Richard O. Lewis 9 min read

People do strange things, like committing suicide for no apparent reason. Unless, of course, it's simply time for a change of identity. 'Fidwell,' says the narrator, 'why don't you go lose yourself?'

Richard O. Lewis's 1953 story spins a sharp psi-and-social-SF tale from bodies swapped and identities shed. Clever, dark golden-age SF. Read it for a story where an offhand insult turns literal, and self-destruction is just a doorway to someone else's life.

In its time

Published in 1953, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

9 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).

Illustrated by

W. E. Terry