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==Author's interpretation== |
==Author's interpretation== |
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In his |
In his undelivered speech "How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later",<ref name="deoxy1">{{cite web | url = http://deoxy.org/pkd_how2build.htm | title = How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later | first = Philip K. | last = Dick | year=1978}}</ref> Dick recounts how in describing an incident at the end of the book (end of chapter 27) to an Episcopalian priest, the priest noted its striking similarity to a scene in the [[Acts of the Apostles|Books of Acts]] in the Bible. In Dick's book, the police chief, Felix Buckman, meets a black stranger at an all-night gas station, with whom he uncharacteristically makes an emotional connection. After handing the stranger a drawing of a heart pierced by an arrow, Buckman flies away, but he quickly returns and hugs the stranger, after which they strike up a friendly conversation. In the Book of Acts (chapter 8), the disciple Philip meets an [[Ethiopian eunuch]] (i.e. a black man) sitting in a chariot to whom he explains a passage from the [[Book of Isaiah]], and then converts him to Christianity. |
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Dick further notes that |
Dick further notes that several years after the book's publication, he himself uncharacteristically came to the aid of a black stranger who had run out of gas. After giving the man some money and then driving away, he returned to help the man reach a gas station. Dick was then struck by the similarity between this incident and that described in his book (approaching a black stranger, and returning again). |
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==Adaptations== |
==Adaptations== |
Revision as of 04:38, 25 July 2012
![]() Cover of first edition (hardcover) | |
Author | Philip K. Dick |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Science fiction novel |
Publisher | Doubleday |
Publication date | 1974 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
Pages | 231 pp |
ISBN | 0-7838-9583-6 |
OCLC | 47650715 |
Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said is a 1974 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick about a genetically enhanced pop singer and television star who loses his identity overnight. The story is set in a futuristic dystopia, where America has become a police state after a Second Civil War. The novel was awarded first prize in the John W. Campbell Awards for the best science fiction novel of the year in 1975.[1][2] It was also nominated for a Nebula Award in 1974[3] and a Hugo Award in 1975.[2]
Plot summary
The novel is set in a dystopian future United States which is entering a post-totalitarian era with prospects of future democratic reform. Set in a then-future 1988, it extrapolates events from the late sixties and early seventies. These culminated in a "Second Civil War", also called the "Insurrection", which led to the collapse of democratic institutions in the United States and elsewhere. The National Guard ("nats") and US police force ("pols") re-established social order through instituting a dictatorship, with a "Director" at the apex, and police marshals and generals as operational commanders in the field. Compulsory sterilization of African Americans has sharply reduced their population, which continues to decrease with the introduction of racial laws forbidding African American couples from having more than one child; their protection in law however has increased to the point where even verbally harassing someone of colour is considered to be a major crime. Resistance to the regime appears to be confined to university campuses where radicalised former university students eke out a desperate existence in subterranean kibbutz communes. However in some ways the authorities are more socially liberal than contemporary US government: recreational drug use is widespread and the age of consent for sexual intercourse has been lowered to twelve. Technology has made steady advances and most commuting is undertaken by personal aircraft allowing great distances to be covered in little time.
The novel begins with the protagonist, Jason Taverner, a singer, hosting his weekly TV show which has an audience of 30 million viewers. His special guest for that episode is his girlfriend Heather Hart, herself also a celebrity singer. Both Hart and Taverner are "Sixes", a highly rated stratum of covert genetic engineering of humans that apparently began in the 1940s (although why this occurred and who instigated the process is left unclear). Taverner is therefore introduced to us as a man of great wealth and fame.
On leaving the show he is telephoned by a former lover (his relationship with Hart not being monogamous), who begs him to visit her. On doing so the former lover attacks him by throwing a Callisto-based parasitic life-form at him. Although he manages to remove most of the life-form, parts of it are left inside him and having been rescued by Hart (who had clandestinely followed him) he is taken to a medical facility.
The second chapter begins with Taverner regaining consciousness a day later, not in a hospital as he had expected but in a seedy hotel room. He is still dressed in the expensive silk-suit he was wearing on his show and has a large amount of cash on him, but is completely lacking any form of identification. Failure to produce identification at one of the numerous police check-points would lead to imprisonment in a forced labour camp, so this development is a serious concern. Through a succession of phone calls made from the hotel to colleagues and friends who now claim not to know him, he establishes that the persona he believes himself to be is no longer recognised by the outside world. He has instantaneously gone from a TV idol to anonymity. How he came to be in this situation is not known to either Taverner or the reader, and the solving of this mystery is the driving force of the novel's plot.
