A date some time in the near future. Technology has made immense progress and humans have started living on the moon, on Mars and other planets. Yet, life is so unbearable, it has necessitated the regular usage of drugs to escape reality and live in an illusion.
In ‘The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch’, Philip K. Dick creates a future that is as fascinating as it is thought provoking. It goes beyond just a view of the future to an actual analysis of the life and times in that future. Barney Mayerson wakes up in his conapt, checks his vidphone, carries his ‘psychiatrist’ in a suitcase … but in a world where at great physical and mental risks, people undergo genetic treatments to become more ‘evolved’ humans; a world where companies hire pre-cogs for the sole purpose of looking into the future to predict what fashions will catch on; a world where people use the drug CAN-D in conjunction with Perky Pat Layouts, to live out their fantasies (pitiably limited to being Pat or her boyfriend Walt, owning everything from the latest Jaguar to the latest in Italian clothing, it always being Saturday and time for a date).
Enter Palmer Eldritch, creator of super drug CHEW-Z, and recently rescued from a crash on Pluto on his way back from the Prox system, and things get really interesting!
This is the greatest reason why I am constantly drawn back to Philip K. Dick’s works: within the fantastic world of science fiction there is the omnipresent factor of conflicting realities, which challenge the reader and never once allow any single reality to emerge as the definitive one! Along with the users of this strong drug, I was not once allowed to settle in comfortably in any given situation. Every time I thought I had finally figured out what was going on, yet another layer of reality was brutally peeled back, and I was faced with one more possibility! Of course the genius of PKD is that the writing is so incredibly masterful, you never ever get confused to the point of losing interest. The more complex the plot got, the more invested I became in the maze!
As is probably obvious from the title, the story also lays great emphasis on the topics of god / religion. What was refreshing was the mature handling of a topic that can easily go off on a very didactic tangent. Through hints - some subtle, some obvious - parallels are drawn between Palmer and Christ. Interesting points of view are brought to light, but after exploring many possibilities, the question is left unanswered … did we meet god or some alien looking for a fulfillment of that most basic need of all life forms: procreation?
Dick’s ‘Ubik’ might still be my favourite, but to be very honest, it is not easy to pick a favourite from among his books. I have read about four or five of his works (including the awesome ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’) and each one brings some new concept to light. True, some questions may never be answered - Why specifically those three stigmata? What was the significance of no one getting Mayerson’s name right? Was Palmer god? And where did the trance end and reality begin? - Regardless however, all his stories hit you with a brand new way of thinking and force you to question reality itself. So, get canned or be choosy, the ultimate analysis is in your mind alone!
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