Name-that-story-filter
August 9, 2011 2:43 AM   Subscribe

Name-that-story-filter: Anthropologist mother with her daughter (and son?) on a planet separated from the rest of civilization by years of sub-light space travel. Mom maintains scientific detachment, but daughter is assimilated into peculiar local culture with taboos against social interaction, driving mother and daughter apart. Inspired by this AskMe.

One possible snippet I remember from the story is "Be Aware", a sort of mantra describing the philosophy of the locals. Also, unless I'm mixing in something else, the males on the planet were ostracized from the tribe similarly to what happens to male elephants (?), preventing the scientist's son from integrating. Not sure about this last part.
posted by tigrrrlily to Writing & Language (7 answers total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
Moon-Flash by Patricia McKillip.
posted by likeso at 2:58 AM on August 9, 2011


And there's a sequel: The Moon and the Face.
posted by likeso at 3:00 AM on August 9, 2011


Reminds me of a book or story by Ursula Le Guin, one of her Hainish series? Can't recall the title right now.
posted by Coaticass at 3:05 AM on August 9, 2011 [2 favorites]


Best answer: It sounds like the short story "Solitude" by Ursula LeGuin, from the collection Birthday of the World.
posted by nangar at 3:07 AM on August 9, 2011 [4 favorites]


On preview- yes, "Solitude" is the one I was thinking of! There's an excerpt here.
posted by Coaticass at 3:10 AM on August 9, 2011


Coaticass and nangar are absolutely right, I was conflating! Just took down my copy of The Birthday of the World, and Solitude is right. (As I was linking to Amazon, inner little voice was saying leguinleguinleguin. Shoulda lissened.)
posted by likeso at 3:11 AM on August 9, 2011


Response by poster: Thank you! "Solitude" is absolutely, without a doubt IT.

...

You guys know this is ridiculous, right? 24 minutes. I know this is par for the course for this type of question, but... we're all out of medals, ok?

*grin* You're pretty great, the lot of you.
posted by tigrrrlily at 3:27 AM on August 9, 2011


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