Belonging to This World: On Living Like an Animal in Michel Faber’s Under the Skin

Abstract

Michel Faber’s novel Under the Skin tracks the transformation of the novel’s protagonist, Isserley, as she undergoes a crisis in her self-identity and drifts slowly but in a determined manner toward another way of life. Isserley (who belongs to a highly-intelligent alien species that refers to itself as “human”) works in the voddissin industry, which captures and transforms “vodsels” (the term the aliens use for members of Homo sapiens, who are understood by them to be “mere” animals) into consumable meat. As the novel unfolds, Isserley eventually comes to reject the meat industry and the subjugation of vodsels on which it is based. Here I suggest that Isserly’s subjective transformation is based not on a superficial recognition of logical identity between herself and vodsels, but on a deeper ethic of belonging, which enables her to affirm her shared “animal” condition with vodsels and other earthly beings.