The Moon Moth

"The Moon Moth"
Author	Jack Vance
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction short story
Publisher	Galaxy
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Publication date	August 1961

"The Moon Moth" is a science fiction short story by American author Jack Vance, first published in 1961.

Plot summary

Edwer Thissell, the new consul from Earth to the planet Sirene, has trouble adjusting to the local culture. The Sirenese cover their faces with exquisitely crafted masks that indicate their social status or strakh. They also communicate by singing, accompanying themselves with one of a dozen musical instruments, selected based on the social situation. Furthermore, errors of etiquette may prove fatal. The plenitude provided by the planet fosters individualism and the free time leads to intricacy in all aspects of Sirenese social life. Thissell is a maladroit musician and lacks confidence in the alien society, so he is forced to wear a lowly Moon Moth mask.

One day, he receives an alert to arrest a notorious assassin named Haxo Angmark, who is due on the next starship. Thissell, however, gets the message too late. He races to the spaceport, but Angmark, thoroughly comfortable with Sirenese customs, has already landed and disappeared. Thissell commits a number of serious social blunders in his haste to reach the spaceport and in enquiring after Angmark.

The next morning, Thissell is shown the body of an outlander. He concludes that, since the fugitive would be unable to pass himself off as a native, Angmark must have killed and taken the place of one of the handful of expatriates on the planet. But since even they wear masks, how is Thissell to know which one?

Eventually, Thissell solves the mystery by borrowing a slave from each of the suspects and determining their masters' mask preferences before and after Angmark's arrival. He succeeds in identifying his quarry, but is captured and forced to walk unmasked in public (the ultimate impropriety to the natives), while Angmark masquerades as Thissell, even to wearing his Moon Moth mask. However, the Sirenese turn on Angmark and kill him for the perversion of unmasking another man and, ironically, for Thissell's previous gaffes.

Thinking quickly, Thissell cleverly represents his humiliation as an act of unsurpassed bravery, asking if any present would be willing to be so shamed in order to destroy his enemy. With his new-found confidence, Thissell receives offers of gifts (the acceptance of which would enhance the prestige of both the giver and the recipient). He first goes with a mask maker to procure a covering more befitting his lofty new strakh.

Adaptations

Seeing Ear Theatre produced an audio drama adapted, produced and directed by George Zarr. It expands the Vance story with an introduction showing the fate of Thissell's predecessor. Drunk and wearing a Tavern Bravo mask, he attempts to force his attentions on a woman. He is stopped and summarily executed by the Sirenese, not for the attempted seduction/assault, but for misjudging the strakh level of her mask and for addressing his captors without a musical instrument.
StarShipSofa serialized a narration by fiction writer and voice artist Josh Roseman in two parts on January 16, 2013 and January 23, 2013.
First Second Books published a graphic novel edition by Jack Vance and illustrated by Humayoun Ibrahim in May 2012.