I read the chapter titled ‘Mutiny’ in The Brothers Karamazov yesterday morning. It reminded me greatly of the story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin; so much so that it seems to be an answer, in the form of fiction, to the question posed by Ivan: “And are you able to allow the idea that the people for whom you are constructing the edifice would themselves agree to accept their happiness being bought by the unwarranted blood of a small, tortured child and, having accepted it, remain happy forever?”

Intentional or not, it’s wonderful the way literature converses with itself through centuries of stories and writers.