"If All Men Were Brothers, Would you let One Marry Your Sister?" by Theodore Sturgeon
First read: 10-2008.
Notes: The truth is that this story is very good in theorizing that some tabues are simply an ingrained irrational belief but by choosing incest as the taboo of choice (and parent-child incest) it makes it quite impossible for the reader to get over the gut feeling of wrongness. I would have gone for sibling incest, which doesn't present the age-gap/power difference and thus is much easier to accept if not to aprove of. I'm also pretty certain the possitive effects of endogamia are not very scientific at all.
Notes: The truth is that this story is very good in theorizing that some tabues are simply an ingrained irrational belief but by choosing incest as the taboo of choice (and parent-child incest) it makes it quite impossible for the reader to get over the gut feeling of wrongness. I would have gone for sibling incest, which doesn't present the age-gap/power difference and thus is much easier to accept if not to aprove of. I'm also pretty certain the possitive effects of endogamia are not very scientific at all.