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Showing posts with label Philip K. Dick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philip K. Dick. Show all posts
Monday, January 7, 2019
Friday, August 3, 2012
Short Story Review: “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”
WE CAN REMEMBER IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE
A short story by Philip K. Dick - Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux on Patreon.
“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” is a science fiction short story written by the late author Philip K. Dick and first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (April 1966 issue). The story has been republished several times in book collections, most recently in Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick (2002), which is where I read it (although I first read this story in another book collection back in the 1990s).
“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” was loosely adapted into the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Total Recall, which was directed by Paul Verhoeven. That film is the subject of a 2012 remake starring Colin Farrell and directed by Len Wiseman.
“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” takes place sometime in an indeterminate future in which humans have traveled to Mars and colonized the planet. The story hints or suggests that some of the rest of the solar system has also been visited by humans and perhaps colonized.
The story focuses on Douglas Quail, a nobody clerk and salaried employee. Quail yearns to travel to Mars the way other men might yearn to bed a pageant queen. His wife, a harpy-type named Kirsten, is not interested in traveling to Mars, but does agree that her wimpy husband needs adventure. Quail knows that he cannot afford a trip to Mars, which is expensive, not to mention that few people are even allowed to visit the planet.
Quail visits Rekal Incorporated, a company that offers “extra-factual memory implants.” These memories, which are implanted into the customer’s brain, are more real than real memories because implanted memories don’t fade away. Quail’s extra-factual memory package includes an adventure on Mars in which he is an agent for the Interplan Police Agency. However, something goes wrong during the memory implant, when Rekal discovers that there is more to Quail’s memories than they or even he realized.
I’ve found Philip K. Dick to be one of the most imaginative science fiction authors (and one of the most imaginative authors, in general) that I have ever encountered. I think his best work is found in his novels, but in his short stories, Dick presented seemingly countless inventive scenarios.
“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” presents a familiar theme in Dick’s work: how the human mind struggles with shifting realities. Usually, a lead character will find himself trying to discern which is the real reality or which is his reality. Another familiar theme is man vs. bureaucracy or man vs. man (individual or organized) that act in opposition to the protagonist. In this story, Quail’s desires and yearnings to both visit Mars and to have a more fulfilling life runs up against the reality of a disapproving wife, his finances, Rekal, and Interplan.
I don’t want to spoil this story for anyone who has not yet read it or who have read it and don’t remember the details. However, I must say that the scenes in which the Rekal operatives find themselves confronted by the secrets Quail’s memories hold make this story worth reading. It is classic Philip K. Dick – the little guy fighting and even striking back at the forces gathered against him.
B+
A short story by Philip K. Dick - Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux on Patreon.
“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” is a science fiction short story written by the late author Philip K. Dick and first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (April 1966 issue). The story has been republished several times in book collections, most recently in Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick (2002), which is where I read it (although I first read this story in another book collection back in the 1990s).
“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” was loosely adapted into the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Total Recall, which was directed by Paul Verhoeven. That film is the subject of a 2012 remake starring Colin Farrell and directed by Len Wiseman.
“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” takes place sometime in an indeterminate future in which humans have traveled to Mars and colonized the planet. The story hints or suggests that some of the rest of the solar system has also been visited by humans and perhaps colonized.
The story focuses on Douglas Quail, a nobody clerk and salaried employee. Quail yearns to travel to Mars the way other men might yearn to bed a pageant queen. His wife, a harpy-type named Kirsten, is not interested in traveling to Mars, but does agree that her wimpy husband needs adventure. Quail knows that he cannot afford a trip to Mars, which is expensive, not to mention that few people are even allowed to visit the planet.
Quail visits Rekal Incorporated, a company that offers “extra-factual memory implants.” These memories, which are implanted into the customer’s brain, are more real than real memories because implanted memories don’t fade away. Quail’s extra-factual memory package includes an adventure on Mars in which he is an agent for the Interplan Police Agency. However, something goes wrong during the memory implant, when Rekal discovers that there is more to Quail’s memories than they or even he realized.
I’ve found Philip K. Dick to be one of the most imaginative science fiction authors (and one of the most imaginative authors, in general) that I have ever encountered. I think his best work is found in his novels, but in his short stories, Dick presented seemingly countless inventive scenarios.
