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November 11, 2005
Our Friends from Frolix 8
Philip K. Dick published Our Friends from Frolix 8 in 1970. A couple of hundred years in our future, the struggle for power pits humans with giant brains against humans with psychic powers. They split the spoils in a sort of two-party system that leaves most of earth's 6 billion people, those who haven't evolved, out in the cold, in danger of getting locked up for crimes like drinking a beer, jaywalking, or reading subversive material.
One man has left on a spaceship to find alien help, which he eventually does. Yet the real story revolves around the shambling interpersonal failures, and in particular the doomed relationships of a regular guy named Nick, a tire regroover by trade who gets mixed up almost by accident in the drama of the world being more or less rescued.
Not PKD's best, but more mildly Kafkaesque commentary and an odd look at what it's like to be human. The loser's story is always as interesting as the winner's, and even most of the winners are losers.
Posted by Mark at November 11, 2005 04:49 PM
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