Keep Your Shape

by Robert Sheckley

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Aliens, American, Fiction

20 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

One of science fiction's great humorists, Sheckley was a prolific short story writer beginning in 1952 with titles including "Specialist", "Pilgrimage to Earth", "Warm", "The Prize of Peril", and "Seventh Victim", collected in volumes from Untouched by Human Hands (1954) to Is That What People Do? (1984) and a five-volume set of Collected Stories (1991). His first novel, Immortality, Inc. (1958), was followed by The Status Civilization (1960), Journey Beyond Tomorrow (1962), Mindswap (1966), and several others. Sheckley served as fiction editor for Omni magazine from January 1980 through September 1981, and was named Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2001.

Reviews

[BlackOxford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vocational Commitments

Animists believe that animals, plants, and even inert natural objects have souls. And who knows, they could be right. My mother claimed she could speak with the dead. One novel explanation for the existence of a soul-filled nature is provided in Sheckley’s bijou Aesopian fable of shape-adapting alien invaders who are enthralled by the diversity of earth’s species. Overwhelmed by the freedom to exercise their morphological talents, the invaders become trapped by their own ideals in suitable earthly forms.

[Glenn Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Exotic forms will undoubtedly be called for,” Pid went on. “And for that we have a special dispensation. But remember—any shape not assumed strictly in the line of duty is a foul, lawless device of The Shapeless One!” - Robert Sheckley, Keep Your Shape

Transformation, such an important theme from myths and legions around the world. Two powerful images come to mind. First, from Greek myth – the phoenix rising from the ashes, the legendary bird taking on new life from the death of its predecessor. The second is the following traditional tale from India about mistaken identity: There once was a lion cub raised by sheep. It began acting like a sheep, even began making baa baa baa sounds like a sheep. An adult lion came by and immediately understood what had happened. She grabbed the cub by the fur and carried it to a lake where it could peer into the water and see it wasn’t a sheep at all; it was a lion.

How I wish I knew about Robert Sheckley’s Keep Your Shape in my early teens. I’m sure it would have instantly become my all-time favorite story. Such an action-packed, electrifying tale on the power of transformation. I can see my toehead thirteen year old self reading it over and over, even daydreaming about it, and maybe even committing a few lines to memory.

Sheckley frames his tale thusly: what happened to the twenty previous Grom missions to planet Earth remains a mystery. Pid the Pilot heads mission number twenty-one. Pid has two assistants, Gur the Detector and Ilg the radioman, both chosen for the ingenuity and resourcefulness but, unfortunately for the Grom powers that be, both are among the lower Grom castes prone to shaplessness. Very important for those Grom leaders since every creature on Grom, amorphous by nature, is given a shape prescribed by tradition and enforced by discipline and a sense of duty.

Pid takes great pride in being a pilot, following in the footsteps of his father, gradfather, right on back to beginning of time. After Pid pilots a successful landing on Earth, the crew is now ready to take the first step in fulfilling their mission – prepare for a full Grom military attack by linking the power from one of Earth’s atomic plants to a power source back on Grom.

Quickly the unexpected happens: there exists on Earth something Pid, Gur and Ilg experience for the first time: freedom. More specifically, freedom to change shape. Gur and Ilg take to their new found freedom immediately. What do you expect from the lower classes?! Pid is more conflicted – its tradition and duty versus freedom and joy. One of the most charming science fiction tales ever written. Drats! I wish I read this back as a kid.

KEEP YOUR SHAPE is available online: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32346
and a lively audio of the story is also available: http://escapepod.org/2014/07/21/ep455...


American science fiction author Robert Sheckley, 1928 - 2005

[Mohsen M.B · Rating 5 out of 5]

به نظرم یکی از فوق‌العاده‌ترین داستان‌های شکلیه
عالیه
:)

[Frank Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

“We're a long way from home now. However,” Pid said sternly, “distance is no excuse for promiscuous shapelessness."

An Earth invasion told from the perspective of the alien invaders. Brilliant. Pid, Ilg and Ger make up the invasion force. Obviously numbers are not on their side so we must presume they're packing some serious heat. Actually, we quickly learn that Pid's mission objective is to set up a "displacer" so that the military can step on through. There's the invasion force after all.

