Comments on: A short story where sex and conversation switch roles

Question: A short story where sex and conversation switch roles

Turd Ferguson — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 08:42:39 -0800

A friend of mine is trying to identify a short story that she read in high school where conversation and sex have the opposite roles than they do in our society today.

That is, discussion is viewed as intimacy and is done only in private, whereas people will be physical with each other freely in public. She thinks that speaking at all in public may have been taboo, and the consummation of a relationship was an act along the lines of exchanging essays with a partner. She does not remember much of the plot.

I've tried google, but as you might imagine, these terms are a bit difficult to work with.

By: willpie

willpie — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 09:06:43 -0800

It sounds a bit like The Taboo of Oobat, though my memory may be faulty here.

By: kindall

kindall — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 11:53:10 -0800

No, it's not The Taboo of Oobat -- that's about a world in which different body parts are taboo.

By: GaelFC

GaelFC — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 13:08:53 -0800

I swear I read this too. I keep wanting to say it was in a collection of stories by an extremely famous sci-fi author, like Ray Bradbury, but I can't narrow it down more at the moment.

By: Silky Slim

Silky Slim — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 14:14:36 -0800

sorry, don't know the answer either. just reminds me of "fantome de la liberte", where the roles of dining and defecation are reversed.

By: pomegranate

pomegranate — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 15:11:56 -0800

It was a short story in a magazine for young women, I can't remember which one; and there was a boy attracted to this "bad girl" who spoke her thoughts freely? That's all I remember, but it does sound familiar.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 01:43:40 -0800

This sounds pretty familiar, but it's been years since I read sf regularly. I'm thinking that New Eves sounds a bit like the anthology GaelFC recalls (one of the editors was 4E Ackerman). From the same site, Feminist SF for Beginners and LQ's Faves might jog a memory.

By: ruelle

ruelle — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 05:38:41 -0800

Thanks for linking The taboo of Oobat. :)