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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
Here's the thing about Philip Dick. The premises are so good. The endings are terrible. Paycheck (the movie) is one of my favorites, even though it's cheesy. This is not nearly as good.
2.5 Stars.
2.5 Stars.
Some of the older sci-fi is pretty good, but this one seems a little loose to me.
My first foray into the sci-fi works of Philip K. Dick, and it was a lackluster first impression. PAYCHECK is a novella with intriguing concepts but without a clear idea of what to do with them. A blend of time travel and visions of the future make for a fun enough thriller, but its themes of free will and choice do not amount to much and will be explored more in-depth with THE MINORITY REPORT. Also, the ending is too sappy even for its time!
I didn’t realise this was a collection of short stories until I had a peek at the copyright page and saw that every chapter was copyrighted in a different year. But no, of course they were all individual works.
Short story collections, in an ideal world, would be thematically consistent and perhaps ultimately come together in some enlightening way. Let’s take a look one story at a time then, and see what we can glean…
Paycheck
I actually thought there was going to be an ultimate twist in this story, where it is revealed at the end that everything has been manipulated by a villain character, and our protagonist has merely been a pawn in someone else’s game – much like the film of Total Recall, which is of course based on another Dick story (that I haven’t read). Alas, no. Despite dabbling with notions of time travel, the story is linear and simplistic. It’s worth remembering then, that it was published in the mid-1950s, perhaps before these twists became so popular. I wonder what was the first ever story to rely on such a cheap device?
What I found most interesting was Dick’s suggestion that in the near future government would have eroded ideas of individual rights and freedoms, yet would leave corporations unmolested – like how our political system is used to the benefit of the elite, with no concern for ordinary people – and how this would lead to a power struggle between government and business. Overall though, the story was brief and felt more like watching a film than reading a work of literature. It is worth mentioning that this is the first time I’ve read anything by Philip K Dick, though I’ve seen many films based on his work and, until now, avoided his books for that reason. I tend to prefer something more akin to hard sci-fi, but having discovered the joys of Vonnegut, I thought I might have been missing out by not giving Dick a try. The jury’s still out on this one.
Nanny
I’m not sure what the point is here. Central is the idea that companies are building products that people need, but that are also programmed to destroy rival models – leading to customers buying bigger and more powerful models, rather than campaigning for legislation that prevents such cut-throat business practices. There are no signs of Asimov’s three laws in respect of the robots here. Sure, companies probably would like to profit from the resulting perpetual market caused by the destruction of models by models, but the whole idea is so unrealistic – perhaps unless you think about computer viruses. Who’s really creating all these computer viruses? Is it lone programmers with nothing to do, is it cyber-thieves and cyber-terrorists or is it the very companies who produce anti-virus software, so that we have a reason to buy their products? Or perhaps a combination of some or all the above? This also makes me think of the way our electronics products are so short-lived these days. Not only are they constantly trying to make better, more desirable models, but they all have a habit of breaking just as the warranty period expires. Yes, I suppose that’s what Dick was getting at, but instead of waiting for products to expire, the various companies are making sure they do, and fast. An odd story then, and ahead of its time.
Jon’s World
Back to the theme of time travel here. Again it’s a bit too brief, though again there’s the implication of corporate involvement in dodgy practices, but the core idea is rooted in the dangers of meddling with the past. It ends up being quite whimsical really.
Breakfast at Twilight
A family wakes up one day to find that their house has travelled forward in time to be in the midst of a global war. It seems they have a chance of going back to their own time – which they choose to do, because the future is so grisly – but they fail to consider that ultimately this is what their lives are going to become. So what are they going to do about it? Just wait until it happens? Have as much quality family time as possible? Try to make a difference? We never find out. All in all, an unsatisfying story.
Small Town
This story is just stupid, but would have made a good episode of The Twilight Zone or Eerie, Indiana. It probably did.
