The Lovers

(c) 1952, by Philip Jose Farmer

Pity poor, unfortunate Hal Yarrow. He’s had the terrible misfortune to be born a thousand years in the future, after the Apocalyptic Wars, in a society so rigid and claustrophobic it would make the gulag archipelago as relaxing as a weekend at Club Med. Indoctrinated and monitored from birth by something known as the "Sturch", Hal thoroughly and completely adores Sigmen, the big-brotherish founder of his culture, and loves his meaningful life.

Well, not exactly.

It begins with his marriage. Like a wedding band that’s too tight, the severe restrictions began to itch maddeningly and unbearably for our friend. The prearranged marriage, the prescribed mating rituals, the dissatisfactions and disappointments. After a while, Hal just doesn’t care anymore. A joat - a "jack of all trades" – in the linguistics field, he’s given the opportunity to be involved with an interstellar expedition to a newly-discovered world. He accepts; his death is faked (Sigmen never makes mistakes, so there’s no such thing as divorce), and he’s on a new world by page forty.

After befriending a native "wog", "Fobo," and accompanying him to some nearby ruins, Hal encounters Jeanette, a human descendent of the survivors of a marooned starship a couple of generations ago, originating from France a few years after the Apocalyptic Wars. She’s been in hiding; it seems that the wogs had trapped her for study and held her against her will until she escaped. Terrible and dangerous predators dwell in the forests at night, and Jeanette spent a great deal of time in pure survival mode. Hal is instantly smitten with her, and soon begins breaking rules, little and big and bigger, in order to nurture and protect her.

First he illicitly passes some morality tests for a greater rank within the expedition. Then, he requisitions an apartment among the wogs as he is studying their language and must be among them to master it. Since Jeanette turns out to have quite the thirst for booze, and alcohol is strictly forbidden by Sigmen, Hal must make overtures with Fobo about obtaining alcohol for his paramour. His "guardian angel," a man responsible for monitoring and passing judgment on Hal’s daily activities, grows suspicious, and after a confrontation, Hal allows, through inaction, the man to die quite horribly. Things have now progressed beyond the point of no return.

Hal and Jeanette have become lovers. Hal’s world is absolutely turned upside down; perhaps it is the forbiddenness of the affair, perhaps it is the physical excitement that comes purely from the freedom of exploration. Whatever, Hal thinks only of how he can win survival and keep Jeanette. The fact that the humans are preparing biological warfare to eliminate the wogs and take over their planet holds no moral qualms for him. His only world is the woman.

I thought I knew where Farmer was taking this story; I couldn’t have been more wrong. Well, in a way I was right: Hal does grow more and more disenchanted with his society, but I was anticipating with Jeanette as his inspiration he himself may thwart his fellow explorer’s nefarious secret offensive. But no. It turns out I did not go far enough in my speculation.

SPOILER ALERT!

One morning Hal arrives at the apartment and is horrified to see Jeanette unresponsive. Her skin has calcified; she is dying. When Hal confesses that she should be better since he was weaning her off the liquor, she freaks, then loses consciousness. Hal seeks out Fobo for help, coincidentally at the same time the expedition’s leader, on to Hal’s rulebreaking, sends men to arrest him. At that moment, the wogs perform a Bushian first-strike and disable the Earthmen, having long surmised their wicked plan. Hal is spared, being Fobo’s friend, and then the truth comes out about Jeanette.

She is not human. She is a lalitha, a mimetic parasite.

Once impregnant, she must die. The alcohol, it turns out, is kind of a birth control for her. So Hal, in a misguided attempt to cure her of what he thinks is alcoholism, lets her go fertile, and therefore causes her death.

But she will live on, in her spawn, which will have Hal’s features.

Shudder.

An excellent hook! What I love most reading these classic SF books – the unexpected thrill, the dawning realization of what the author’s driving at, a twist that makes you put the book down in utter amazement. Farmer is a master at creating alien life, both horrid and wonderful, and I should have seen this coming. But I didn’t, and that’s why I have to heartily recommend this book.

Grade: A-.