Bribing the hotel lobby clerk he is taken to a document forger, Kathy Nelson, who provides Taverner with a new set of forged identity papers. Kathy however reveals that both she and the lobby clerk are police informants and that the lobby clerk has placed a microscopic tracking device on him; however she promises not to turn Taverner in providing he spends the night with her. Although he attempts to escape from this bargain, she finds him again after he has successfully passed a police check-point using the forged identity cards. Feeling in her debt he accompanies Kathy to her apartment block, where unknown to them, Inspector McNulty, Kathy's police handler is waiting. McNulty has located Taverner using the tracking device the hotel lobby clerk has placed on him, and instructs Taverner to come with him to the 469th Precinct police station so that further biometric identity checks can be performed. However there McNulty erroneously searches the databases for a Jason Tavern, rather than a Jason Taverner. This search on Jason Tavern reveals the identity of a diesel engine mechanic in Wyoming, which Taverner falsely claims as his own identify, explaining that he no longer resembles the man due to plastic surgery. McNulty accepts this explanation and decides to release Taverner whilst lab checks are run on the rest of the ID; he issues him with a police pass to ensure Taverner can pass police check-points in the interim period.
Taverner on leaving the station, not wishing to return to Kathy, decides that he should lay-low for some time. He heads to a bar in the expectation of meeting a woman who he can seduce and resultantly stay at her apartment. At the Nellie Melba Room of the Drake's Arms he meets a former lover, Ruth Gomen; although she no longer recognises him, he succeeds in his bid to seduce her and is taken back to her apartment.
Meanwhile at the Los Angeles Police Academy McNulty's superior, Police General Felix Buckman, has whilst working late and passing McNulty's empty desk decided to examine his open case-files. He is intrigued by McNulty's discovery that Jason Taverner's details are not on any central data bank - a situation that theoretically could not happen. Buckman after talking to McNulty believes the case to be more important than McNulty had considered (partially because Taverner is a "Six"), and orders Taverner to be immediately brought in for further questioning. As Taverner only remembers to remove the tracking device at Ruth Gomen's flat, he is subsequently found there by the Las Vegas police, arrested and transported to Buckman.
Buckman personally interrogates Taverner and reaches the conclusion that Taverner does not know why he no longer appears to exist on any central data bank. However he has a hunch that Taverner may be part of a larger plot involving the Sixes. He therefore pardons his offence of using fake ID and releases him - although he ensures tracking devices are again placed on him so that the authorities can continually monitor him.
On leaving police custody Taverner is approached by the hypersexual sister of Police General Buckman: Alys. Alys is a heavy recreational drug user, a fetishist, displays counter-establishment attitudes and has a love–hate relationship with her brother. However despite this she is having an incestuous relationship with her brother and they have a secret son born of their union, Barney. Alys removes the tracking devices from Taverner and invites him to the home she shares with the Police General. On the way there she reveals that she knows Taverner is a TV star and produces some of his records to prove it. This is the first occasion since Taverner woke in the hotel room that he has been recognised as a celebrity.
On arrival at the shared home of Alys and her brother, Taverner takes Alys up on an offer of mescaline. He however has a bad reaction to it and Alys goes to find him a drug to counter it. After Alys does not return, Taverner goes to search for her - only to find her skeletal remains in the bathroom. Frightened and confused he flees - unsuccessfully pursued by a private security guard Buckman employs, who has also found the body.
To aid his escape he convinces a local resident Mary Anne Dominic, a potter, to let him use her transport. Having gotten away from the Police General's home he realises he has scared Dominic and takes her to a cafe. Here he talks about her inhibitions and he attempts to convince her to live her life in a bolder fashion. However while at the cafe they find his records are on the jukebox and slowly people start to recognise him as a celebrity. After a joyful parting with Dominic he goes to the apartment belonging to his celebrity girlfriend, Heather Hart, where he is recognised. His persona as a TV star has returned.
A police post-mortem examination of the body of Alys Buckman reveals the cause of her death (and advanced aging) to be the ingestion of an experimental drug called KR-3, a new reality warping drug secretly being developed in police labs and tested on forced-labor inmates. The coroner explains to Police General Buckman that as Alys was a fan of Taverner the reality-warping nature of the drug had caused Taverner to be transported to a parallel universe (although that term is not used) where he no longer existed. Her death, caused by the effects of the drug, then caused his reversion back to his own universe. The Police General suspects that Alys took the drug voluntarily having stolen it from his place of work.
Worried about the career consequences of the discovery that he was having a sexual relationship with his sister, the Police General decides to implicate Taverner in Alys' death to distract attention from his incest. The press are informed that Taverner is a suspect in the case and wishing to clear his name, Taverner surrenders himself to the police. Heartbroken over the death of his sister and lover, the Police General leaves the LA Police Academy and returns home; suffering from a nervous breakdown as he does so.
In an epilogue, the final fates of the characters are disclosed. Police General Felix Buckman retires to Borneo where he is assassinated for writing an exposé of the global police apparatus. His son Barney becomes a police officer as well, but is invalided out of the service, and becomes an antiques collector. Jason Taverner is cleared of all charges and dies of old age after a lifetime of hedonism, while Heather Hart abandons her celebrity career, and becomes a recluse. Mary Anne Dominic's pottery wins an international award and her works become of great value while she lives into her eighties. KR-3 test trials continued in secret for a few years but are deemed too destructive and the project is scrapped. Ultimately, the revolutionary students give up and voluntarily enter forced-labor camps. The detention camps later dwindle away and close down, the police-state government no longer poses a threat, and police marshals are abolished in 2136 CE.
