Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Arrow Books, (1979), Paperback
Description
Fiction. Literature. Science Fiction. HTML:"I have never seen [its] theme handled with greater technical dexterity or given more psychological meaning."�Fantasy and Science Fiction When a routine tour of a particle accelerator goes awry, Jack Hamilton and the rest of his tour group find themselves in a world ruled by Old Testament morality, where the smallest infraction can bring about a plague of locusts. Escape from that world is not the end, though, as they plunge into a Communist dystopia and a world where everything is an enemy. Philip K. Dick was aggressively individualistic and no worldview is safe from his acerbic and hilarious take downs. Eye in the Sky blends the thrills and the jokes to craft a startling morality lesson hidden inside a comedy.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member RandyStafford
My reactions to this novel upon reading it in 1989 -- with spoilers.
Like most Philip K. Dick novels, this one was weird, humorous, and sometimes horrifying.
The premise -- a Bevatron accident releasing enough energy for individual neurotic world views to be materially realized -- is absurd and quite
Dick's concern, as usual, is for the individual. Here, as in Dr. Bloodmoney, is an early black character in sf -- not, as Dick said in an interview, a saint or martyr but a real, if put upon, character with flaws, neuroses, and a need for security. McFeyffe tries to destroy Marsha (and, indirectly, Jack) Hamilton because she is a member of the "cult of individualism" unwilling to go along with communism or the status quo in toto. Hence, both sides see her as a threat. Clearly, though, she is a character Dick felt laudable and much like him.
The novel is clearly about political orders imposing, like the three neurotics' worlds, their order on reality even to the point of altering behavior of individuals and their appearance (a genuinely scary part of the book). However, the book's most vicious attack is reserved for communism. A great scene is the flaming slogans wrecking destruction on the earth after falling from the sky. Jack Hamilton refers to it as insane, prudish, and father-worshipping belief -- the worst features of the other three fantasy worlds. However, it is not as scary as Miss Reiss' paranoid world
In the last analysis, though, it is the central ideal of this book that makes it so memorable: that we may impose our neuroses on reality to the detriment of others and, like Reiss, ourselves. And, of course, the corollary, that our bodies and minds molded by others views of reality and, like Silke, we may not realize it. Dick gives us a frightening, thought-provoking metaphor for politics and society.
Like most Philip K. Dick novels, this one was weird, humorous, and sometimes horrifying.
The premise -- a Bevatron accident releasing enough energy for individual neurotic world views to be materially realized -- is absurd and quite
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compelling and fascinating. As usual in Dick's works, there is much black humor here and just plain humor: horses with trousers, magical vending machine, scientists consulting prayer wheels. And, as usual, the dialogue is real, and the characters well-done (though definately less well-developed than in latter novels -- this was the fourth novel Dick published). Dick's concern, as usual, is for the individual. Here, as in Dr. Bloodmoney, is an early black character in sf -- not, as Dick said in an interview, a saint or martyr but a real, if put upon, character with flaws, neuroses, and a need for security. McFeyffe tries to destroy Marsha (and, indirectly, Jack) Hamilton because she is a member of the "cult of individualism" unwilling to go along with communism or the status quo in toto. Hence, both sides see her as a threat. Clearly, though, she is a character Dick felt laudable and much like him.
The novel is clearly about political orders imposing, like the three neurotics' worlds, their order on reality even to the point of altering behavior of individuals and their appearance (a genuinely scary part of the book). However, the book's most vicious attack is reserved for communism. A great scene is the flaming slogans wrecking destruction on the earth after falling from the sky. Jack Hamilton refers to it as insane, prudish, and father-worshipping belief -- the worst features of the other three fantasy worlds. However, it is not as scary as Miss Reiss' paranoid world
In the last analysis, though, it is the central ideal of this book that makes it so memorable: that we may impose our neuroses on reality to the detriment of others and, like Reiss, ourselves. And, of course, the corollary, that our bodies and minds molded by others views of reality and, like Silke, we may not realize it. Dick gives us a frightening, thought-provoking metaphor for politics and society.
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LibraryThing member joeydag
Another reality distortion effect novel. Not the best but some really odd goings on in here.
LibraryThing member Jenney
Awesome story of separate realities cropping up sequentailly from the survivers of an askewd foundational astronomical equipment. Dick explores the implication of different worldviews that have become actually the one reality.
LibraryThing member jimroberts
Eye in the Sky is one of Dick's earliest science fiction novels but remains one of my favourites. It illustrates already some of Dick's recurring themes, such as deep distrust of authority and the problem of distinguishing between illusion and reality. It was first published in 1957, so Dick wrote
The book opens with a report of an accident at the Bevatron in 1959, which injured seven visitors and their guide, but Dick quickly gives a bit a back story for some introduction to the characters. Jack Hamilton is an electronics engineer who worked for a company which does missile research for the government. He has just been told that his wife, Marsha, is a security risk. According to her FBI file, based in part on information supplied by Hamilton's supposed friend McFeyffe, a security guard for the company, she has shown interest in organisations thought to be sympathetic to Communism and supported causes also supported by Communists. Among many other errors, she objected to Charlie Chaplin being barred, she contributed $48.55 to the Society for the Advancement of Colored People, she has claimed to be in favour of peace, "she still turns up when some Commie group organizes to protest a lynching in the South". (I find it surprising that apparently all that the FBI claims is true: is that realistic?) His choice was, get rid of his wife or lose his job.
