Martian Time-Slip in Philip K Dick

Sep 06, 2012 Jack Stovold rated it it was amazing

My Philip K. Dick Project

Entry #24 - Martian Time-Slip (written Oct. 1962, published Apr. 1964)

Martian Time-Slip is another moody masterpiece from Dick, full of what are rapidly becoming staples of his work, schizophrenia and mental illness, blurred realities, psionic abilities (often linked to mental illness and blurring of reality) and his unique mixture of the mundane and the fantastic, the humorous and the terrifying.
Only a Philip K. Dick book could have a plot about the greedy, power-hun My Philip K. Dick Project

Entry #24 - Martian Time-Slip (written Oct. 1962, published Apr. 1964)

Martian Time-Slip is another moody masterpiece from Dick, full of what are rapidly becoming staples of his work, schizophrenia and mental illness, blurred realities, psionic abilities (often linked to mental illness and blurring of reality) and his unique mixture of the mundane and the fantastic, the humorous and the terrifying.
Only a Philip K. Dick book could have a plot about the greedy, power-hungry head of a waterworks union attempting to use a schizophrenic electronics repairman to communicate with a mute autistic boy who may be the key to preventing the U.N. from building cheap housing on the Franklin Delano Roosevelt mountains and threatening his strangle-hold on the water supply. On Mars. Of course, it becomes more and more obvious that Dick is not much interested in the “science” of his science-fiction. At one point, a character muses on how there’s little the U.N. can do to stop him, 2.5 light years away on Earth. Anyone who knows anything about light years could see how patently ridiculous that is. But that's not the point. This is not the real Mars, but a romantic Mars, one of Dick's most evocative settings yet. This a desolate, dusty backwater, full of scrappers and bored housewives, where a nobody like Artie Kott can become a de facto ruler and quasi-dictator by controlling the water supply.
Another surprise Dick throws at us is the Bleekmen, the mysterious natives of Mars, subjugated by the Earth settlers and said to resemble African bushmen. They are believed to be related to ancient humans, but Dick wisely refrains from giving any more detail on this point. There are all sorts of interesting little things like that hovering on the fringes of this story, like the Martian education system, schools full of robotic simulacra of Earth's great historical figures. Picture your teacher as the Abe Lincoln robot from Disneyland. Or the thriving black market for seafood, hard liquor and other illegal delicacies from back home.
Jack Bohlen, the above mentioned schizophrenic repairman is the main focus of the story, and is a rather prototypical Dick protagonist, a honest, tired and pessimistic workingman, and yet also a good man, haunted by mental illness and by the specter of imminent insanity, driven into an affair with a beautiful woman. It's almost perfect. Arnie Kott, like most of Dick's villains, is also not really an EVIL guy, he's kind of a regular dude who likes his alcohol and his Bach, and is sort of an impatient bumbler trying to bargain for more power. Everything revolves around Manfred Steiner, the son of Jack's neighbor, a mute autistic boy whose haunting visions of his and Mar's future may be the key for Kott to hold onto his power.
The portions of the book where Jack gives into his long dormant schizophrenia are disturbing and powerful. And the brief passages into the mind of the boy Manfred are so perfectly crafted and chilling. But as always, I am entertained by Dick's workaday world-weary heroes and their banal lives among the fantastic. All these guys are on Mars, but they're still just small people, just wanting to be left alone, giving in to their desires, jockeying for a bigger piece of the pie.
I highly recommend this one for its great atmosphere and its sheer weirdness. It's right up there with The Man in the High Castle among my favorites so far.

My edition: Gollancz VGSF Classics Paperback, 1990

Up next: "Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb"!

September 6th, 2012 ...more

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Jul 11, 2013 Ümit Mutlu rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, foreign, favorites

Yine bir PKD harikasıyla karşı karşıyayız. Bu kez artalanda Mars ve Mars'ın kızıl kumları var, ancak onun dışındaki her şey yine elbette Dünya'ya ait. Yerlerinden yurtlarından edilen, ezilen Kızılderililer'den Vietnam'da kendilerini yemek için ABD askerlerine satan yerli kızlara; siyahilere karşı yapılan amansız ırkçılıktan Nazilerin engellilere yönelik politikalarını savunan dingillere kadar; ezilmek ve öteki olmakla ilgili bir sürü şey yine burada. Öte yandan acımasız kapitalizm ve emperyalizm ...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Scott rated it really liked it

A fascinating exploration of mental illness and the issues surrounding it, including the seeming inability of those in power to appropriately understand and address it.

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