A little interlude now…
One thing I found very interesting was that, in every story (at least up to Small Town), at some point (usually more than once), someone lights a cigarette before doing something. It’s obviously very much a product of its time – or at least you’d think so. The thing is, I’ve read lots of literature spanning the breadth of the 20th century, and smoking is not as prevalent as you might expect – or if it is, it isn’t as conspicuous. Can you remember anyone sparking up in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, for example? In this collection of stories it is conspicuous by the sheer volume of cigarettes being consumed. It makes you wonder why it’s so important to note that someone is lighting a cigarette. Does it represent moments when Dick is taking a break from the writing himself? Does he feel it adds anything? All he’s really doing is adding a few words that aren’t really necessary. Seriously, it’s not like anyone’s reading it and thinking, “I see; this is a character who smokes”, then drawing any conclusions. It would be far better not to mention it at all, then we could just insert moments when characters light up ourselves – if we wanted to, which we probably wouldn’t. In the next work of fiction I read, I’m going to intentionally imagine characters lighting cigarettes at random moments. Then maybe I’ll see if it adds anything. In autobiography, people who smoked never mention smoking at all. There’s no, “we were offered a million dollar record contract. Before we signed it, we all lit cigarettes,” for one thing because it’s not important. For another; people who smoke, smoke a lot, so mentioning it would be a chore unto itself and they don’t specifically remember all the cigarettes they smoked.
The Father-Thing
Funny that after that long discussion about smoking, we get to a story that doesn’t have any smoking in it (the next one doesn’t either, as far as I can remember). It’s a pretty straight Bodysnatchers type story that again would make a decent Twilight Zone episode. I don’t know whether this story was original at the time, and perhaps whether it has been ripped off many times since, but by now this type of story is old as dirt.
The Chromium Fence
This one’s quite interesting. It’s a story of a moderate caught between two political extremes. It strikes me that in this kind of story it would be more interesting though to give the perspective of one of the extremes, rather than the sane man, or one that is closest to our own perspective.
Autofac
It’s man vs machine as a group of humans try to override a system that automatically collects resources and provides supplies even after the nuclear war is over, and they don’t require it anymore. After two smoke-less stories, Dick gets right back on track with a character lighting up in the very first paragraph.
The Days of Perky Pat
This was my favourite of all the stories. It could have gone off in a number of directions but it probably went in the one that was most fun. I’m not sure whether Dick is trying to say anything about charity and human nature here, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.
Stand-by
A bit of a damp squib of a story that imagines what might happen if the USA were to devolve its presidential powers to a computer. I've been thinking some more about this one since writing that single sentence the other day. I think it's interesting that Dick chose to imagine what might happen if the computer was incapacitated and a human required to assume its duties for a while - when they could have just had a backup computer. I thought, if Asimov had written this story he would've tried to imagine all the different pressures on the computer, how it chose to legislate in favour of one group over another and all the various dilemmas and paradoxes that might involve. If Arthur C. Clarke had written it, it would have been about an idealistic genius trying to make the perfect legislating machine. Then some aliens would have taken it over and completed the work for the benefit of the whole universe. Stephen King would have made the computer evil, killing anyone who opposed it while creating an elite robot army to subdue and enslave human beings. Who else? Fitzgerald would have had the computer loafing around, attending the theatre and cocktail parties. I could go on, but it's just going to get more ridiculous.
A Little Something for us Tempunauts
I’m not too sure what to think about this one. I don’t think its concept was really explained clearly enough, nor what the lead character’s intention was in acting contrary to available evidence.
The Pre-Persons
Dick discusses what might happen if a shortage of resources and a change in human morality led to the extension of legal abortion to children up to the age of twelve. I felt there was a lot more potential in this story and that it could have been developed into a novel. Instead Dick seems to get bored of it and doesn’t explore the concept as fully as I would have liked.
In all this collection has made me keen to read a bit more fiction that I have been doing of late. The stories themselves were flawed but [on the verge of being] thought provoking, and I think it will turn out to be a good introduction to Dick’s style and work. I’ve already got one of his novels to read at some point and, while I’ll be hoping it’s better than these stories, I think it bodes well. I’m not expecting to enjoy his work as much as I do that of Vonnegut, but I might yet turn into a fan.
