Riders of the Purple Wage

Novella by Philip José Farmer

"Riders of the Purple Wage"

Short story by Philip José Farmer

Tor, 1992 first printing

Language| English
Genre(s)| Science fiction
Publication
Published in| Dangerous Visions
Publication type| Anthology
Publisher| Doubleday
Media type| Print (Hardcover)
Publication date| 1967

Riders of the Purple Wage (1967) is a science fiction novella by American writer Philip José Farmer. It appeared in Dangerous Visions, the New Wave science fiction anthology compiled by Harlan Ellison and won the Hugo Award for best novella in 1968, jointly with Weyr Search by Anne McCaffrey.

The title of the story is a take-off on Riders of the Purple Sage (1912), a Western novel by the American author Zane Grey. The novella contains multiple stylistic and literary allusions to James Joyce and his works; as with Ulysses (1922), it includes canonic references, journal entries, poem pieces, and standard prose, and the main character's surname is Winnegan, an allusion to Finnegans Wake (1939).[1]

## Plot introduction

[edit]

Riders of the Purple Wage is an extrapolation of the mid-twentieth century's tendency towards state supervision and consumer-oriented economic planning.[1] In the story, all citizens receive a basic income (the purple wage) from the government, to which everyone is entitled just by being born. The population is self-segregated into relatively small communities, with a controlled environment. It keeps in contact with the rest of the world through the Fido, a combination of television and videophone. The typical dwelling is an egg-shaped house, outside of which is a realistic simulation of an open environment with sky, sun, and moon. In reality, each community is on one level of a multi-level arcology. For those who dislike this lifestyle, there are wildlife reserves where they can join "tribes" of Native Americans and like-minded Anglos living closer to nature for a while. Some choose this lifestyle permanently.

Art (and art appreciation) are prominently displayed in this society. Artists receive press coverage comparable to that of today's movie stars. The art critics are hardly glamorous, each of whom has a pet theory about art. A critic also acts as an agent and manager, promoting the work of one or more artists, especially if their work seems to support his ideas. The story revolves around one of these pampered artists, who sometimes finds himself uninspired, due to the lack of major conflicts in society.

Sexual relations and sexual orientation are portrayed as absolutely free from prejudice. The main character is bisexual, and it is implied that most of his acquaintances have had at least experimental relations with members of both sexes. Several forms of birth control are also commonplace, encouraged by the government, and freely discussed.

For people who do not want to bother with social interaction, there is the fornixator, a device that supplies sexual pleasure on demand by direct stimulation of the brain's pleasure centers. The fornixator is technically illegal, but tolerated by the government because its users are happy, never demand anything else, and usually do not procreate.

Two new sets of customs have arisen which profoundly influence the story. By tradition, everyone has a Naming Day when they are grown, at which point they select a name which reflects their outlook on life, their chosen profession, or the way they want others to see them. The second change derives from the so-called "Panamorite" religion, which features total sexual freedom including oral sex between parents and their children. One source of frustration for the main character is his mother's decision to "cut him off" from intimate physical contact, a situation made worse by her becoming morbidly obese, which is not unusual in this society.

## Plot summary

[edit]

The story revolves around the relationship between a young artist, who has taken the name Chibiabos Elgreco Winnegan, and the man he calls "Grandpa Winnegan" (actually his mother's great-great-grandfather), who hides inside the apartments that "Chib" shares with his mother in the community of Ellay. Grandpa is in hiding from the government, and most people think of him as having pulled off some huge swindle in the past. In fact, he was a successful businessman whose workers were highly paid and very content, much more so than the average recipient of the "purple wage". The resentment which this caused motivated the "gummint" to close down his business, whereupon he managed to steal twenty billion dollars, which has never been found, and (apparently) died. A Federal Agent calling himself "Falco Accipiter" has resolved to hunt down the money at all costs, and is harassing Chib.

Throughout the narrative we are treated to extracts from Grandpa's unpublished manuscript, How I Screwed Uncle Sam & Other Private Ejaculations. In these writings, he describes society and muses on human foibles. He seems particularly fond of James Joyce, and this is a clue to the story's resolution.

Chib is preparing for a new art show. He needs to win a grant to continue painting, otherwise he will have to take forced migration and live in another society, a practice by governments to prevent populations from becoming insular. Chib's own community is host to forcibly migrated Arabs, who belong to the strict Wahhabi sect of Islam. Chib wants to woo the daughter of one of these families, much to the disgust of her relatives.

