The Long Memory

"The Long Memory" by Morrigan Phillips
From Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements, published by AK Press
Description, by Charlotte Ashley [Apex]: "Cy is a Memorial: a sort of Bene Gesserit librarian tasked to hold all the memories of their people and act as counselors to the state. Of course, memory can be inconvenient when you need to displace a people, and so the powerful Councilman Holt has pushed through a law and restricting the influence of Memorials in the name of progress.  Cy is young, but talented. Abducted and imprisoned, she searches the Long Memory for a solution not just to her imprisonment, but to the problem of the Memorials’ disenfranchisement. Holt’s motivations are transparent to her – without the Memorials speaking inconvenient truths in Council, they can colonialize new lands at will. But the magic that bound the Long Memory to the Memorial bloodlines also prevents those memories from being held by the rest of the population – so by imprisoning rather than exterminating the Memorials, Holt is able to keep inconvenient history and culture caged.  Though Cy thinks about escape and flight, she knows the problem she faces is bigger than just her distress. Without Memorials to remind them, the people won’t remember what has been done to them. How to give memory back to the people – and thus the power to make informed decisions of their own – is the story’s central problem."
Category:Best Short Story