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4.0étoiles sur 5
Early PKD fights repression with humor, Jui 2 2004
This was an early attempt by Dick to infuse humor into his science-fiction novels. A minor novel by the standards of his mature work, its flashes of originality and light touches of satire more than compensate for the contrived and improbable plot elements. The novel is set in a society based on the ideology of Morec (Moral Reclamation). Morec regulates individual morality through compulsory block meetings, in which one's friends and neighbors have the opportunity to take one to task for sexual peccadilloes or other lapses from puritanical conformity. Dick based his critique of the state as moral policemen on the structure of Chinese communism. It is not difficult, however, to see the roots of satire in American society, which has a long history of repression, from the Puritans to the Moral Majority. The protagonist is a man working for the media that promotes Morec, but he finds himself unconsciously japing, making fun of, the symbols of the regime. The most interesting part of the novel is when, after he is subjected to reprogramming, he suffers a breakdown in which his entire reality disappears. This episode prefigures themes that will become central in later Dick novels such as Ubik and Valis.
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4.0étoiles sur 5
an early Philip K. Dick short novel; both funny and clever, Juil 8 2003
Philip K. Dick novels are an acquired taste, and I'm not sure if I've reached the point of fully appreciating the man's talents. While never boring, it seems that he only lets 80% of the material to be logical and leaves the rest to the reader's interpretation/imagination. This is sometimes fun, but often frustrating.'The Man Who Japed' is no different. Philip K. Dick paints a rather ugly picture of the USA some 100+ years in the future (after some nuclear holocaust). The moral majority has run amuck, the Earth is pretty much trashed, and life is miserable for our leading character (an ad executive). Sprinkle in some space travel and some mind-altering nonsense, typical of Philip K. Dick novels, and you have a rather fun if somewhat bewildering story. The author's blasting of the moral majority alone is well worth the price of the book; it must have been a shock when it was first published (mid-1950s). Bottom line: a worthy read, especially for fans of the author.
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5.0étoiles sur 5
A Minor Work, But Logical And Coherent, Jui 4 2003
This book is very short, and it is quite straightforward for PKD. As this is one of his earlier works, I was expecting an extremely outdated view of the future, but surprisingly, PKD kept the details of the mechanisms vague enough that there were no glaring 'futurisms', such as those that jammed the first chapter of "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch". Simply stating that they took a ship between planets rather than inventing the Amazing Steam-Powered Punch-Card Engine helped the book a lot.
Despite the fact that this book came before PKD really started to 'write outside the box', I was expecting the traditional PKD chestnuts- the nature of reality, psychotherapy, bleak futures, evil robots, etc.- to be mostly overlooked. Happily, he managed to investigate most of his favorite topics without tripping over himself or screwing up the plot, as he did in "The Simulacra". The plot flowed straight and true, and although one part seemed a little forced, it didn't detract from the book- it was simply a wee bit off.
If you are new to PKD, you should give this book a try, but don't expect any cosmic insights, just a good book. You might also try "Time Out Of Joint". If you are familiar with PKD, you should read this as his inventive take on the good old distopian novel. It is also proof that though the man wrote a lot of mind-bending novels, he could also get a point about individuals in a distopian system across perfectly clearly.
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