{"id":3775,"date":"2022-05-03T16:21:39","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T16:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=3775"},"modified":"2022-05-03T16:21:43","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T16:21:43","slug":"shape-by-robert-sheckley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=3775","title":{"rendered":"Shape by Robert Sheckley"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Shape<\/em><\/strong> by Robert Sheckley (first published as Keep Your Shape<\/em>, Galaxy<\/em>, November 19531<\/sup>) sees a spaceship of shape-shifting Glom arrive in Earth orbit; they are on a mission to place a displacer in one of Earth\u2019s atomic reactors to open up a wormhole for an invasion. Previous expeditions have failed.
Before they descend to the surface, the commander of the ship, Pid, addresses his crewmates Ger and Ilg:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of hopes are resting on this expedition,\u201d he began slowly. \u201cWe\u2019re a long way from home now.\u201d
Ger the detector nodded. Ilg the radioman flowed out of his prescribed shape and molded himself comfortably to a wall.
\u201cHowever,\u201d Pid said sternly, \u201cdistance is no excuse for promiscuous shapelessness.\u201d
Ilg flowed hastily back into proper radioman\u2019s shape.
\u201cExotic shapes will undoubtedly be called for,\u201d Pid went on. \u201cAnd for that we have a special dispensation. But remember\u2014any shape not assumed strictly in the line of duty is a device of The Shapeless One!\u201d
Ger\u2019s body surfaces abruptly stopped flowing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This sets up the story\u2019s conflict, which is that, although the aliens on Glom can assume any shape they want, there are strict caste rules which determine those they are allowed to adopt in society\u2014and Pid has learned before his departure that his two crewmates may not be reliable in this respect:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGer, your detector, is suspected of harboring alterationist tendencies. He was once fined for assuming a quasi-hunter shape. Ilg has never had any definite charge brought against him. But I hear that he remains immobile for suspiciously long periods of time. Possibly, he fancies himself a thinker.\u201d
\u201cBut sir,\u201d Pid protested, \u201cif they are even slightly tainted with alterationism or shapelessness, why send them on this expedition?\u201d
The chief hesitated before answering. \u201cThere are plenty of Glom I could trust,\u201d he said slowly. \u201cBut those two have certain qualities of resourcefulness and imagination that will be needed on this expedition.\u201d He sighed. \u201cI really don\u2019t understand why those qualities are usually linked with shapelessness.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

After the three of them land on Earth they dissolve the ship (spoiler), and it isn\u2019t long (there are some episodes that play out beside the reactor) before Ilg and Ger disappear. Pid later discovers that Ilg has become a tree and a thinker, and Ger a dog and hunter. Worse, Pid learns that another dog Ger was chasing earlier is a member of a previous Glom expedition.
The final section sees Pid eventually manage to get inside the reactor building, where the alarm is raised and he is pursued by guards. Then, plagued by thoughts about freedom of shape, and just as he is almost able to activate the displacer, he looks out a nearby window:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was really true! He hadn\u2019t fully understood what Ger had meant when he said that there were species on this planet to satisfy every need. Every need! Even his!
Here he could satisfy a longing of the pilot caste that went even deeper than piloting.
He looked again, then smashed the displacer to the floor. The door burst open, and in the same instant he flung himself through the window.
The men raced to the window and stared out. But they were unable to understand what they saw.
There was only a great white bird out there, flapping awkwardly but with increasing strength, trying to overtake a flight of birds in the distance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is a great finish to a good story, and puts this on my list of Sheckley\u2019s best stories (Specialist<\/em>, Pilgrimage to Earth<\/em>, etc.).
One of the things that particularly struck me about this piece was how concisely and clearly written it is and, although there is a message here about social conformity, we aren\u2019t continually bludgeoned with it (I shudder to think what a modern day, MFA\u2019d version of this story would look like).
**** (Very Good). 4,550 words. Story links (see footnote 1).

1. The version of the story I read was in The Arbor House Book of Modern Science Fiction<\/em>, but the original version in Galaxy<\/em> magazine (as Keep Your Shape<\/em>) is longer (5,900 words) and has a completely different ending (and one that makes it a much weaker and more pedestrian story).
In the latter version (the story changes from \u201cHe studied himself for a moment, bared his teeth at Ger, and loped toward the gate.\u201d on p. 16 of Galaxy<\/em>, section break bottom right\/p. 67 of the Arbor House<\/em> anthology) Pid first turns into a dog, and then a man, but can\u2019t stand either shape, so eventually changes into a sparrow. As Pid flies towards the reactor building he is attacked by a hawk and, after slipping through its grasp, changes into a bigger hawk and scares it away. Then Pid drops the displacer and flies after the attacking hawk to find how it hovered in the air.
Theodore Sturgeon used to say something along the lines of, \u201cHorace Gold could turn an average story into a good story, and an excellent story into a good story\u201d. One wonders if this is an example.
Story link (Shape<\/em>, Arbor House<\/em>, recommended version).<\/a>
Story link (Keep Your Shape<\/em>, Galaxy<\/em>).<\/a>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shape by Robert Sheckley (first published as Keep Your Shape, Galaxy, November 19531) sees a spaceship of shape-shifting Glom arrive in Earth orbit; they are on a mission to place a displacer in one of Earth\u2019s atomic reactors to open up a wormhole for an invasion. Previous expeditions have failed.Before they descend to the surface, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[62,101,807,523,203,77,901,12],"class_list":["post-3775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-robert-sheckley","tag-62","tag-101","tag-alien-invasion","tag-conformity","tag-galaxy","tag-robert-sheckley","tag-shapeshifters","tag-short-story"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3775"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3789,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3775\/revisions\/3789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}