Ch01 P05a
Planet Monotropa was named after the flower of the same name, Monotropa Uniflora (Monotropa – once turned; uniflora – one flowered). The flower is also known as the ghost plant (ghost pipe), or corpse plant. Unlike most plants, it is white and does not contain chlorophyll. Instead of generating energy from sunlight, it is parasitic, and it ultimately gets its energy from photosynthetic trees.
(TAXONOMY: Kingdom: Plantae, (unranked): Angiosperms, (unranked): Eudicots, (unranked): Asterids, Order: Ericales, Family: Ericaceae, Subfamily: Monotropoideae, Genus: Monotropa, Species: M. uniflora)
Depressingly realistic setting so far.
I find it so funny how back when this was first written everyone wondered how we could get to this point where touch was no longer culturally acceptable. Now in a COVID world it no longer feels like a crazy idea. Suddenly it’s easy to imagine such a world where interplanetary diseases/viruses stop people from interacting. 🙁
Isaac Asimov postulated in his detective series a division between rich, small population Spacer held planets, and teeming, overpopulated, Earth. On Earth there were prohibitions against touching no family, but in the Spacer worlds there were prohibitios against actually being insomebodie’s company. . An Earthling detective was rquested to solve a murder mystery among the spacers, who could not move beyond the concept that the murder was impossible. Since it was impossible, to dwell on it drove the Spacer detectives closer to nervous breakdowns.