(Found -- on another thread) very obscure one, i think

[Jo Zebedee]

I read this when I was about 12, so that was over 20 years ago, and then some. I can remember very little about it; the main character had brightly coloured hair and he was one of few independent thinkers, most others were like automatons. There was a scene on an escalator where the automatons didn't get off causing a pile up which the protagonist stepped around. He ended up being hunted because he was identified as a free thinker.

I have no idea of the author etc - although I think it may have been a female - but it's been bugging me for years, and especially since I saw this thread a couple of weeks ago, so i thought it was worth a crack.

 

[Metryq]

This sounds like Isaac Asimov's short story "Profession," except for the scene on the escalator.

"Profession" describes a world where the "Olympics" are a kind of job fair. Kids have been analyzed from a very young age, then channeled into trades best suited to the way their minds work. The main character is one of those people who cannot be pigeon-holed and is sent to a "house for the feeble-minded." He rebels against this and escapes. He has a world-changing idea, only the world will not listen. It turns out that the "feeble-minded" really are special...

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I think the subject matter is close, but it definitely wasn't Asimov, and it was a novel, not a short. It was for the YA market, and the copy I read was hardback, which makes me think it must have been quite popular at the time.

 

[Metryq]

It is typical of youth to want to "do things differently" and perhaps regard elders—or even youth who "unquestioningly" follow them—as automatons. It is true that youth might sometimes rebel against custom without asking why such practices have become firmly established. It is also true that elders may become "set in their ways" and accepting of certain things that can be changed to the benefit of society.

Perhaps the escalator scene will ring a bell with someone. Otherwise, the basic premise could be any number of stories.

 

[Danny McG]

Well you know it now Jo

 

[otistdog]

For those not aware: This was an infamously difficult-to-ID story that was eventually solved on another thread by CassFrank. The book in question is The Others (1986) by Alison Prince.

 

[AE35Unit]

Sounds a bit like 1984

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Sounds a bit like 1984

Not as dystopic. I enjoyed the reread a lot

 

[Orcadian]

.... He ended up being hunted because he was identified as a free thinker.

And that problem is still with us today, particularly on social media! I identify as a freethinker -and woe betide you if you step outside the groupthink on a particular topic.

 

[AE35Unit]

And that problem is still with us today, particularly on social media! I identify as a freethinker -and woe betide you if you step outside the groupthink on a particular topic.

Yea you post something that opposes popular opining on something (religion), citing facts and Facebook pulls it, stating false information

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Straying into must-not-talk-about territory

 

[AE35Unit]

Straying into must-not-talk-about territory

I find it all silly, like having to hide nipples on pictures of statues

 

[The Judge]

If you care to read why we instituted the policy, you'd realise why we don't allow social or political commentary -- it's not prudishness, it's to prevent flame wars and aggression https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/576686/

Since the novel has been found, I'm closing this thread to avoid any more members getting sucked into a discussion we don't want here and which they can find in plenty on less regulated forums.

 

[AE35Unit]

Sorry