………………………... Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………. Literature Cited………………………………………………………………………………
I. Introduction A. Imagine it’s the summer of 64’, the heat is radiating, but you’re riding around with the top down, your tunes blasting, and sunglasses on, your hair blowing in the wind, you feel on top of the world. Yep, you guessed it you’re in a Ford Mustang, the coolest car around and the car that everyone is completely envious of. 1. Ford was created by the visionary Henry Ford when he first unveiled the Model T in October 1908. This car was built to be inexpensive, highly-dependable, and…