Short story collections, in an ideal world, would be thematically consistent and perhaps ultimately come together in some enlightening way. Let’s take a look one story at a time then, and see what we can glean…
Paycheck
I actually thought there was going to be an ultimate twist in this story, where it is revealed at the end that everything has been manipulated by a villain character, and our protagonist has merely been a pawn in someone else’s game – much like the film of Total Recall, which is of course based on another Dick story (that I haven’t read). Alas, no. Despite dabbling with notions of time travel, the story is linear and simplistic. It’s worth remembering then, that it was published in the mid-1950s, perhaps before these twists became so popular. I wonder what was the first ever story to rely on such a cheap device?
What I found most interesting was Dick’s suggestion that in the near future government would have eroded ideas of individual rights and freedoms, yet would leave corporations unmolested – like how our political system is used to the benefit of the elite, with no concern for ordinary people – and how this would lead to a power struggle between government and business. Overall though, the story was brief and felt more like watching a film than reading a work of literature. It is worth mentioning that this is the first time I’ve read anything by Philip K Dick, though I’ve seen many films based on his work and, until now, avoided his books for that reason. I tend to prefer something more akin to hard sci-fi, but having discovered the joys of Vonnegut, I thought I might have been missing out by not giving Dick a try. The jury’s still out on this one.
Nanny
I’m not sure what the point is here. Central is the idea that companies are building products that people need, but that are also programmed to destroy rival models – leading to customers buying bigger and more powerful models, rather than campaigning for legislation that prevents such cut-throat business practices. There are no signs of Asimov’s three laws in respect of the robots here. Sure, companies probably would like to profit from the resulting perpetual market caused by the destruction of models by models, but the whole idea is so unrealistic – perhaps unless you think about computer viruses. Who’s really creating all these computer viruses? Is it lone programmers with nothing to do, is it cyber-thieves and cyber-terrorists or is it the very companies who produce anti-virus software, so that we have a reason to buy their products? Or perhaps a combination of some or all the above? This also makes me think of the way our electronics products are so short-lived these days. Not only are they constantly trying to make better, more desirable models, but they all have a habit of breaking just as the warranty period expires. Yes, I suppose that’s what Dick was getting at, but instead of waiting for products to expire, the various companies are making sure they do, and fast. An odd story then, and ahead of its time.
Jon’s World
Back to the theme of time travel here. Again it’s a bit too brief, though again there’s the implication of corporate involvement in dodgy practices, but the core idea is rooted in the dangers of meddling with the past. It ends up being quite whimsical really.
Breakfast at Twilight
A family wakes up one day to find that their house has travelled forward in time to be in the midst of a global war. It seems they have a chance of going back to their own time – which they choose to do, because the future is so grisly – but they fail to consider that ultimately this is what their lives are going to become. So what are they going to do about it? Just wait until it happens? Have as much quality family time as possible? Try to make a difference? We never find out. All in all, an unsatisfying story.
Small Town
This story is just stupid, but would have made a good episode of The Twilight Zone or Eerie, Indiana. It probably did.
A little interlude now…
One thing I found very interesting was that, in every story (at least up to Small Town), at some point (usually more than once), someone lights a cigarette before doing something. It’s obviously very much a product of its time – or at least you’d think so. The thing is, I’ve read lots of literature spanning the breadth of the 20th century, and smoking is not as prevalent as you might expect – or if it is, it isn’t as conspicuous. Can you remember anyone sparking up in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, for example? In this collection of stories it is conspicuous by the sheer volume of cigarettes being consumed. It makes you wonder why it’s so important to note that someone is lighting a cigarette. Does it represent moments when Dick is taking a break from the writing himself? Does he feel it adds anything? All he’s really doing is adding a few words that aren’t really necessary. Seriously, it’s not like anyone’s reading it and thinking, “I see; this is a character who smokes”, then drawing any conclusions. It would be far better not to mention it at all, then we could just insert moments when characters light up ourselves – if we wanted to, which we probably wouldn’t. In the next work of fiction I read, I’m going to intentionally imagine characters lighting cigarettes at random moments. Then maybe I’ll see if it adds anything. In autobiography, people who smoked never mention smoking at all. There’s no, “we were offered a million dollar record contract. Before we signed it, we all lit cigarettes,” for one thing because it’s not important. For another; people who smoke, smoke a lot, so mentioning it would be a chore unto itself and they don’t specifically remember all the cigarettes they smoked.
