Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick (65 page)

8. The World Jones Made, originally titled Womb for Another (w. 1954, p. 1956). A fanatic gains power through his ability to see ahead one year into the future, but then learns that limited foresight may be worse than none at all. In Solar Lottery rule by random forces was the falsehood by which society deemed itself protected from tyranny. In Jones the twenty-first-century post-nuclear holocaust falsehood is "Relativism," which deadens the human spirit by denying all ideals that cannot be objectively proven. (There is a similar world in "Stability," a story Phil wrote in high school. See Chapter 3.) Floyd Jones, a disgruntled carny fortune-teller (born in Greeley, Colorado-mother Dorothy's home town), can see exactly one year into the future. He becomes a Hitler-like demagogue by whipping up the ideal-starved populace against the threat of the "drifters"-enormous single-cell protoplasms that may be landing on Earth soon. Jones proves a tragic leader: His limited precognition ultimately renders him helpless because he cannot bring himself to fight against what he knows will happen. Jones is Phil's first SF work to include a drug subculture; here, a twenty-first-century North Beach nightclub serves heroin and marijuana and features dancing hermaphrodite mutants who transform their sexes as they copulate onstage. Rating: 4.

9. The Book of Philip K. Dick (w. 1952-55, p. 1973). In an interview with D. Scott Apel and Kevin Briggs (published in Apel's Philip K. Dick: The Dream Connection [1987]), Phil recalled that Don Wollheim was "grumpy" about the stories in this DAW selection, complaining that the cream had gone to Ballantine for their Best of volume (contracted for in the early seventies and published in 1977). Well, Wollheim was right. "Shell Game" (w. 1953, p. 1954) is the best of the bunch, prefiguring a burning issue in Clans of the Alphane Moon (1964): How do you defend against an alien invasion when everyone on the planet is clinically insane? In "Shell Game" a group of paranoids proves that you can never disprove that everyone's out to get you; only human trust will do, and who's stupid enough to rely on that? Rating: 3.

10. The Variable Man and Other Stories (w. 1952-55, p. 1957). The best story in this early Ace collection is "Second Variety" (w. 1952, p. 1953), set during a future U.S.-Soviet war (which resembles the World War I trench warfare described to young Phil by Edgar). But the humanlooking killer "claws" produced by U. S. autonomic underground factories threaten the survival of Russians and Americans alike, as the factories have begun to create new claw varieties on their own-in forms most likely to induce human empathy: a wounded soldier, a little boy with a teddy bear, a sympathetic ally, and an attractive woman (Tasso, an early malevolent "dark-haired girl"). "Second Variety" has inspired some Hollywood feelers, and Dan O'Bannon has completed a screenplay which was to be produced by Capitol Pictures before it folded. In "Autofac" (w. 1954, p. 1955) (which uses the name Phil devised for the autonomic factories of "Second Variety"), the autofacs won't stop producing (and consuming) all raw materials. Thomas Disch termed "Autofac" one of the earliest SF ecology warnings. Rating: 5.

11. Mary and the Giant (w. 1953-55, p. 1987). A young woman comes to grips with her fears, ideals, and emergent sexuality in a small Northern California town of the fifties. See Chapter 4. Mary is a flawed but fascinating work that elicited interest from mainstream publishers back in 195 5-56. Mary Anne Reynolds is Phil's most sympathetic female character prior to Angel Archer in his last novel, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. Mary is twenty, thin, with brown hair and "strawcolored" eyes. Her father abused her and now, coming of age, Mary wants much and believes little. She's frigid, but takes several lovers in hopes of finding a haven. Carleton Tweany, a black singer, initiates her into the mean old night world of the blues. Joe Schilling, the Hollisinspired record store owner who hires Mary and falls in love with her, is the "Giant" of the title-too old, however, and lacking in the courage Mary requires. To Gregg Rickman (in Philip K. Dick: In His Own Words [1984]) Phil described the novel as a retelling of Mozart's Don Giovanni, with Schilling seduced and destroyed by a young woman. But Schilling is more seducer than seduced, and losing Mary spurs him to greater self-awareness. The last chapter-a flash-forward blissful marriage to young bop pianist Paul Nitz-is utterly unconvincing. Sure enough, in response to his publisher's requests, in 1955 Phil changed a previous bitter ending (now lost) as well as Nitz's color-from black to white. This novel wastes much of its force on lame secondary characters, but Tweany, Schilling, and Mary are a powerful triumvirate. Schilling and a wayward Mary Anne (last name now McClain) appear in modified form in The Game-Players of Titan (p. 1963). Mary Anne Dominic in Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said (p. 1974) has a purity of heart prefiguring Angel Archer. Rating: 5.

