A Reading Recommendation: Philip K Dick's Ubik

a novel working through some compelling themes, philosophical and otherwise

This may strike some readers as a strange book for me to recommend, but I have several reasons for suggesting that at least some might find Philip K Dick’s science fiction novel Ubik of some interest and value. As it so happens, I reread it for what is perhaps my seventh or eighth time just this week, because I intend to start producing a series of Speculative Fiction Studies videos on the work later on this week (which will start being released later on this month)).

I’ve been a fan of Dick’s work for several decades now, and think I’ve read all of his novels and short stories at least once at this point. Ubik isn’t my absolute favorite of his novels (at present, that would be A Scanner Darkly, which supplanted an earlier favorite The Man In The High Castle). But if you asked me about my five favorite Dick novels, Ubik would certainly be in that group. It’s quite an excellent story.

Like many of Dick’s stories, it takes place in a future (relative to Dick) somewhat advanced in terms of technological, social, and cultural developments, which happens to be in our past, in 1992. Members of humanity has developed psionic talents such as telepathy, psychokinesis, and precognition, and these are put to use in business and commercial settings, leading to the deployment of “counter-talents”, “inertials” who can dampen or cancel those talents.

The main character, Joe Chip, is a tester by trade, who can ascertain and evaluate talents and anti-talents, and he works for one of the main "prudence organizations", Runciter Associates, headed by the aged but dynamic Glen Runciter. He is called upon to evaluate a young women of significant and new talent, Pat Conley, whose parents work for a rival firm, headed by Ray Hollis.

Humankind has by this point (science fiction is often optimistic about how quickly we advance) colonized the moon and started to do so with the planets of the solar system. They also have developed something like the “internet of things” taking form in our own present, understood not so much in terms of networks but rather artificially intelligent “homeostatic machines”. They often talk back to and cast judgements upon human beings, often within the framework of payment that they demand for their services. (The always broke Joe finds himself stuck in his apartment, since the door demands a nickel before it will open for him!)

There’s another form of technology that assumes a much greater role within the setting, themes, and plots of the novel, “cold-pac”, which allows people who die to continue on in a “second life”, in which they lie dreaming (and communicating with those housed near them) as they slowly wind down. They can be resuscitated in a manner of speaking so that they can interact through voice communication with the living. That possibility will turn out to be quite important, for instance as Glen Runciter consults with his long-dead wife Ella periodically for her take on running the firm.

I won’t give away the plot or engage in any spoilers at this point, so there’s a lot I can’t tell you about the book. Suffice it to say that it is a combination of mystery, science fiction, and fantasy with Dick combining these masterfully in a story that unfolds quickly.

Dick famously defended the style of an earlier, very influential golden-age science fiction pulp writer, A.E. Van Vogt, against what might seem like rather damning criticism issued against him by Damon Knight, who accused Van Vogt of writing stories that failed on a number of counts, one of which was that they followed a “dream consistency which affects readers powerfully”, so that they lacked “ordinary consistency”, and lapsed into illogicallities. Dick countered that:

[R]eality really is a mess, and yet it's exciting. The basic thing is, how frightened are you of chaos? And how happy are you with order? Van Vogt influenced me so much because he made me appreciate a mysterious chaotic quality in the universe which is not to be feared.

That “chaotic quality” is deeply embedded in Ubik, where among other things, a spray can contains a mysterious (perhaps even divine) substance that can restore reality to people and things, and which is advertised at the beginning of each chapter. And yet, Dick’s stories, while participating in that quality, are tighter, more connected than those of Van Vogt, including this one.

I will say that if you have read other Dick novels, you will see some common themes between this one and several others, perhaps most closely connected with A Maze Of Death. A variety of closely interconnected epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical themes run throughout Dick’s works, and I’ll end this here by saying that if you are someone who enjoys studying philosophy, and you also enjoy narrative, there’s a good chance you will particularly enjoy this book.