The themes of celebrity, genetic enhancement, altered reality and drugs are interwoven with discussion of the value of love and the meaning of identity.
Reception
New York Times reviewer Gerald Jonas praised the novel, saying that "Dick skillfully explores the psychological ramifications of this nightmare," but concludes that the story's concluding unconvincing rationalization of its events is "an artistic miscalculation [and] a major flaw in an otherwise superb novel."[4]
Title
The title is a reference to Flow my tears, a piece by the 16th century composer John Dowland, setting to music a poem by an anonymous author (possibly Dowland himself). The poem begins:
- Flow, my tears, fall from your springs,
- Exiled for ever, let me mourn
- Where night's black bird her sad infamy sings,
- There let me live forlorn.
Author's interpretation
In his undelivered speech "How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later",[5] Dick recounts how in describing an incident at the end of the book (end of chapter 27) to an Episcopalian priest, the priest noted its striking similarity to a scene in the Books of Acts in the Bible. In Dick's book, the police chief, Felix Buckman, meets a black stranger at an all-night gas station, with whom he uncharacteristically makes an emotional connection. After handing the stranger a drawing of a heart pierced by an arrow, Buckman flies away, but he quickly returns and hugs the stranger, after which they strike up a friendly conversation. In the Book of Acts (chapter 8), the disciple Philip meets an Ethiopian eunuch (i.e. a black man) sitting in a chariot to whom he explains a passage from the Book of Isaiah, and then converts him to Christianity.
Dick further notes that several years after the book's publication, he himself uncharacteristically came to the aid of a black stranger who had run out of gas. After giving the man some money and then driving away, he returned to help the man reach a gas station. Dick was then struck by the similarity between this incident and that described in his book (approaching a black stranger, and returning again).
Adaptations
Stage
Mabou Mines presented the world premiere of a theatrical adaptation of Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said at the Boston Shakespeare Theatre from June 18–30, 1985. The play received mixed reviews and a lot of attention from the Boston media. Linda Hartinian, a personal friend of Dick's, adapted the novel to the stage and designed the set (she also played Mary Ann Dominic, and read Dick's 1981 "Tagore Letter" at the end of the play).
The Boston Phoenix quotes Hartinian on the subject in an interview before the play opened: "He was someone I admired and looked up to, and I knew he had always wanted one of his works to be adapted. One day when I came to visit him he jumped up and grabbed this manuscript and said 'I want to give you something, but I don't have anything, so I'm going to give you this manuscript, and someday its gonna be worth a lot of money.'" The Phoenix continues, "It was a draft of Flow My Tears, and as Hartinian discovered when she sat down to adapt the book, it contained many passages that had been cut from the published text, including a discussion of ways to remember deceased writers that was to prove prescient. Naturally Hartinian based her script on her private edition."
The play was directed by Bill Raymond, Hartinian's husband. "It was in response to Linda's loss that we chose Tears," he told the Phoenix, "because Flow My Tears is in fact a novel about grief, and not necessarily just about loss of identity."
The play has been performed by Mabou Mines in Boston and New York, and by the Prop Theatre in Chicago, and the Evidence Room in Los Angeles. The Evidence Room production received positive reviews including one from the Los Angeles Times which stated that "the piece is vintage Dick, fluctuating between the inventive and the paranoiac."[6]
Film
On February 1, 2004, Variety announced that Utopia Pictures & Television had acquired the rights to produce three of Philip K. Dick's works: Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, VALIS and Radio Free Albemuth.[7]
In May 2009, The Halcyon Company, known for developing the Terminator franchise, announced that after Terminator Salvation, they will next adapt Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.[8] Halcyon acquired the first-look rights to the works of Philip K. Dick in 2007.
References
- ^ "Philip K. Dick, Won Awards For Science-Fiction Works". The New York Times. March 3, 1982. Retrieved March 30, 2010.
Mr. Dick, author of 35 novels and 6 collections of short stories, received the Hugo Award in 1963 for The Man in the High Castle and, in 1974, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.
- ^ a b "1975 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-09-27.
- ^ "1974 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-09-27.
- ^ "Of Things to Come," New York Times Book Review, July 20, 1975
- ^ Dick, Philip K. (1978). "How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later".
- ^ Foley, Kathleen (22 April 1999). "'Flow My Tears' Has Hallucinatory Style". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
- ^ Harris, Dana (2004-02-01). "Utopia picks Dick works". Variety. Retrieved 2006-08-14.
- ^ Philip K. Dick's 'Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said' Being Adapted Alex Billington, FirstShowing.net, 12 May 2009
Publication information
- Philip K. Dick, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, ISBN 0-679-74066-X
External links
- Summary at official PKD website
- Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said cover art gallery
- Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said reviewed at The Open Critic
- Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said reviewed at The SF Site
- Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said at Worlds Without End