Standing between Chib and the grant is the one-eyed critic Rex Luscus, who took his name from "Inter caecos regnat luscus", better known as "In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is King". The price of Rex's approval, which will make Chib famous, is sexual favors. Chib's art is controversial. He depicts religious scenes using a three-dimensional technique which presents different views, some of which are blasphemous comments on religion and humanity.

Like most young people, Chib and his friends enjoy rebellion for its own sake. They pretend to plot terrorist attacks when they know they are under surveillance. Such talk is so common that the listening authorities treat it with contempt. The police are laughable by 20th century standards. Dressed in fur-like characters from The Wizard of Oz they use electric tricycles no faster than golf carts, which nonetheless are equipped with sirens "to warn the bad guys they are coming". They have shock-sticks and guns which fire "choke-gas pellets".

Chib's exhibition dissolves into violence as his friend Omar Runic declaims an improvised poem in tribute to Chib's latest work. This is also common, particularly as the "fido" reporters are always keen to stir up trouble, and the artists hate the critics. One artist, a science fiction writer named Huga Wells-Erb Heinsturbury, starts the riot by attacking a reporter from Time magazine, now a government-run news agency which has kept the attitudes of the original corporation, including a deep hatred of science fiction. Chib smashes his painting, a blasphemous Nativity scene, into Rex Luscus's stomach. Suddenly he receives a message from Grandpa. Falco Accipiter has broken into the apartment and found his hiding place.

Grandpa is dead by the time Chib reaches home. He apparently died of shock. In his hand is the last of his "Private Ejaculations". A devout Catholic himself, according to this last note he comforts himself in an atheist world with the thought that profound hatred of religion means that people still believe God exists, otherwise they would not hate him so.

Chib and his mother attend a reverse funeral, where the coffin which supposedly contained Grandpa's body is dug up. As it is opened, there is an explosion, which scatters the stolen billions into the air and sends up a banner announcing "Winnegan's Fake!". Grandpa has cocked a final snook at the "gummint" from beyond the grave.

Chib is handed a note by a man acting for Grandpa's estate. The note simply says that Chib must abandon Ellay, leave his mother, and break free so he can paint from love, not out of hatred.

## Characters

[edit]

* Chibiabos Elgreco Winnegan, a young artist and confidant of Grandpa Winnegan. In the poem Hiawatha, "the gentle Chibiabos" is Hiawatha's close friend.
* Grandpa Winnegan, whose original name was Finnegan. He claimed to be a descendant of the "Tim Finnegan" whose death and resurrection are celebrated in the song Finnegan's Wake. He is the last bastion of individual enterprise in the mechanized nanny-state. His adopted last name is a pun on "Win again".
* Mama Winnegan, Chib's mother who spends her life drinking, eating, and playing poker with disreputable friends. She may know that Grandpa is hiding in their apartments, but pretends not to.
* Falco Accipter, a "gummint" agent who is determined to track down Grandpa's stolen money, and perhaps Grandpa himself.
* Rex Luscus, one-eyed art critic whose eye is mostly on Chib's body. He could have his other eye replaced, but he claims that no art he sees makes it worth his while to have binocular vision.
* The "Young Radishes", Chib's circle of friends who play at plotting revolution and defying authority through their art. Their name is a pun on "radical", meaning either a root (as in root vegetable or radish) or a person who advocates drastic change in society.
* Omar Bacchylides Runic, a poet with a talent for extemporizing, and Chib's occasional lover. His improvised poems tend to inflame people to riot.
* Benedictine Serinus Melba, a singer who claims to be pregnant by Chib. Thanks to an incident with a can of spermicide, Chib finds this hard to believe.
* Rousseau Red Hawk, who affects the persona of a "Red Indian" even though he is a Jewish philosopher who feels intellectually deprived in the nature reserves.
* Huga Wells-Erb Heinsturbury, a science fiction writer whose unwieldy adopted name is derived from the names Hugo Gernsback, H. G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs (E.R.B), Robert A. Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon and Ray Bradbury.
* Dionysus Gobrinus and Madame Trismegista, owners and proprietors of The Private Universe, where Chib and his friends hang out. Gobrinus is a former mathematician. Madame Trismegista is a fortune teller, but Gobrinus somehow believes that she controls fate through the stars via the cards she reads.
* Pinkerton Legrand, a gummint agent monitoring the Young Radishes.