12. Eye in the Sky, originally titled With Opened Mind (w. 1955, p. 1957). See Chapter 4. Rating: 7.

13. The Man Who japed (w. 1955, p. 1956). A futuristic propaganda wizard grows tired of propping up his dreary government and decides to bring it to its knees through satire. Japed is the only SF novel of the fifties that was published with the title Phil gave it. Unfortunately, it is also the worst novel of the bunch. In the post-nuclear holocaust twenty-second century, society is ruled by Morec (Moral Reclamation): conventional morality carried to brittle, prudish extremes and enforced by citizens spying on each other. The only alternative to the dreary Morec regime is the escapist Other World planet run by manipulative psychiatrists. Allen Purcell, who becomes head of Telemedia, the propaganda arm of Morec, travels to Other World's Mental Health Resort and is diagnosed as having a rare psionic talent: a sense of humor. Purcell, who takes on the pseudonym "Coates" while in therapy, is surprise-gassed by his shrink and enters a world in which Coates is real. A more harrowing split-identity crisis befalls Robert Arctor in A Scanner Darkly (p. 1977). Purcell's big TV "jape" is a rip-off of Jonathan Swift's "Modest Proposal"-but, after all, Phil's lost first novel was called Return to Lilliput. Rating: 2.

14. A Time for George Stavros (w. circa 1955). This lost mainstream novel was recast, in part, into Humpty Dumpty in Oakland (w. 1960, p. 1987). A plot summary of Stavros survives in this cheery 10/24/56 index card synopsis by "jb" of SMLA after Phil had submitted a rewrite: "Didn't like this before, & still don't. Long, rambling, glum novel about 65 yr old Greek immigrant who has a weakling son, a second son about whom he's indifferent, a wife who doesn't love him (she's being unfaithful to him). Nothing much happens. Guy, selling garage & retiring, tries to buy another garage in new development, has a couple of falls, dies at end. Point is murky but seems to be that world is disintegrating, Stavros supposed to be symbol of vigorous individuality now a lost commodity." In a February 1960 letter, Phil commented on title character Stavros: "Contact with vile persons does not blight or contaminate or doom the really superior; a man can go on and be successful, if he just keeps struggling. There is no trick that the wicked can play on the good that will ultimately be successful; the good are protected by God, or at least by their virtue."

15. Pilgrim on the Hill (w. 1956). Lost. (See The Earthshaker, above.) Here's another index-card synopsis (11/8/56) by "jb" of SMLA, who's having a hard day: "Another rambling, uneven totally murky novel. Man w/psychosis brought on by war thinks he's murdered his wife, flees. Meets 3 eccentrics: an impotent man who refuses to have sex w/his wife, the wife-a beautiful woman who's going to a quack dr. for treatment, an animalistic worker w/ambition but no talent. Man has affair w/wife, is kicked out by husband, tries to help slob. Finally collapses, is sent to hospital, recovers, returns home. BUT WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? Try Miss Pat Schartle at Appleton." Hello, Pat? Have I got a book for you!

16. The Broken Bubble of Thisbe Holt (w. 1956, p. 1988 as The Broken Bubble). The lives of an older and younger couple intertwine, and all four learn valuable lessons as to their true ideals and weaknesses. Jim Briskin is a character name in three other SF stories and two other SF novels (most notably The Crack in Space). All of the Briskin guys are empathic, human. In this mainstream work he's a classical music DJ divorced from ex-wife Pat because he's sterile, though they're still in love. They meet a teenaged married couple, Art and Rachael. Pat has a passionate affair with Art and loves him as she would a newborn baby, even though he belts her in the eye. Jim and Rachael also become involved, and she offers to raise her baby with Jim in Mexico. At novel's end, as in Shakespearean comedy, the wayward players are reunited with their original partners. The incredibly weird cast of secondary characters includes Ferde Heinke, a fledgling SF author (a Heinke SF story, "The Peeping Man"-a parody of the psionic premises favored by Astounding editor John Campbell-is included in Bubble), and Thisbe Holt herself, a large-breasted woman whose unfortunate livelihood is to entertain scuzzy optometrist conventioneers by stepping naked into a large plastic bubble (with breathing holes) that they can kick and roll about at will. In a February 1960 letter Phil observed of this novel: "It is full of fear, apprehension, and hate. I identify with the most helpless, the most defenseless and weak persons in society-the kids." Rating: 2.

