ABANDONED. Generation ship short story, society in it unaware, huge walls surrounding habitat inside

[Nicolas]

The short story is about a society (view spoiler)[that lives in a huge spaceship (i think you would call it a generation ship) (hide spoiler)]The story starts (view spoiler)[with the reader unaware of all of this, maybe (hide spoiler)] following the main character.I also remember very strong that around the middle or the end,(view spoiler)[ a man (the main character perhaps) finds the end of the 'world' which is a wall and starts to climb it (or pass through it), and after that either the story ends or he discovers the truth (hide spoiler)]. The rest of my memories are even fader, as I was very young when I read this (around year 2000)... I remember the society was agricultural and they had a form of religion. The man that reached the end might have followed a custom that prescribed that on the coming of a certain age (old age as I recall) one has to begin the travel of his death at the edge of the world. I remember the story left me in awe but it might have been that I was too young and I was easily surprised...


I would appreciate it very much if anyone could help me.

Thank you,

Nicholas

[Feliks]

Its probably not the Riverworld of Philip Jose Farmer's To Your Scattered Bodies Go is it?

[Nicolas]

no it isn't but seems interesting though, thank you anyways

[Feliks]

There's another one I vaguely recall where the protagonists are floating in a raft on the surface of an enormous ocean; yet its all on the inside of a space ship and they weren't supposed to wake up and start exploring..h'mmm

[Andy]

Nicholas wrote: "The short story is about a society [spoilers removed]The story starts [spoilers removed] following the main character.I also remember very strong that around the middle or the end,[spoilers removed..."

The obvious suggestions are [book:Orphans of the Sky|50832] and Non-Stop ( this one also published under the title "Starsip"

[Nicolas]

Andy, I appreciate your suggestion, I've already added this book to my "want to read", but as I describe in the title, what I'm looking for is a short story and not a book. I don't exclude the possibility of it having been written in a complete novel eventually, or me being wrong but anyways, this is not the story I'm looking for... And trust me, I've came across this in many many lists, I've read tons of spoilers and still want to read it!

[Andy]

Sorry about missing the fact that you were looking for a short story. Have you seen this list of generation ship stories http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php... or this list http://sciencefictionruminations.word...

[Serendi]

Looking at the lists above, I immediately went Sounds about right! for Universe, which does become the opening chapter for Orphans of the Sky. I wasn't clear on whether you'd determined whether the beginning of the book was or was not the short story. ?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Nicholas, are you still looking for this short story?

[Cheryl]

apparently abandoned :(