moorel@EGLIN-VAX (08/29/85)
From: moorel@EGLIN-VAX On the subject of books which concern the clash between very different cultures, I would like to point out several books that illuminate clashes between very different human cultures as well as between humans and aliens. The first is a fairly serious book by Suzette Haden Elgin, called _Native_Tongue_. This book has as its premise that the only way to be comple- tely fluent in an alien language is to learn it as a child from a native speaker. This provides the child with another "native tongue" in which they are able to "think" like a native speaker. The story is set in the near future on Earth, and the culture of the humans in the story is provided with a "history" that gives a reasonable idea of how it might have grown out of our present day world. The interactions between humans and aliens and with other humans are very powerfully depicted, and the book makes some very intense and thoughtful statements about what might happen when humans are more alien to one another than real "aliens". The other books that I would like to recommend are basically a delight- ful, easy reading set of books by L. Neil Smith, the Probability Broach series. The books are independent of each other for the most part, but in (story) chronological order are: _The_Probability_Broach_, _The_Nagasaki_Vector_, _The_Venus_Belt_, _Tom_Paine_Maru_, and in the same universe, _Their_Majesties'_Bucketeers. These books concern the contact between two very similar parallel universes, one of which is a near-future America very similar to ours and the other is an America in which the Whiskey Rebellion succeeded. The two worlds have very different philosophical outlooks on government, personal responsibility, the environment, space, etc., etc., and the difficulties experienced by people from "our" world in adapting to their culture are fascinating. The books are very light in tone, frequently quite humorous, and read very fast. They're great for any rainy afternoon or just when you're a bit blue. The last book, the one about the bucketeers is not about the human cultures, but is styled after the adven- tures of Sherlock Holmes and is set on a very well developed world inhabited by trisexual aliens. Read and enjoy! Lynne C. Moore (MOOREL@EGLIN-VAX.ARPA)