28 Nov 2025

Episode 6.17 –

True Horror: Le Guin, Poe, Cavarero, Bataille, and Arendt

NOTE: While nothing explicit or graphic is named in this episode, it does touch upon difficult and challenging psychological topics, so it is not recommended for those sensitive to violence and war.

We finish our side trail on the implications of Poe’s horror by stepping more deeply into our own capacity to violence, reaching finally to Le Guin’s own direction: look to our modern political scene and the impulse to annihilation. From Poe’s violence without motive to Bataille’s celebration of it and Cavarero’s call to embrace our primal call to the necessity of care, we are left with Le Guin’s reference to the “banality of evil,” a direct indication to what she’s also been discussing all along: Arendt’s accounting of totalitarianism in World War 2 and after; its true horror.

Some links to items mentioned:

• Reading Guide to Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism:  https://waywordsstudio.com/project/arendts-the-origins-of-totalitarianism

Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/

CHAPTERS

00:00     Listener Advisory

00:44      Marking Our Trail

12:27      Opening Theme

13:03      The Pathology of Annihilation

19:26      Utility and Annihilation

34:00      Alignments: Structural Horrorism

46:59      The Burden of Complexity

51:35      Closing Credits

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New to Literary Nomads? Check out episode 5.00 to find out what we’re all about: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords_podcast/an-introduction-and-irony/

Have a Question? Literary Nomads Mailbag: https://forms.gle/WKGp1YWrazNZ3TLt8 

Transcript:  https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/6-17-true-horror

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Literary Nomads is the primary program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.

Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.

Website:  https://waywordsstudio.com

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CREDITS:

Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)

Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski

USING THIS WORK:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.

MLA CITATION:

Chisnell, Steve. “6.17 True Horror: Le Guin, Poe, Cavarero, Bataille, and Arendt,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 28 Nov 2025, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.