Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 8/7/84; site ucbvax.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ucbvax!wildbill From: wildbill@ucbvax.ARPA (William J. Laubenheimer) Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: Do you recognize this story? Message-ID: <2303@ucbvax.ARPA> Date: Mon, 1-Oct-84 18:50:49 EDT Article-I.D.: ucbvax.2303 Posted: Mon Oct 1 18:50:49 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 3-Oct-84 05:43:07 EDT References: <12440@sri-arpa.UUCP> Organization: University of California at Berkeley Lines: 28 > I'm sure this mailing list gets a lot of this, but I'd really appreciate > a pointer to a short story with the following rough plot: > A young alien boy lives on Earth, and he is unaware of his origins. > Apparently he has a sense of ``winding number'', in that if he were to walk > around the block, he would feel a desire to turn once in the opposite > direction, to regain his equilibrium. Naturally, he attempts to suppress > this strange behavior, and as he gets older he is able to tolerate larger > winding numbers---at the end of the day he stands on his bed turning and > doing backflips. The purpose of the sense is to orient him with respect to > his home, which is a distant star. > This summary may be considerably distorted, since it is second- or third-hand. > Thanks much, > Peter.Monta@cmu-cs-g.arpa It's not a short story, it's a novel. The title is \\The Revolving Boy//. I believe the author is female, but I don't recall the name. It's been a while since I read it. The boy is not an alien. What he is is the first human born in space, the result of some unauthorized screwing around during a space mission crewed by a married couple. Bill Laubenheimer ----------------------------------------UC-Berkeley Computer Science ...Killjoy went that-a-way---> ucbvax!wildbill