The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick 4: The Minority Report in Philip K Dick

Jun 04, 2012 Jack Stovold rated it really liked it

My Philip K. Dick Project #8

Whereas the first three volumes of short stories all spanned barely a years worth of time, this collection chronicles the nine year period between 1954 and 1963. This is the period when Dick’s career as a novelist took off and the up to that point insane rush of short stories slowed to a trickle. As such, this book has quite a different feel than the previous collections. (As an aside, since the next book on the project list was written in ‘55, we’ll be sort of sneaki My Philip K. Dick Project #8

Whereas the first three volumes of short stories all spanned barely a years worth of time, this collection chronicles the nine year period between 1954 and 1963. This is the period when Dick’s career as a novelist took off and the up to that point insane rush of short stories slowed to a trickle. As such, this book has quite a different feel than the previous collections. (As an aside, since the next book on the project list was written in ‘55, we’ll be sort of sneaking ahead project-wise and getting a look into the future, so to speak.) Many of the stories in here are longer than in the earlier volumes. Dick is obviously used to writing novels by now, and he doesn’t have a problem approaching novelette length.
The feel of this volume is a lot more low-key, and frankly, didn’t grab me the way Volume 3 did. Not to say this volume isn’t excellent as well, but Dick is operating differently here, especially in the longer stories. Some of these are sort of slow-burning mystery stories without any greater theme or concept apparent. Also, a number of stories just sort of suddenly end abruptly here. It’s as if Dick couldn’t stick the landing or lost interest halfway-through, although apparently a number of stories in here end up being reworked into novels.
However, there are some fun surprises here. Dick is lot more comfortable with himself as a writer in this period. “Waterspider” and “Orpheus With Clay Feet” are amusing self-referential stories in which Dick weaves himself and other famous sci-fi writers into the plot, mostly for laughs. I couldn’t have imagined an earlier Dick writing this. Dick’s cynical side is showcased often here, especially in concern with government and media (“The Mold of Yancy”, “Novelty Act”, ”Stand-By”). Of course, if you still want those kind of mind-twisting sci-fi yarns, there a few in here as well (”Autofac”, “Captive Market”, “The Minority Report”, “Explorers We”). However, I miss Dick’s weird straight-up fantasy stories, which have become fewer and fewer in preceding volumes. I don’t think they’re coming back.
On the whole this is an excellent volume, just perhaps not quite on par with Volume 3. It’s clear that Dick’s focus during this period is on his novels, but that shouldn’t stop you from checking this out. It has some great stories.

My highlights: “Captive Market”, “The Minority Report”, “Explorers We”, “Waterspider”, “Orpheus With Clay Feet”, “The Days of Perky Pat” “Stand-by/What’ll We Do With Ragland Park?” Low points: “Recall Mechanism”, “War Game”.

Stray Thoughts:

# I love the whole strange universe of “Stand-By” and “Ragland Park”, with its world of (unexplained) Unionized presidents, news clowns, pointless alien invasions, televised balladeers, and shady legal maneuvering.

# Dick’s word creations are always great. I particularly love “Berkeley Flukers” and “Oakland Flukers”, as well as Jim-Jam Briskin, television’s top-ranking news clown.

# Actually, I just love Jim-Jam Briskin. He’s great. I love news clowns.

# Dick sure loves Ganymede.

My edition: Citadel Press, 1987, Paperback

Next Up: “Eye In The Sky”

June 13, 2012 ...more

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Nov 29, 2011 Pickle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, philip-k-dick, short-stories

autofac - 3/5 a little odd story about people trying to break automated factories by making them war against one another.

service call - 3/5 a nice story about a swibble and the possible visitor from the future.

captive market - 3/5 an excellent wee story about a women selling goods.

the mold of yancy - 3/5

the minority report - 4/5 very good short story

recall mechanism - 4/5 very short story that reminded me of Eye In the Sky or Ubik except the different realities were one persons. Nice ending tha ...more

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