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The consumer society is dead. Welcome to the preservation society! As of their first school year, children are taught to love objects, which most of them do. But not all citizens. To remedy the problem, The security forces crack down on vandals, bands of protesters and other iconoclasts. And for greater efficiency the States uses the services of Kief, a mad scientist who operates on prisoners so as to pair them with totem-objects. Which is why Judith gets wrinkles when her clothes are creased. Which is why the skin of librarian Mikoski gets pierced with holes whenever rats gnaw at his books.