What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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101 Science Fiction Stories
SOLVED: Adult Fiction
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SOLVED. Science Fiction Short Story - Aliens and Suicide [s]
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Andy
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Mar 18, 2014 03:39PM
I read this short story in the mid-80s (possibly in a "Best of the Year" collection; in it, humans and aliens are in contact, and one of the aliens explains that centuries earlier, their society had been very troubled, and they "solved" the problem by implanting devices into adolescents, that made suicide very easy to commit. Since only the very stable then lived to adulthood, the alien society had stabilized, though at a high cost.
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I totally read that story; sorry, I don't remember title or author. The narrator is visiting another planet, I think to decide if we should maintain contact with them. He's horrified that his delightful but unstable daughter would probably not make it to adulthood, says to his alien guide that it's no better to stultify, but the guide says they only did it for a couple thousand years until things were stable, they were going to stop the implants next year. I think it might have been a "name" writer, not sure. I also think it might have been written for one of the Dangerous Visions anthologies but didn't make it? I remember it as kind of schmaltzy.
Thanks - at least someone else remembers it...
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Kate: My last post before yesterday's was March 20, _2014_.
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Kate wrote: "Sorry, Andy. I just saw the Mar 20 part. I don't think I'm used to this being 2015 yet. Oops."No problem.
I hope someone solves this, it sounds fascinating.Do you recall if the collection was all by the same author, or different authors? Anything about the cover? Do you have any sense of whether it was some kind of annual "best of"? At the time you read it, do you have any sense of whether it was new book or an older one? Where did you find it -- library, used bookstore, new bookstore?
I'm pretty sure it was in a "Best of the Year" trade paperback - probably sometime between (say) 1987 and 1997. I saw it in a college bookstore (if I'm remembering correctly).
This sounds really cool; I hope you find it.
Thanks so much. That's it. It's by John D. MacDonald (a better link is here http://www.gutenberg.org/files/51148/...) I must have read it in "101 Science Fiction Stories" http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?2...