The Father-Thing
Funny that after that long discussion about smoking, we get to a story that doesn’t have any smoking in it (the next one doesn’t either, as far as I can remember). It’s a pretty straight Bodysnatchers type story that again would make a decent Twilight Zone episode. I don’t know whether this story was original at the time, and perhaps whether it has been ripped off many times since, but by now this type of story is old as dirt.
The Chromium Fence
This one’s quite interesting. It’s a story of a moderate caught between two political extremes. It strikes me that in this kind of story it would be more interesting though to give the perspective of one of the extremes, rather than the sane man, or one that is closest to our own perspective.
Autofac
It’s man vs machine as a group of humans try to override a system that automatically collects resources and provides supplies even after the nuclear war is over, and they don’t require it anymore. After two smoke-less stories, Dick gets right back on track with a character lighting up in the very first paragraph.
The Days of Perky Pat
This was my favourite of all the stories. It could have gone off in a number of directions but it probably went in the one that was most fun. I’m not sure whether Dick is trying to say anything about charity and human nature here, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.
Stand-by
A bit of a damp squib of a story that imagines what might happen if the USA were to devolve its presidential powers to a computer. I've been thinking some more about this one since writing that single sentence the other day. I think it's interesting that Dick chose to imagine what might happen if the computer was incapacitated and a human required to assume its duties for a while - when they could have just had a backup computer. I thought, if Asimov had written this story he would've tried to imagine all the different pressures on the computer, how it chose to legislate in favour of one group over another and all the various dilemmas and paradoxes that might involve. If Arthur C. Clarke had written it, it would have been about an idealistic genius trying to make the perfect legislating machine. Then some aliens would have taken it over and completed the work for the benefit of the whole universe. Stephen King would have made the computer evil, killing anyone who opposed it while creating an elite robot army to subdue and enslave human beings. Who else? Fitzgerald would have had the computer loafing around, attending the theatre and cocktail parties. I could go on, but it's just going to get more ridiculous.
A Little Something for us Tempunauts
I’m not too sure what to think about this one. I don’t think its concept was really explained clearly enough, nor what the lead character’s intention was in acting contrary to available evidence.
The Pre-Persons
Dick discusses what might happen if a shortage of resources and a change in human morality led to the extension of legal abortion to children up to the age of twelve. I felt there was a lot more potential in this story and that it could have been developed into a novel. Instead Dick seems to get bored of it and doesn’t explore the concept as fully as I would have liked.
In all this collection has made me keen to read a bit more fiction that I have been doing of late. The stories themselves were flawed but [on the verge of being] thought provoking, and I think it will turn out to be a good introduction to Dick’s style and work. I’ve already got one of his novels to read at some point and, while I’ll be hoping it’s better than these stories, I think it bodes well. I’m not expecting to enjoy his work as much as I do that of Vonnegut, but I might yet turn into a fan.
Politics time-travel and humour are the main themes of Dick's short stories in this compendium. Less on the character front however.
The stories range from poignant (pre-humans) to downright silly (Nanny) and some where so meaningless as to be forgotten almost as soon as read. Overall fun though.
The stories range from poignant (pre-humans) to downright silly (Nanny) and some where so meaningless as to be forgotten almost as soon as read. Overall fun though.
This is as much as a story can be an evenly paced sprint. It offers up a mystery right outta the gate and then starts running until it has a thorough dialogue for a wrap-up. It's tight without being rushed, charming without being smug, and fun without being forced. It's just an exciting adventure without overpromising—a small maneuver through what is clearly a big, wild world.
This was a fairly good short story. I came upon it after I watched the brilliantly adapted movie with the same name and starring Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman, Paul Giamatti and Michael C. Hall. The movie deviates largely from the plot of the book, but the basic idea has been derived from the short story. I think the movie was a fairly good adaptation of this story. Fans of this story should definitely check out the movie.
An okay story again about a man who have lost memory - and how to operate that to his advantage... But that´s not bad...