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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is a book by Philip K. Dick published in 1965. I read the edition with cover art by Peter Gudynas, published in 1978, which is perhaps my favourite cover from the many editions of this novel.
PKD presents an Earth which climate change has rendered largely uninhabitable without heat protection. Humans are moving to other colonies in the solar system, on Mars or Ganymede, say, and living in "hovels." These "hovelists" need an escape provided by drugs to make their lives bearable.
Into this typically Dickian future world steps Palmer Eldritch, newly returned from Proxima Centauri with Chew-Z, a new and much more powerful drug. Those who use Chew-Z are transported to a hallucinatory other world, seemingly as solid as the "real world." They may stay in the other world for an hour or for centuries, but then, when they emerge again into the "real world," no time has passed. According to Eldritch, "I did not find God in the Prox system. But I found something better. God promises eternal life. I can do better; I can deliver it" (p. 80, original emphasis).
The problem is, Eldritch himself is effectively a god in whichever world to which the Chew-Z users go. Indeed, Eldritch has a steel arm, steel teeth, and artificial eyes, which somehow recall the stigmata associated with the Passion of Christ. Moreover, when a Chew-Z user apparently returns to the real world, are they really back or are they inhabiting just another layer of Eldritch's hallucinatory universe? Is there ever any escape from Palmer Eldritch?
PKD is following the same inspiration behind The Man in the High Castle: what is real? While the earlier book is a relatively tame investigation of the nature of reality, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is wild and confusing. The message, perhaps, is that nothing is real, and all events and people in the book have been bent to Eldritch's twisted imagination—or rather to the twisted imagination of the alien who has taken over Eldritch somewhere between Prox and Earth. Or could it be indeed, as PKD sometimes suggests, a strange invasion by the aliens from Prox? Nowhere in the book can one point to anything as the foundation of reality.
While The Man in the High Castle is tight, closely argued, and enlightening, I found The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch to be baffling. Perhaps PKD himself had been taking too many mind-altering substances while writing it. It looks forward, perhaps, to the absurdity of his later work in The VALIS Trilogy and The Exegesis of Philp K. Dick. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch may well be a great book, though I preferred the more sedate style of The Man in the High Castle. But nevertheless, the genius of Philip K. Dick is that he has the courage to question the meaning of God in a science fiction setting.
PKD presents an Earth which climate change has rendered largely uninhabitable without heat protection. Humans are moving to other colonies in the solar system, on Mars or Ganymede, say, and living in "hovels." These "hovelists" need an escape provided by drugs to make their lives bearable.
Into this typically Dickian future world steps Palmer Eldritch, newly returned from Proxima Centauri with Chew-Z, a new and much more powerful drug. Those who use Chew-Z are transported to a hallucinatory other world, seemingly as solid as the "real world." They may stay in the other world for an hour or for centuries, but then, when they emerge again into the "real world," no time has passed. According to Eldritch, "I did not find God in the Prox system. But I found something better. God promises eternal life. I can do better; I can deliver it" (p. 80, original emphasis).
The problem is, Eldritch himself is effectively a god in whichever world to which the Chew-Z users go. Indeed, Eldritch has a steel arm, steel teeth, and artificial eyes, which somehow recall the stigmata associated with the Passion of Christ. Moreover, when a Chew-Z user apparently returns to the real world, are they really back or are they inhabiting just another layer of Eldritch's hallucinatory universe? Is there ever any escape from Palmer Eldritch?
PKD is following the same inspiration behind The Man in the High Castle: what is real? While the earlier book is a relatively tame investigation of the nature of reality, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is wild and confusing. The message, perhaps, is that nothing is real, and all events and people in the book have been bent to Eldritch's twisted imagination—or rather to the twisted imagination of the alien who has taken over Eldritch somewhere between Prox and Earth. Or could it be indeed, as PKD sometimes suggests, a strange invasion by the aliens from Prox? Nowhere in the book can one point to anything as the foundation of reality.
While The Man in the High Castle is tight, closely argued, and enlightening, I found The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch to be baffling. Perhaps PKD himself had been taking too many mind-altering substances while writing it. It looks forward, perhaps, to the absurdity of his later work in The VALIS Trilogy and The Exegesis of Philp K. Dick. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch may well be a great book, though I preferred the more sedate style of The Man in the High Castle. But nevertheless, the genius of Philip K. Dick is that he has the courage to question the meaning of God in a science fiction setting.
Immediately one of my favourite books. It's a whirlwind of ideas, but drip-fed admirably via many characters and locations, with considerable thematic breadth that constantly resists the science-fiction tendency to pontificate. (What a time it was for SF!—and for the artists crazy enough to produce it.) These ideas are inextricable from the plot—a reliable indicator of a capable storyteller—so it bears covering. Possible spoilers ahead, he says as though any concerned parties will be reading these words.
