What was that story? (space whale edition)
May 16, 2021 8:22 PM   Subscribe

Oh boy, I wish I had more to go on here. I think this was a short story in an anthology (but there's a chance it was a young adult novel). Science fiction, a teen girl starts turning into an alien whale...

I remember at some point her skin starts turning into, like, purple whale skin? Hands start turning into flippers possibly? I think but could not swear that she is on a generation ship and the cetacean-aliens are on the planet they're approaching and this is their attempt to psychically communicate with her? This is the extent of my memory on the topic. I would have read this before the year 2005 at the latest. Any chance this rings a bell with someone?
posted by peppercorn to Media & Arts (7 answers total)
 
In Deep Wizardry Book #2 in the Young Wizards Series by Diane Duane, aspiring young wizards come to the aid of a whale wizard. Released in 1985.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 12:16 AM on May 17, 2021


Here's the passage from Deep Wizardry in which Nita first turns into a whale:
Her arms were feeling heavy, her legs felt odd when she kicked; but none of it mattered. Something was utterly right, something was working. Nita began to feel short of air. It hadn't worked all the way, that was all. She would get it right the next time. She stroked for the surface, broke it, opened her eyes to the light --

-- and found it different. First and oddest -- so that Nita tried to shake her head in disbelief, and failed, since she suddenly had no neck -- the world was split in two, as if with an ax. Trying to look straight ahead of her didn't work. The area in front of her had become a hazy uncertainty comprised of two sets of peripheral vision. And where the corners of her eyes should have been, she now had two perfectly clear sets of sideways vision that nonetheless felt like "forward." She was seeing in colors she had no names for, and many she had names for were gone. Hands she still seemed to have, but her fingers hung down oddly long and heavy, her elbows were glued to her sides, and her sides themselves went on for what seemed years. Her legs were gone; a tail and graceful flukes were all she had left. Her nose seemed to be on the top of her head, and her mouth somewhere south of her chin; and she resolved to ask S'reee, well out of Kit's hearing, what had happened to some other parts of her. "S'reee," Nita said, and was amazed to hear it come out of the middle of her head, in a whistle instead of words, "it was easy!"
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 1:54 AM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]


That's similar to the plot to the music video for the song Night Time by Superorganism, , which you may also enjoy.
posted by SaltySalticid at 4:57 AM on May 17, 2021


Response by poster: Thanks both! It's definitely not Deep Wizardry or this music video.
posted by peppercorn at 9:43 AM on May 17, 2021


This is not what you’re looking for, but anyone who wants a gorgeous audio/visual experience involving humans who maybe are changing into whales should check out Phallaina . It’s a scrolling graphic novel, originally in French, and just hauntingly beautiful.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 11:54 AM on May 17, 2021


Is there any chance it's an octopus? I've definitely read a story about someone changing into a space octopus. I'll look it up if you think that could be it.
posted by mark k at 4:10 PM on May 17, 2021


It wasn't in the anthology I thought it was, but the silver lining is I found not just the title but the whole thing online: The Girl Who Went Out For Sushi by Pat Cadigan.
posted by mark k at 11:21 AM on May 20, 2021


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