After twenty previous exploratory missions had been lost without a trace, Pid is told that his people, the Grom, need this planet desperately.

Grom society uses a caste system which assigns roles to individuals. The higher castes, being more refined, are less prone to idle shapelessness. Shapelessness, the epitomy of Grom immorality. The basic shapes were set in stone by the Ancients some fifty thousand years earlier. But now parts of Grom population are demanding change.

"We Grom need more room. This unrest is caused purely by crowding. All our psychologists say so. Another planet to expand into will cure everything. So we're counting on you, Pid."

Earth's secret menace was easy to guess but this story was still an absolute delight.

"Get from my sight, Shapeless One!" - the Grom version of "get behind me Satan!" Hahaha. I love it. And I highly recommend this splendid short story. I'm giving this five Grom shaped like stars.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

In brief this is about a race of shapeshifters who are trying to take over Earth. Unfortunately the expeditionary forces keep failing to set up what amounts to a transporter between the two worlds. The latest expedition is the twenty first attempt to set up the link and possibly find out what happened to the others who failed. It is also about indisputable tradition, conformity, social castes, and above all freedom. Audible edition narrated by Gabrielle de Cuir.

[Dario Andrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conto bem curioso do Sheckley. Uma raça invasora de metamorfos quer invade a Terra, mas se depara com um mundo em que existe uma profusão quase infinita de formas. Tem um subtexto social também. Disponível no projeto Gutenberg.

[M.W. Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Keep Your Shape" by Robert Sheckley receives four stars from me. The short short's theme is rich.

Regarding this text: One can find this on the web for free easily. It might be under the title "Shape". Additionally, there is a Sci-Fi radio play based on this that is good, but I think some of the recording is hard to hear. I think "Keep Your Shape" is the better title.

Let's discuss a bit in order to understand the theme some. The Story is about these three aliens who've come to earth to create a passage way for their home planet to invade the earth. These aliens are Shapshifters. What is interesting is that even though they are shapeshifters they are only allowed to be in the shapes determined by tradition and rules that align with their professions, which they did not choose for themselves. The aliens question this premise that they should be something they are not interested in being.

The overtones of religion are clear--references to tradition, to this is how it has been for thousands of years; word play on godlessness (here shapelessness, and the Shapeless One). The creation of evil in the idea of the Shapeless One is dead on for overtones of religion; a caste system where individuals should be happy to be in the caste they are born in and never aspire to be anything else.

Recommended: yes. If you have a teen who has to write a paper on a short story of their choosing, this would be a good one to use. It isn't very long, but there is lots to uncover and explain.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 3 out of 5]

✒️ Wild short story about the curious potential of the alteration of beings.

📕Published —Galaxy Science Fiction, Vol. 7, No. 2, November 1953 . In the public domain.
જ⁀🍋 Read e-book version on Project Gutenberg. 🟡
જ⁀🍇 Read e-book version on Kindle. 🟣
✴︎🚀✴︎💫✴︎🚀✴︎

[Kakha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another masterpiece of the legendary author. The summary of the story can be as follows: a detachment of aliens arrives on Earth in order to prepare a springboard for the subsequent invasion of their race on our planet. All their previous attempts have failed, and all their previous reconnaissance detachments have disappeared... All the most interesting awaits the reader ahead in this short story.

[Hassan Mallah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good strong story abt casts and shape shifters.

[Chris Aldridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious, another space farce from the master of imagination.

[Erik Wennermark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story. It reminded me of the Changelings from Star Trek DS9, though the mythology and caste system here was perhaps more interesting.

[Craigjtmp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun little Sci Fi short story. Very imaginative plot, the story flowed nicely, and I enjoyed it.

[Manoj Saha · Rating 5 out of 5]

lovely

[Roopa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this years ago and woke up this morning thinking about it. Will have to reread, but my memory of it pulled me out of a ecological depression spiral.

[Mida · Rating 4 out of 5]

-Я тут думав ….
- Думав?! Це як мислив?
- Вашій касті це заборонено!

[Forked Radish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grom gives you wiiings! I'd become a slime mould... "That millennia had evolved into birds." keep your religion out of my reading! Minus 1 ⭐️.

[Tony Ciak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scifi short story by a master, aliens, well done!!

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny science fiction story and anti-socialist allegory.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5