It is 2016: like much SF, the novel places distant future not so distant (e.g. 2001: A Space Odyssey) in deliberate call to attention. The climate has deteriorated so that going outdoors at noon risks heat-death, and Antarctica is a popular holiday destination. The UN has accordingly adopted a random 'draft' system, where citizens are called to populate habitable planets and moons in the solar system; like jury duty, only permanent. These are the Colonies, in a direct nod to the neo-colonialism that a Space Age might offer, a deeply troubling prospect that much fiction cares only to view through a positive lens as the advancement of humankind—or the portion of humankind concerned. (How history repeats itself!) But the project is uniform and international, so we are led to believe. This singular political body is of course matched by a singular corporate body, independent but entangled in mutual bribery and policy. The conglomerate is Perky Pat Layouts, Inc.—as ever, run by a bigoted pervert (Leo Bulero) who cares only to maintain monopoly—which has two areas of ongoing concern. Both market the colonists: one is legal, the other illegal. This is where it gets especially interesting.
The legal side is the namesake layouts. These are miniature, dollhouse-like replicas of Earthly objects (appliances, clothes, art) that the extraterrestrials lack. (We follow some settlers on Mars, whose lives are spent in hovels and tending to crops that never grow.) Our protagonist, Barney Mayerson, works as a Pre-Fash consultant at P. P. Layouts; he is 'precog', meaning he can perceive various possible future events to an extent, which he uses to predict the success of potential products. Precognition first appeared in Philip K. Dick's The Minority Report (1956; adapted in 2002). There, it was implemented into an Orwellian police-state; here, its use is cynical, either for business or personal matters. The colonists buy the approved min items for their layouts, using what little currency they have, all for sake of their miniature people—Perky Pat and Walt, each their very own Barbie and Ken. Enter the illegal side. P. P. Layouts also not-so-secretly pushes a drug called 'Can-D' (read it aloud). This enables group hallucination, in which all women involved may occupy the body of Pat, and all men the body of Walt, both living a fantastically perfect life in their layouts come real.
A snarky take on burgeoning LSD usage, perhaps—but its intended scope is much wider. (The governmental role in supplying or overlooking Can-D, as a means to stifle a destitute population, reads now as prescient satirisation of an other drug.) It's a depressing view on 'virtual' realities of all kinds: a look at a future so bleak that forcible detachment becomes willing as a method of escape, as the rich get richer and the household of the poor literally gets smaller, no longer even functional. In fact, the rich still living on Earth can undergo physical therapy in order to 'evolve' rapidly; they change shape and grow hair and supposedly become more perceptive, more able to survive through new methods of eugenics. Desperate self-preservation: not unlike, at last, the Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, which are his distinctive machine parts adopted instead to evolve (or survive). These are stigmata in the Christian sense—referred to as a "negative trinity"—not in the day-to-day use (plural of stigma). Early in the book Eldritch is rumoured to have crash-landed on Pluto after a long, interstellar expedition. It is soon known that he has brought back with him a more powerful, more addictive alternative to Can-D—named Chew-Z, choose, or chew, wisely.
Chew-Z is alleged to provide hallucinations more malleable to the user's wants, without need for a focal layout. Naturally this poses a serious threat to Bulero's company, and the book follows his schemes to stop Eldritch while Mayerson gets involved in the process. Religious themes gain increasing traction with the adoption of Chew-Z; it is in fact Eldritch who is foremost in control of the user's imaginings, positioning himself as some sort of god. Can-D had previously aimed to substitute supernatural belief—but for many access to another world beget more zeal, in cult-like fashion. (Well, now you can cry Hippie.) At points religion seems treated as a saving grace, but to a hopelessly pragmatic Mayerson it is another layer of deception. With Chew-Z the separation between these layers, between realities, is blurred past recognition; the book ends with deliberate ambiguity as to whether the characters are free from the drug's effects. And that is the most chilling prediction of all—ersatz experience so vivid that neither Heaven nor Earth are worthy.
It is 2016: like much SF, the novel places distant future not so distant (e.g. 2001: A Space Odyssey) in deliberate call to attention. The climate has deteriorated so that going outdoors at noon risks heat-death, and Antarctica is a popular holiday destination. The UN has accordingly adopted a random 'draft' system, where citizens are called to populate habitable planets and moons in the solar system; like jury duty, only permanent. These are the Colonies, in a direct nod to the neo-colonialism that a Space Age might offer, a deeply troubling prospect that much fiction cares only to view through a positive lens as the advancement of humankind—or the portion of humankind concerned. (How history repeats itself!) But the project is uniform and international, so we are led to believe. This singular political body is of course matched by a singular corporate body, independent but entangled in mutual bribery and policy. The conglomerate is Perky Pat Layouts, Inc.—as ever, run by a bigoted pervert (Leo Bulero) who cares only to maintain monopoly—which has two areas of ongoing concern. Both market the colonists: one is legal, the other illegal. This is where it gets especially interesting.
