Changing Planes

“Then came a child trotting to school with his little backpack. He trotted on all fours, neatly, his hands in leather mitts or boots that protected them from the pavement; he was pale, with small eyes, and a snout, but he was adorable.”
–from Changing Planes

The misery of waiting for a connecting flight at an airport leads to the accidental discovery of alighting on other planes–not airplanes but planes of existence. Ursula Le Guin’s deadpan premise frames a series of travel accounts by the tourist-narrator who describes bizarre societies and cultures that sometimes mirror our own, and sometimes open puzzling doors into the alien.

Winner of the PEN/Malamud for Short Stories