Rastignac the Devil

© 1954 by Philip Jose Farmer


Another excellent long short story by PJF. Though it lacks the fifteenth-round KO of “They Twinkled Like Jewels,” this one opens up a much more interesting universe to us, one even more so than that of the World of Tiers.

In a nutshell: coupla centuries hence, persecuted Frenchmen sail for the stars and eventually land on a habitable planet. Also habiting about are a race a rather largish alligatorish humanoids and rather blood-thirsty amphibianish humanoids. Someway somehow interspecies interbreeding works (don’t ask me how that’s even desirable) and there are five broad groups vying for control of the whole darn thing.

Everyone on this world wears a “Skin.” A Skin is a pillow-sized membrane that straddles your back and attaches itself to you via needle-thingies, resulting in a sort of symbiotic relationship. The Skins aren’t intelligent; however they link up with the Master Skins that each species grows and guards. The Master Skins communicate with the Skins which control the population in various ways. Everything from creating ecstasy in your mind and body to killing you, if necessary, with a lethal shock. Aside from this controlling feature, though, Skins are vastly preferred and desired by the people – everyone wears one. Why? Well, you always know what the person next to you is thinking, feeling. You are never alone. You are always cared for. You are Loved.

The most disgusting thing you can call someone on this world is a devil. A “devil” means one who does not wear a Skin.

The long short story ran about 75 pages in my paperback. We follow the philosopher-anarchist Rastignac as he escapes his prison cell with the help of his rag-tag gang, espouse his Philosophy of Violence in a world of Lotus-eaters, kill and maim to little effect, plot to rescue a visitor from Earth – and escape the planet in the Earthman’s space ship – and, along the way, discover the method to de-Skin a world.

Good story, great characters, excellent setting. This is one that should’ve been a novel.

When you read it, though, see if you are like me and could figure out how to land that KO punch on the last page.

Grade: A-minus.