The legal side is the namesake layouts. These are miniature, dollhouse-like replicas of Earthly objects (appliances, clothes, art) that the extraterrestrials lack. (We follow some settlers on Mars, whose lives are spent in hovels and tending to crops that never grow.) Our protagonist, Barney Mayerson, works as a Pre-Fash consultant at P. P. Layouts; he is 'precog', meaning he can perceive various possible future events to an extent, which he uses to predict the success of potential products. Precognition first appeared in Philip K. Dick's The Minority Report (1956; adapted in 2002). There, it was implemented into an Orwellian police-state; here, its use is cynical, either for business or personal matters. The colonists buy the approved min items for their layouts, using what little currency they have, all for sake of their miniature people—Perky Pat and Walt, each their very own Barbie and Ken. Enter the illegal side. P. P. Layouts also not-so-secretly pushes a drug called 'Can-D' (read it aloud). This enables group hallucination, in which all women involved may occupy the body of Pat, and all men the body of Walt, both living a fantastically perfect life in their layouts come real.
A snarky take on burgeoning LSD usage, perhaps—but its intended scope is much wider. (The governmental role in supplying or overlooking Can-D, as a means to stifle a destitute population, reads now as prescient satirisation of an other drug.) It's a depressing view on 'virtual' realities of all kinds: a look at a future so bleak that forcible detachment becomes willing as a method of escape, as the rich get richer and the household of the poor literally gets smaller, no longer even functional. In fact, the rich still living on Earth can undergo physical therapy in order to 'evolve' rapidly; they change shape and grow hair and supposedly become more perceptive, more able to survive through new methods of eugenics. Desperate self-preservation: not unlike, at last, the Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, which are his distinctive machine parts adopted instead to evolve (or survive). These are stigmata in the Christian sense—referred to as a "negative trinity"—not in the day-to-day use (plural of stigma). Early in the book Eldritch is rumoured to have crash-landed on Pluto after a long, interstellar expedition. It is soon known that he has brought back with him a more powerful, more addictive alternative to Can-D—named Chew-Z, choose, or chew, wisely.
Chew-Z is alleged to provide hallucinations more malleable to the user's wants, without need for a focal layout. Naturally this poses a serious threat to Bulero's company, and the book follows his schemes to stop Eldritch while Mayerson gets involved in the process. Religious themes gain increasing traction with the adoption of Chew-Z; it is in fact Eldritch who is foremost in control of the user's imaginings, positioning himself as some sort of god. Can-D had previously aimed to substitute supernatural belief—but for many access to another world beget more zeal, in cult-like fashion. (Well, now you can cry Hippie.) At points religion seems treated as a saving grace, but to a hopelessly pragmatic Mayerson it is another layer of deception. With Chew-Z the separation between these layers, between realities, is blurred past recognition; the book ends with deliberate ambiguity as to whether the characters are free from the drug's effects. And that is the most chilling prediction of all—ersatz experience so vivid that neither Heaven nor Earth are worthy.
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
The ending definitely felt a bit rushed, but I loved diving into a dystopian novel again after so much time
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If the book had remained a story until the end, I might have rated this one 4 or higher, but it kind of devolved into a lecture through Dicks characters the last 40 pages or so.
Lots of unnecessary mentions of tits and one really weird, off-putting comment about eyes being cold “like a girls.” It definitely lacks any meaningful female characters that arent there to serve some kind of male fantasy.
But the plot for a majority of the book was very complex & intriguing and the themes closely align with a pantheist, christian worldview in an interesting way that almost doesn't work but actually kind of does.
The book is pretty good and Im glad I read it, but knowing what I know now, I probably wont reread it or recommend it. Lots of great ideas and potential for a masterpiece but I feel the execution squandered it.
Lots of unnecessary mentions of tits and one really weird, off-putting comment about eyes being cold “like a girls.” It definitely lacks any meaningful female characters that arent there to serve some kind of male fantasy.
But the plot for a majority of the book was very complex & intriguing and the themes closely align with a pantheist, christian worldview in an interesting way that almost doesn't work but actually kind of does.
The book is pretty good and Im glad I read it, but knowing what I know now, I probably wont reread it or recommend it. Lots of great ideas and potential for a masterpiece but I feel the execution squandered it.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Remarkably spiritual/philosophical. Really zany, intensely weird read. Very enjoyable. Likable cast of characters. Easy to follow despite bizarre plot (kind of like William Gibson if he took a bit more time to make himself comprehensible)