Here’s another intriguing short story by Philip K. Dick, narrated by Sarah Lipton. The farcical nature of the tale seems less so when considered in the context of Dick’s own delusional thought patterns and his explorations of human perception and reality. In this story he almost seems to be mocking his own predilections for misinterpreting signals from the surrounding world.
In a NY Times article, Charles Platt ventured into this realm during an interview with Dick:
Even in his earliest stories, Dick wrestled with the nature of perception. As he described it to me, “I began to get an idea of a mysterious quality in the universe . . . a kind of metaphysical world, an invisible realm of things half-seen.” He could not accept the notion of a single, objective reality, and favored Jung’s concept that what we perceive as external may be an unconscious projection. When he tried to embed these ideas in serious contemporary novels, he found no market for them, and thus used science fiction as the unlikely vehicle for his philosophical questions.
This is the third in a planned ePublish Yourself! series highlighting classic and contemporary short stories, extending the storytelling art beyond the printed page and ereader screen to return to the oral traditions stretching back hundreds of years and now being revitalized in digital form. Let us know what you think.