## Influences

[edit]

In his afterword to the story, Farmer mentions the Triple Revolution memo, a document sent to United States President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, with policy suggestions for the future of the nation in the face of "three separate and mutually reinforcing revolutions." These were identified as "The Cybernation Revolution," (massive automatic production, requiring progressively less human labor), "The Weaponry Revolution" (the development of new forms of weaponry which can obliterate civilization), and "The Human Rights Revolution" (a universal demand for human rights).

The source of Rex Luscus' name is described in the story as the quote, "In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is King". The original phrase is "In regione caecorum, rex est luscus," from Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus' Collecteana Adagiorum. This is likely to also be a reference to the early SF writer H. G. Wells' story, "The Country of the Blind" (1904) in which a sighted man finds himself in a literal country of the blind, plots to use his advantage to rule them, but fails because his ability is not appreciated by the population.

## Reception

[edit]

"Riders of the Purple Wage" is viewed as an example of modernism in New Wave fiction involving Joycean stream-of-consciousness.[1] Critic Algis Budrys asserted that the work demonstrates how to "write more and more about less and less. Farmer can show you how to pile it higher and higher... [an] exercise in self-indulgence".[2]

## Related works

[edit]

A short story called "The Oögenesis of Bird City" (1971) describes an earlier time when the arcologies and the egg-houses were being introduced to society. Of particular interest is a mention in the story that "integration" of communities was a failure and the technology could be used to allow people to dwell "among their own kind".

## See also

[edit]

* Sex and sexuality in speculative fiction

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c Steble, Janez. (2014). Novi val v znanstveni fantastiki ali eksplozija žanra New wave in science fiction or the explosion of the genre : doktorska disertacija. [J. Steble]. OCLC 898669235.
2. ^ Budrys, Algis (April 1968). "Galaxy Bookshelf". Galaxy Science Fiction. pp. 155–163.

## External links

[edit]

* Riders of the Purple Wage title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

* v
* t
* e

Hugo Award for Best Novella

Retro Hugos|

* Who Goes There? by Don A. Stuart (1939)
* "If This Goes On—" by Robert A. Heinlein (1941)
* Waldo by Robert A. Heinlein (1943)
* The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1944)
* Killdozer! by Theodore Sturgeon (1945)
* Animal Farm by George Orwell (1946)
* The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert A. Heinlein (1951)
* A Case of Conscience by James Blish (1954)

1968–1980|

* Riders of the Purple Wage by Philip José Farmer / Weyr Search by Anne McCaffrey (1968)
* Nightwings by Robert Silverberg (1969)
* Ship of Shadows by Fritz Leiber (1970)
* Ill Met in Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber (1971)
* The Queen of Air and Darkness by Poul Anderson (1972)
* The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin (1973)
* The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree Jr. (1974)
* A Song for Lya by George R. R. Martin (1975)
* Home Is the Hangman by Roger Zelazny (1976)
* By Any Other Name by Spider Robinson / Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree Jr. (1977)
* Stardance by Spider Robinson and Jeanne Robinson (1978)
* The Persistence of Vision by John Varley (1979)
* Enemy Mine by Barry B. Longyear (1980)

1981–1990|

* Lost Dorsai by Gordon R. Dickson (1981)
* The Saturn Game by Poul Anderson (1982)
* Souls by Joanna Russ (1983)
* Cascade Point by Timothy Zahn (1984)
* Press Enter by John Varley (1985)
* 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai by Roger Zelazny (1986)
* Gilgamesh in the Outback by Robert Silverberg (1987)
* Eye for Eye by Orson Scott Card (1988)
* The Last of the Winnebagos by Connie Willis (1989)
* The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold (1990)

1991–2000|

* The Hemingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman (1991)
* Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress (1992)
* Barnacle Bill the Spacer by Lucius Shepard (1993)
* Down in the Bottomlands by Harry Turtledove (1994)
* Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge by Mike Resnick (1995)
* The Death of Captain Future by Allen Steele (1996)
* Blood of the Dragon by George R. R. Martin (1997)
* ...Where Angels Fear to Tread by Allen Steele (1998)
* Oceanic by Greg Egan (1999)
* The Winds of Marble Arch by Connie Willis (2000)

