Devil on Salvation Bluff, The-Jack Vance short story
Devil on Salvation Bluff , The- Jack Vance short story The Devil on Salvation Bluff, a short story of 21/23 pages (7,200 words), was published initially in 1955 in the book anthology Star Science Fiction Stories #3. Two missionaries, a married couple, live outside the main city on a planet called "Glory" where their ancestors from Earth crash landed 500 years ago. They maintain a huge clock (which is very symbolic) and adhere to Earth time (and customs) even though it does not apply to this planet which has a number of suns that seem to rise unpredictably. The two missionaries are responsible for "civilizing" the local natives, who live in the wild, by teaching them about manners, social behavior, adherence to schedules, and the importance of time and clocks. The locals raise goats, run around half naked, live in filthy conditions, refuse to live in the houses that the missionaries built for them, copulate in public and destroy the canals the missionaries m...