Counter-Clock World in Philip K Dick

Jan 15, 2013 Jack Stovold rated it liked it

My Philip K. Dick Project

Entry #36 - Counter-Clock World (Written late ‘65-late ‘66, published Feb. 7, 1967)

The premise of Counter-Clock World is insane. Dick used this premise once before in his short story "Your Appointment Will Be Yesterday", which worked well enough as a short story. Only Dick would be crazy enough to try and build an entire novel around something that is so nonsensical.

In the world of Counter-Clock World something called the Hobart Phase, which for completely unknown rea My Philip K. Dick Project

Entry #36 - Counter-Clock World (Written late ‘65-late ‘66, published Feb. 7, 1967)

The premise of Counter-Clock World is insane. Dick used this premise once before in his short story "Your Appointment Will Be Yesterday", which worked well enough as a short story. Only Dick would be crazy enough to try and build an entire novel around something that is so nonsensical.

In the world of Counter-Clock World something called the Hobart Phase, which for completely unknown reasons began in 1986, has caused the flow of time to reverse. It's now 1998 (people throw up foods and smoke cigarette butts back into full cigarettes, but I guess they're not going to go so far as to count years backward), and the dead are reborn, written documents and inventions are eradicated and "Goodbye" is what you say when you meet someone. The Anarch Thomas Peak, once a powerful black religious and cultural leader who is soon to return from the dead, frightens certain people, especially The Library, which seems to be one of the main power holders in the world, eradicating books that are no longer supposed to have been written. Sebastian Hermes owns a small vitarium (the opposite of a funeral home, where the employees listen for voices in the graveyard and dig up the elder-born), and discovers Peak's grave, the location of which was never made public. Determine to make a big score, and also to protect Peak from those who would harm him (himself elder-born years ago), Sebastian and his crew, including his fragile wife Lotta, growing ever younger and on the verge of becoming a teenager again, find themselves in a web of intrigue between the library, the LAPD, and the Udites, the followers of the religion Peak himself spearheaded, and The Rome Syndicate, the highest authority in the Caucasian world. (The USA has become two countries, The WUS (Western United States), and the FNM (Free Negro Municipality). They all want Peak for their own reasons.

For the most part, all this intrigue is fairly standard, entertaining Dick. But the concept is just... well, it did make me think. A lot. It's so illogical and the rules seem so arbitrary and ill-defined. On the one hand, time is definitely, physically flowing backwards. The dead do rise, grow younger, and (in one of the more ridiculous reverse-time conceits, of which there are many) go back into a womb (any woman will do, apparently), growing smaller until it divides into egg and sperm. Then the woman has to find a man "to remove the sperm". Smokers grab a butt from an ashtray and blow smoke out into a full cigarette, at the same time clearing the air. People ingest "sogum", which is hinted to be reverse defecation, throw up food onto their dinner plates and bring it to the store. Where does sogum come from? Who knows? Just one of the many questions raised here.

On the other hand, other things seem to happen voluntarily. Why do people HAVE to say "goodbye" at the beginning of a conversation? Why would anyone who grew up in normal-time do that? Why does the library have to eradicate books and inventions when they pass their time of creation? There's a lot of whys in this book, and while I don't expect every mystery to be exploded, Dick seems to not even have any interest at all in exploring them. There's not even so much as a hint as to what caused the Hobart Phase, or even why it's called that.

All of this would be easier to swallow if the actual storyline didn't seem so mundane when framed against the fantastical concept. It seems like what Dick really wanted to do here was write a story about what would happen if the dead came back to life and could describe the afterlife, but had to use this insane reverse time concept to do it. Religious themes have begun to appear with greater frequency in Dick's novels lately, but he hasn't been able to successfully integrate them fully into his plotted. The quotes from medieval Christian philosophers on the nature of life, death and God that preface each chapter here attest to a gravity that Dick was reaching for but doesn't attain.

The characters are likeable, the story is interesting enough, and the whole nature of reverse time certainly gives you a lot to chew on, but it just doesn't come together like it should and the book as a whole doesn't satisfy or deliver on its premise. This is especially disappointing because the short story this was based on DID delve into a very promising time paradox that I was really interested in, but is completely ignored here. I would reluctantly recommend it based on the interesting and trippy premise alone, but come here expecting only interesting questions.

My edition: Grafton Books paperback, 1990

Up next: “The Ganymede Takeover”!　　PKD’s first collaboration!

January 12th, 2013

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Sep 06, 2011 Per Hoffmann Olsen rated it really liked it

This is not the strangest story from PKD, (you should read Lies, Inc. - now that is weird).

This story includes or rather is based on the short-story "Your appointment will be yesterday" written 1965.

Imho this is a typical PKD book, lots of tension between the characters, sporadic mentioning of drugs and sex without being explicit. And in the end you don't really know what happened, and for what reason. The journey is the reward.

The main focus is that time, as it seems, is moving backward. Cigare ...more

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Jun 01, 2012 Logan Young rated it really liked it

Very good story! Unique concept I had never before considered. Complex characters. Down to earth prose. What is not to love? I highly recommend this one. That is all I will say.

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