2001–2010|

* The Ultimate Earth by Jack Williamson (2001)
* Fast Times at Fairmont High by Vernor Vinge (2002)
* Coraline by Neil Gaiman (2003)
* The Cookie Monster by Vernor Vinge (2004)
* The Concrete Jungle by Charles Stross (2005)
* Inside Job by Connie Willis (2006)
* A Billion Eves by Robert Reed (2007)
* All Seated on the Ground by Connie Willis (2008)
* The Erdmann Nexus by Nancy Kress (2009)
* Palimpsest by Charles Stross (2010)

2011–2020|

* The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang (2011)
* The Man Who Bridged the Mist by Kij Johnson (2012)
* The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson (2013)
* Equoid by Charles Stross (2014)
* (No award given) (2015)
* Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (2016)
* Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (2017)
* All Systems Red by Martha Wells (2018)
* Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (2019)
* This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (2020)

2021–present|

* The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (2021)
* A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (2022)
* Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire (2023)
* Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher (2024)

* v
* t
* e

Works by Philip José Farmer

Novels
series|

* World of Tiers (1965-1993)
* Riverworld (1971-1983)
* Herald Childe (1968-1979)
* Traitor to the Living (1973)
* Secrets of the Nine (1969-1988)
* A Feast Unknown
* Lord of the Trees
* The Mad Goblin
* Tarzan (1974-1999)
* Khokarsa (1974-2012)
* Dayworld (1985-1990)
* Dungeon (1988-1990)

Other
novels|

* The Green Odyssey (1957)
* Flesh (1960)
* A Woman a Day (1960)
* The Lovers (1961)
* Cache from Outer Space (1962)
* Fire and the Night (1962)
* Inside Outside (1964)
* Tongues of the Moon (1964)
* Dare (1965)
* The Gate of Time (1966)
* Night of Light (1966)
* Lord Tyger (1970)
* Love Song (1970)
* The Stone God Awakens (1970)
* The Wind Whales of Ishmael (1971)
* The Other Log of Phileas Fogg (1973)
* Venus on the Half-Shell (1975)
* Jesus on Mars (1979)
* Dark Is the Sun (1979)
* The Unreasoning Mask (1981)
* Stations of the Nightmare (1982)
* Greatheart Silver (1982)
* A Barnstormer in Oz (1982)
* Escape from Loki (1991)
* The Caterpillar's Question (1992)
* Nothing Burns in Hell (1998)
* Naked Came The Farmer (1998)
* Up From the Bottomless Pit (2005–2007)
* The City Beyond Play (2007)
* The Evil in Pemberley House (2009)

Story
collections|

* Strange Relations (1960)
* The Alley God (1962)
* The Celestial Blueprint: And Other Stories (1962)
* Down in the Black Gang (1971)
* The Book of Philip José Farmer, or the Wares of Simple Simon’s Custard Pie and Space Man (1973)
* Riverworld and Other Stories (1979)
* Riverworld War: The Suppressed Fiction of Philip José Farmer (1980)
* The Cache (1981)
* Father to the Stars (1981)
* Stations of the Nightmare (1982)
* The Purple Book (1982)
* The Classic Philip José Farmer, 1952-1964 (1984)
* The Classic Philip José Farmer, 1964-1973 (1984)
* The Grand Adventure (1984)
* Riders of the Purple Wage (1992)
* Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe (2005)
* The Best of Philip José Farmer (2006)
* Strange Relations (2006)
* Pearls from Peoria (2006)
* Up from the Bottomless Pit and Other Stories (2007)
* Venus on the Half-Shell and Others (2008)
* The Other in the Mirror (2009)
* The Worlds of Philip Jose Farmer: Protean Dimensions (2010)
* Up the Bright River (2010)
* The Worlds of Philip José Farmer 2: Of Dust and Soul (2011)
* The Worlds of Philip José Farmer 3: Portraits of a Trickster (2012)
* Tales of the World Newton Universe (2013)