“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” presents a familiar theme in Dick’s work: how the human mind struggles with shifting realities. Usually, a lead character will find himself trying to discern which is the real reality or which is his reality. Another familiar theme is man vs. bureaucracy or man vs. man (individual or organized) that act in opposition to the protagonist. In this story, Quail’s desires and yearnings to both visit Mars and to have a more fulfilling life runs up against the reality of a disapproving wife, his finances, Rekal, and Interplan.
I don’t want to spoil this story for anyone who has not yet read it or who have read it and don’t remember the details. However, I must say that the scenes in which the Rekal operatives find themselves confronted by the secrets Quail’s memories hold make this story worth reading. It is classic Philip K. Dick – the little guy fighting and even striking back at the forces gathered against him.
B+
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Comics and Magazines from Diamond Distributors for August 31 2011
PREVIEWS PUBLICATIONS
JUL110001 PREVIEWS #276 SEPTEMBER 2011 PI
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Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Prose to Film: Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick
ADJUSTMENT TEAM
A short story by Philip K. Dick
“Adjustment Team” is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick that was first published in Orbit Science Fiction (September-October 1954). It has been reprinted several times, including in the collection, Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick (2002), which is where I read it. The story is the basis for the current film, The Adjustment Bureau, written and directed by George Nolfi and starring Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, and Anthony Mackie.
The story focuses on a real estate salesman named Ed Fletcher who accidentally sees the truth behind reality. On a bright sunny morning, someone from the Adjustment Team known only as “Clerk” must make sure that Ed is in Sector T137 which is scheduled for adjustment. Clerk assigns the task of making sure that Ed is at the right place at the right time to Ed’s dog, Dobbie, a “canine Summoner.”
Of course, things go awry. Ed arrives at his job and sees the world in an altered state. He ends up knowing something he shouldn’t know and is soon on the run from the Adjustment Team. How he resolves this crisis will determine his ultimate fate.
Like much of Philip K. Dick’s work, the “Adjustment Team” deals with themes of dislocation, paranoia, and unyielding bureaucracy, but there is, this time, also a theme of yearning for a connection with a higher being. When Dick has Ed meet the Old Man, the boss of the Adjustment Team, Dick has Ed begging the Old Man to understand his plight. It isn’t a stretch to see this as Dick’s take on the powerless everyman who seeks mercy and understanding from a higher authority – a tyrannical power inflexible about its rules. Still, the everyman believes that his request is reasonable, even in the face of a power that insists on the opposite.
Overall, Adjustment Team is a minor story. The characters are soft, although Ed Fletcher is more filled out. The adversaries are largely underutilized, although I’m sure the film, The Adjustment Bureau, makes more use of them. The ending of “Adjustment Team” suggests an optimism that is surprising, but that makes this story more charming than the beginning and middle indicate.
B
A short story by Philip K. Dick
“Adjustment Team” is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick that was first published in Orbit Science Fiction (September-October 1954). It has been reprinted several times, including in the collection, Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick (2002), which is where I read it. The story is the basis for the current film, The Adjustment Bureau, written and directed by George Nolfi and starring Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, and Anthony Mackie.
The story focuses on a real estate salesman named Ed Fletcher who accidentally sees the truth behind reality. On a bright sunny morning, someone from the Adjustment Team known only as “Clerk” must make sure that Ed is in Sector T137 which is scheduled for adjustment. Clerk assigns the task of making sure that Ed is at the right place at the right time to Ed’s dog, Dobbie, a “canine Summoner.”
Of course, things go awry. Ed arrives at his job and sees the world in an altered state. He ends up knowing something he shouldn’t know and is soon on the run from the Adjustment Team. How he resolves this crisis will determine his ultimate fate.
Like much of Philip K. Dick’s work, the “Adjustment Team” deals with themes of dislocation, paranoia, and unyielding bureaucracy, but there is, this time, also a theme of yearning for a connection with a higher being. When Dick has Ed meet the Old Man, the boss of the Adjustment Team, Dick has Ed begging the Old Man to understand his plight. It isn’t a stretch to see this as Dick’s take on the powerless everyman who seeks mercy and understanding from a higher authority – a tyrannical power inflexible about its rules. Still, the everyman believes that his request is reasonable, even in the face of a power that insists on the opposite.
Overall, Adjustment Team is a minor story. The characters are soft, although Ed Fletcher is more filled out. The adversaries are largely underutilized, although I’m sure the film, The Adjustment Bureau, makes more use of them. The ending of “Adjustment Team” suggests an optimism that is surprising, but that makes this story more charming than the beginning and middle indicate.
B
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