17. Puttering About in a Small Land (w. 1957, p. 1985). See Chapter 5. Rating: 5.

18. Nicholas and the Higs (w. 1957, rew. 1958). Lost. In a February 1960 letter Phil gave this overview: "This is an odd one, half `straight,' half science fiction. An inferior man can destroy a superior one; a Robert Hig can move in and oust Nicholas because he, Hig, has no morals [...] Only by relying on base techniques can Nicholas survive; [...] Awareness of this is enough to drive Nicholas out; he must give up because to win is to lose; he is involved in a terrible paradox as soon as Hig puts in his appearance. In other words, you can't really beat the Adolf Hiders; you can only limit their success." The SMLA synopsis (1/3/58) by "hm" provides plot details: "Very long, complex story, usual Dick genius for setting. Future society wherein trading stamps have replaced currency and people live hundreds of miles from work (drive at 190 mph), have set up living tracts. Cars often break down, so they have tract mechanic on full-time basis. Mechanic old, has bad liver, seems to be dying. People of tract use general fund to buy pseudo-organ but man is dead for a few days and `comes back' a bit touched. Sub plot concerns man from whom tract got organ (which is illegal), and how his presence causes moral breakdown of people in tract." SMLA marketed Higs as mainstream. The old mechanic who needs an artificial organ reappears in The Penultimate Truth (p. 1964) (as do character names "Robert Hig" and "Nicholas"); there's a Christ-like robot in need of repair parts in Phil's 1954 SF story "The Last of the Masters."

19. Time Out of Joint (w. 1958, p. 1959). See Chapter 4. Rating: 7.

20. In Milton Lumky Territory (w. 1958, rew. 1959, p. 1985). A true noir novel in which three characters-an isolated bachelor and a young married couple-struggle to find their souls and fail. Bruce Stevens is a young salesman without much depth. He marries Susan Faine, an older divorcee with kids, who was his fifth-grade teacher in 1945 (the year Phil, a high-school sophomore, had a crush on English teacher Margaret Wolfson). Milton Lumky, a middle-aged salesman who clings to higher ideals, is in love with Susan but befriends the younger man anyway. They go on a road trip together, during which Lumky urges the younger man to seek God and spirituality. Bruce laughs in his face. Yet the friendship persists. We learn that Lumky is dying from Bright's disease (the kidney ailment from which Dorothy suffered). Bruce learns a moral lesson in the course of trying to make a quick profit on cheap typewriters; but this new insight cannot save his faltering marriage. In the final chapter, Bruce imagines a future in which his marriage is rekindled; in that future, Lumky's death leads him to realize that "There was not enough contact." True enough-and Lumky fails as a result. Rating: 3.

21. Dr. Futurity (w. 1953 as novelette, "Time Pawn," p. 1954 in Thrilling Wonder Stories; rew. 1959 for its fitting destiny as half of a 1960 Ace Double, with John Brunner's Slavers of Space). The medical skills of a twenty-first-century physician are needed to save the life of a twentyfifth-century rebel leader who would topple the sterile world dystopia. Ahem. In 1959, as Phil was padding out this bland time-travel tale, his interest in SF had reached its nadir. It shows. Dr. Jim Parsons is snatched from his comfy world to 2405, where eugenics reigns (when someone dies, out comes a new zygote from the "Soul Box"-good-bye overpopulation) and medical treatment is illegal. Parsons is summoned to heal the leader of a rebel group, falls in love with the goddesslike Loris (of pure Iroquois blood), and experiences the bliss of bigamy across the centuries. A potboiler that barely bubbles. Rating: 1.

22. Confessions of a Crap Artist (w. 1959, p. 1975). See Chapter Five. Rating: 8.

23. Vulcan's Hammer (w. 1953-54, p. 1956 as novelette in Future, rew. 1959-60 for deserved purgatory as half of a 1960 Ace Double, with John Brunner's The Skynappers. Both Phil and Brunner went on to better things, and Brunner promoted Phil's work within British SF circles). Humankind has placed too much trust in computers, and now the damn things are fighting with each other. See Dr. Futurity, above, as to Phil's lack of interest in SF at this time. In the post-nuclear holocaust future, white-collar technocrats and their power-crazed computer Vulcan 3 keep the blue-collar "Healers' Movement" in check. Turns out the Healers were founded by former big cheese Vulcan 2. Vulcan 3 bites the dust in a scene that defines anticlimax. Phil never set out to write a bad book, but anyone who has tried to make a living at SF has cranked out drek like this to pay the bills. Okay? Okay. Rating: 1.