Stories|

* "O'Brien and Obrenov" (1946)
* "Duo Miaule" (anii 1950)
* The Lovers (1952)
* "Sail On! Sail On!" (1952)
* "The Biological Revolt" (1953)
* "Mother" (1953)
* "Moth and Rust" (1953)
* "Attitudes" (1953)
* "Strange Compulsion" (1953)
* "They Twinkled Like Jewels" (1954)
* "Daughter" (1954)
* "Queen of the Deep" (1954)
* "The God Business" (1954)
* "Rastignac the Devil" (1954)
* "The Celestial Blueprint" (1954)
* "The Wounded" (1954)
* "Totem and Taboo" (1954)
* "Father" (1955)
* "The Night of Light" (1957)
* "The Alley Man" (1959)
* "Heel" (1960)
* "My Sister's Brother" (1960)
* "A Few Miles" (1960)
* "Prometheus" (1961)
* "Tongues of the Moon" (1961)
* "Uproar in Acheron" (1962)
* "How Deep the Grooves" (1963)
* "Some Fabulous Yonder" (1963)
* "The Blasphemers" (1964)
* "The King of the Beasts" (1964)
* "Day of the Great Shout" (1965)
* "Riverworld" (1966)
* "The Suicide Express" (1966)
* "The Blind Rowers" (1967)
* "A Bowl Bigger than Earth" (1967)
* "The Felled Star" (1967)
* "The Shadow of Space" (1967)
* "Riders of the Purple Wage” (1967)
* "Don't Wash the Carats" (1968)
* "The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod" (1968)
* "Down in the Black Gang" (1969)
* "The Oogenesis of Bird City" (1970)
* "The Voice of the Sonar in my Vermiform Appendix" (1971)
* "Brass and Gold" (1971)
* "The Fabulous Riverboat" (1971)
* "Only Who Can Make a Tree?" (1971)
* "The Sliced-Crosswise Only-On-Tuesday World” (1971)
* "Seventy Years of Decpop" (1972)
* "Skinburn" (1972)
* "The Sumerian Oath" (1972)
* "Father's in the Basement" (1972)
* "Toward the Beloved City" (1972)
* "Mother Earth Wants You" (1972)
* "Sketches Among the Ruins of My Mind" (1973)
* "Monolog" (1973)
* "After King Kong Fell" (1973)
* "Opening the Door" (1973)
* "The Two-Edged Gift" (1974)
* "The Startouched" (1974)
* "The Evolution of Paul Eyre" (1974)
* "Passing On" (1975)
* "A Scarletin Study, as Jonathan Swift Somers III" (1975)
* "The Problem of the Sore Bridge - Among Others, as Harry Manders" (1975)
* "Greatheart Silver" (1975)
* "The Return of Greatheart Silver" (1975)
* "Osiris on Crutches, as Leo Queequeg Tincrowder" (1976)
* "The Volcano, as Paul Chapin" (1976)
* "The Doge Whose Barque Was Worse Than His Bight, as Jonathan Swift Somers III" (1976)
* "Fundamental Issue" (1976)
* "The Henry Miller Dawn Patrol" (1977)
* "Greatheart Silver in the First Command" (1977)
* "Savage Shadow as Maxwell Grant" (1977)
* "The Impotency of Bad Karma as Cordwainer Bird" (1977)
* "It's the Queen of Darkness, Pal, as Rod Keen" (1978)
* "Freshman" (1979)
* "The Leaser of Two Evils" (1979)
* "J.C. on the Dude Ranch" (1979)
* "Spiders of the Purple Mage" (1980)
* "The Making of Revelation, Part I" (1980)
* "The Long Wet Dream of Rip Van Winkle" (1981)
* "The Adventure of the Three Madmen" (1984)
* "UFO vs IRS" (1985)
* "St. Francis Kisses His Ass Goodbye" (1989)
* "One Down, One to Go" (1990)
* "Evil, Be My Good" (1990)
* "Nobody's Perfect" (1991)
* "Wolf, Iron and Moth" (1991)
* "Crossing the Dark River" (1992)
* "A Hole in Hell" (1992)
* "Up the Bright River" (1993)
* "Coda" (1993)
* "The Good of the Land" (2002)
* "The Face that Launched a Thousand Eggs" (2005)
* "The Unnaturals" (2005)
* "Who Stole Stonehenge?" (2005)
* "That Great Spanish Author, Ernesto" (2006)
* "The Essence of the Poison" (2006)
* "The Doll Game" (2006)
* "Keep Your Mouth Shut" (2006)
* "The Frames" (2007)
* "A Spy in the U.S. of Gonococcia" (2007)
* "A Peoria Night" (2007)
* "The First Robot" (2008)
* "Getting Ready to Write" (2008)
* "My Summer Husband" (2010)
* "What I Thought I Heard" (2011)
* "Kwasin and the Bear God" (2011)

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