Plumbing the hivemind!

[oyceter]

1) So... does anyone have examples of sf/f books with third-culture kids, or anything resembling a third-culture kid?

A third-culture kid is basically someone who is born into one culture, raised in another, and then returns to the first culture or moves on to different cultures, thereby creating a "third culture" that is a mixture of the first two. Or something. The difference between a third-culture kid and an immigrant seems to be that last step of returning to the "original" culture and finding it foreign as well.

My one example so far is Temeraire, and that's a sort-of example.

2) Also, any examples of movies in which a white man goes into a non-white culture and saves it or somehow one-ups it? Or basically, movies set in non-white civilizations that still end up focusing on the white guy.

My current list:
- Last Samurai
- Dances with Wolves
- Kingdom of Heaven
- Glory
- Cry Freedom
- Blood Diamond
- Constant Gardener
- Geronimo
- The Last King of Scotland (critique + example of trope? Haven't seen it)
- Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (from current casting reports)
- Wind Talkers

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

And also Magdalene/Margali from The Shattered Chain and Thendara House. Pretty much.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. She's a much better/more sophisticated take on it than Kerwin, I think.

It feels like there ought to be a C.J. Cherryh example, but I can't think of one. Most of her characters become alienated (alienized?) as adults.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I thought that too, except I couldn't think of one who went back to the original culture.

[ellarien]

Well, there's the atevi kid who spends a couple of formative years mostly around humans, in the third Foreigner trilogy, and then has to go home again.

Oh, and in Finity's End the protagonist is a Merchanter kid who has to fit back in with his ship-based family after growing up on a space station.

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

Cuckoo's Egg, by Cherryh, has a human boy brought up by an alien race to help them understand and possibly combat the human threat. Things, of course, do not go to plan.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

But he does not recall and was never raised in human culture, nor does he return to it.

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

That's true! Though the people who want him raised (to be unspoilery) do think he'll give them insights.

As others have suggested, the Atevi books, perhaps? Or the Faded Sun trilogy?

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Do the Foreigner books sort of fall into category 2?

Aside: I still think I'd love to see an anime series based on these books. I also wonder if a younger Steven Segal would have worked in a live action version, since he's kind of wooden to begin with.