The Critique of Ethics, Mediocrity and Complacency in Márquez and Le Guin’s Fictions

Year 2025, Volume: 9 Issue: 1, 155 - 169, 23.03.2025

Zafer Şafak

https://doi.org/10.31465/eeder.1596940

Abstract

A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings is published by the Nobel laureate novelist Gabriel García Márquez and The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas is authored by Ursula Le Guin who is known primarily for her works of science fiction. While the genres and the tones of the sample works chosen and discussed in this study markedly differ, their thematic trajectories and the way they criticize society and public morality is argued to resemble considerably. In the fictional world of the stories, both Márquez’s winged-man and Le Guin’s miserable child are mistreated by the members of their societies the fact of which relates us the stories’ undercurrent concerns of the critique of society, moral complexity, complacency and mediocrity. While the winged-man is abused as he is unfamiliar and does not comply with the cultural and religious expectations of the society, the child is exploited and degraded for the selfish prosperity of an entire community. In bringing together two different generic and unsettling fictions and reading them critically, this study aims to demonstrate and argue how complacency, mediocrity, thought patterns of society, folk wisdom and superstition are entangled with far-reaching variables of culture, politics, economics and even religious-capitalist theodicy.

Keywords

Márquez, Le Guin, Public Morality, Complacency, Mediocrity

Ethical Statement

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Supporting Institution

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Thanks

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Márquez ve Le Guin’in Eserlerinde Etik, Vasatlık ve Kayıtsız Hoşnutluk Eleştirisi

Abstract

Kocaman Kanatlı İhtiyar Adam, Nobel ödüllü romancı Gabriel García Márquez tarafından yazılmıştır ve Omelas'ı Terk Edip Gidenler, öncelikle bilim kurgu eserleriyle tanınan Ursula Le Guin tarafından kaleme alınmıştır. Bu çalışmada seçilen ve tartışılan örnek eserlerin türleri ve üslupları belirgin bir şekilde farklılık gösterseler de, makaledeki ilgili eserlerin tematik izlekleri ve toplumu ve kamu ahlakını eleştirme biçimlerinin oldukça benzer olduğu ileri sürülmektedir. Hikâyelerin kurgusal dünyasında, hem Márquez'in kanatlı adamı hem de Le Guin'in zavallı çocuğu, toplumlarının üyeleri tarafından kötü muameleye maruz kalır; bu da bize toplum eleştirisi, ahlaki karmaşıklık, kendinden hoşnutluk ve vasatlık gibi hikâyelerin örtük kaygılarını anlatır. Kanatlı adam alışılmadık olduğu ve toplumun kültürel ve dini beklentilerine uymadığı için istismar edilirken, çocuk tüm toplumun bencil refahı için sömürülür ve aşağılanır. Bu çalışma, iki farklı türde ve sarsıcı iki kurguyu bir araya getirip eleştirel bir gözle okuyarak, kendinden hoşnutluğun, vasatlığın, halk bilgeliği ve toplumun düşünce kalıplarının kültür, politika, ekonomi ve hatta dini-kapitalist teodise gibi geniş kapsamlı değişkenlerle nasıl iç içe geçtiğini göstermeyi ve tartışmayı amaçlar.

Keywords

Márquez, Le Guin, Kamu Ahlakı, Kayıtsız Hoşnutluk, Vasatlık

Project Number

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