Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts

Sunday, March 1, 2009

The Crack in Space: PKD on Race and Politics




























Given the events of the past six months (market crash, presidential election) I thought it would be appropriate to reread PKD's 1966 novel The Crack in Space. Currently, no other PKD novel better captures the current times; a horrible economy, an unpopular outgoing President, and the election of the first Black President. All of this and more in Dick's underrated Crack. 

From the Ace 2nd Edition blurb: 

"Every crisis that had been building through the 20th century came to a head in the year 2080. And it was an election year.

There were tens on millions of people in deep-freeze waiting for better times--and the pressure was on to wake them up or throw them away. Unemployment had reached an all-time high -- and the people were demanding jobs.

The jiffi-scuttlers which made space travel possible were breaking down and someone had to find out why fast.

The racial problem had become dangerous -- and one of the candidates for President was Black.

But most important of all, scientists had broken into another dimension and found another world -- and a long forgotten ancestral race."

Aside from a few minor details PKD seems to have predicted the future quite admirably. However, Ace probably probably made a printing error and it should have read 2008 rather than 2080. Either way, this is one of PKD's better efforts.


Sunday, May 18, 2008

PKD and Politics: The Simulacra















In The Simulacra, PKD takes on politics. The setting is the future political entity of The United States of Europe and America (USEA). In this future, the true leader is not the President, but the First Lady. Of course, she's a robot (or as PKD would have it, a simulacra). Every four years, the people of the USEA vote in a new husband for her, who becomes the President.

The Simulacra, once again, displays PKD's preternatural gift for describing the future accurately, especially the effect of television on the powers that be. However, in The Simulacra, the people can literally somewhat control what politicians will do or say by turning the knobs on their television sets. If enough of the people press certain buttons on their TVs then the politician will do what they command. 

The Simulacra is a wonderful metaphor for what is actually going on these days, and a nice prism through which to look at the current political situation.