"Ursula K. LeGuin - Solitude" - читать интересную книгу автора (Le Guin Ursula K)

Knowing what it cost her, I wish she knew my gratitude to her for
allowing me to grow up as a person.
Shortly after a robot probe reported people of the Hainish
Descent on the eleventh planet of the Soro system, she joined the
orbital crew as back-up for the three First Observers down
onplanet. She had spent four years in the tree-cities of nearby
Huthu. My brother In Joy Born was eight years old and I was five;
she wanted a year or two of ship duty so we could spend some time
in a Hainish-style school. My brother had enjoyed the rainforests of
Huthu very much, but though he could brachiate he could barely
read, and we were all bright blue with skin-fungus. While Borny
learned to read and I learned to wear clothes and we all had
antifungus treatments, my mother became as intrigued by
Eleven-Soro as the Observers were frustrated by it.
All this is in her report, but I will say it as I learned it from her,
which helps me remember and understand. The language had been
recorded by the probe and the Observers had spent a year learning
it. The many dialectical variations excused their accents and errors,
and they reported that language was not a problem. Yet there was
a communication problem. The two men found themselves isolated,
faced with suspicion or hostility, unable to form any connection
with the native men, all of whom lived in solitary houses as hermits
or in pairs. Finding communities of adolescent males, they tried to
make contact with them, but when they entered the territory of
such a group the boys either fled or rushed desperately at them
trying to kill them. The women, who lived in what they called
тАЬdispersed villages,тАЭ drove them away with volleys of stones as soon
as they came anywhere near the houses. тАЬI believe,тАЭ one of them
reported, тАЬthat the only community activity of the Sorovians is
throwing rocks at men.тАЭ
Neither of them succeeded in having a conversation of more than
three exchanges with a man. One of them mated with a woman
who came by his camp; he reported that though she made
unmistakable and insistent advances, she seemed disturbed by his
attempts to converse, refused to answer his questions, and left him,
he said, тАЬas soon as she got what she came for.тАЭ
The woman Observer was allowed to settle in an unused house in
a тАЬvillageтАЭ (auntring) of seven houses. She made excellent
observations of daily life, insofar as she could see any of it, and had
several conversations with adult women and many with children;
but she found that she was never asked into another womanтАЩs
house, nor expected to help or ask for help in any work.
Conversation concerning normal activities was unwelcome to the
other women; the children, her only informants, called her Aunt
Crazy-Jabber. Her aberrant behavior caused increasing distrust
and dislike among the women, and they began to keep their
children away from her. She left. тАЬThereтАЩs no way,тАЭ she told my
mother, тАЬfor an adult to learn anything. They donтАЩt ask questions,
they donтАЩt answer questions. Whatever they learn, they learn when
theyтАЩre children.тАЭ