Hamilton and Marsha had planned to visit the Bevatron that afternoon and they stick with that. McFeyffe decides to go too and gives them a lift. They join a group under the charge of a young negro guide: he has an advanced degree from MIT, but it's not easy for a negro to get a better position here than tourist guide. There's a bit of conversation among the group which gives some hints of the kind of people some of them are — this is relevant later. There's the elderly gentleman who is more impressed by God's hurricanes than scientific marvels, the vaguely well-meaning middle-aged woman, the precise, fussy young woman. Then the accident happens: a beam of highly energetic particles escapes from the Bevatron and slices through the supports of their observation platform and they fall through the radiation and equipment to the concrete floor below. "Conscious of the grotesque brokenness of his body, he lay in an inert heap, trying aimlessly, reflexively, to get up. And realizing at the same time, that there would be no getting up for any of them. Not for a while."
Nonetheless, Hamilton wakes up that same afternoon in a hospital bed and is not much hurt after all. His wife is even less hurt and is in the room waiting for him. They go home, but begin to suspect that something is seriously wrong, and his experiences the next day when he applies for a job with an electronics company run by a friend of his father's amply confirm his suspicions. In fact, the victims of the accident are trapped in the delusional world of the religious member of the group, the elderly gentleman Arthur Silvester, and the development of this world and their adventures in it take up more than half of the book. After some time in this world, the people begin to take on the characteristics of stereotypical members of the groups Silvester sees them as belonging too. Their escape from this world comes when Silvester is knocked unconscious during a fight between the others and some vengeful angels.
Relief at escape from illusion is short lived: they are now subject to the beliefs of the prudish middle-aged woman. Luckily she will abolish from her world anything she finds distasteful when it is pointed out to her. Since the processes of life are rather messy, she can be manoeuvred into rendering life impossible, thus killing herself and everybody else, which gets them out of that world, but into a yet worse one of paranoid fantasy, which is however also self destructive. The next illusory world is someone's communist vision of capitalist America, complete with bloated plutocrats and heroic labour leaders. The pain and struggle of the dissolution of this final fantasy merge into the pain of real life and the efforts to rescue and treat the accident victims.
After their real recovery, most of the accident victims, wiser, we hope, for their experiences, pool their talents and resources to set up a factory to make high-end sound reproduction equipment: the final, hopeful words are, "What are we waiting for? Let's get to work!"
On one level, Dick is crudely warning us of the dangers posed by extreme irrational political or religious ideologies — warnings which are as relevant today as they were during the Cold War. That covers, however, just the framing story and two of the fantasy worlds. More generally, he is urging us to consider whether our beliefs and fears are well grounded, because they too may endanger our welfare and happiness even while external influences do not.
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it during the McCarthy era of Cold War paranoia.The book opens with a report of an accident at the Bevatron in 1959, which injured seven visitors and their guide, but Dick quickly gives a bit a back story for some introduction to the characters. Jack Hamilton is an electronics engineer who worked for a company which does missile research for the government. He has just been told that his wife, Marsha, is a security risk. According to her FBI file, based in part on information supplied by Hamilton's supposed friend McFeyffe, a security guard for the company, she has shown interest in organisations thought to be sympathetic to Communism and supported causes also supported by Communists. Among many other errors, she objected to Charlie Chaplin being barred, she contributed $48.55 to the Society for the Advancement of Colored People, she has claimed to be in favour of peace, "she still turns up when some Commie group organizes to protest a lynching in the South". (I find it surprising that apparently all that the FBI claims is true: is that realistic?) His choice was, get rid of his wife or lose his job.
Hamilton and Marsha had planned to visit the Bevatron that afternoon and they stick with that. McFeyffe decides to go too and gives them a lift. They join a group under the charge of a young negro guide: he has an advanced degree from MIT, but it's not easy for a negro to get a better position here than tourist guide. There's a bit of conversation among the group which gives some hints of the kind of people some of them are — this is relevant later. There's the elderly gentleman who is more impressed by God's hurricanes than scientific marvels, the vaguely well-meaning middle-aged woman, the precise, fussy young woman. Then the accident happens: a beam of highly energetic particles escapes from the Bevatron and slices through the supports of their observation platform and they fall through the radiation and equipment to the concrete floor below. "Conscious of the grotesque brokenness of his body, he lay in an inert heap, trying aimlessly, reflexively, to get up. And realizing at the same time, that there would be no getting up for any of them. Not for a while."
Nonetheless, Hamilton wakes up that same afternoon in a hospital bed and is not much hurt after all. His wife is even less hurt and is in the room waiting for him. They go home, but begin to suspect that something is seriously wrong, and his experiences the next day when he applies for a job with an electronics company run by a friend of his father's amply confirm his suspicions. In fact, the victims of the accident are trapped in the delusional world of the religious member of the group, the elderly gentleman Arthur Silvester, and the development of this world and their adventures in it take up more than half of the book. After some time in this world, the people begin to take on the characteristics of stereotypical members of the groups Silvester sees them as belonging too. Their escape from this world comes when Silvester is knocked unconscious during a fight between the others and some vengeful angels.
Relief at escape from illusion is short lived: they are now subject to the beliefs of the prudish middle-aged woman. Luckily she will abolish from her world anything she finds distasteful when it is pointed out to her. Since the processes of life are rather messy, she can be manoeuvred into rendering life impossible, thus killing herself and everybody else, which gets them out of that world, but into a yet worse one of paranoid fantasy, which is however also self destructive. The next illusory world is someone's communist vision of capitalist America, complete with bloated plutocrats and heroic labour leaders. The pain and struggle of the dissolution of this final fantasy merge into the pain of real life and the efforts to rescue and treat the accident victims.
After their real recovery, most of the accident victims, wiser, we hope, for their experiences, pool their talents and resources to set up a factory to make high-end sound reproduction equipment: the final, hopeful words are, "What are we waiting for? Let's get to work!"
On one level, Dick is crudely warning us of the dangers posed by extreme irrational political or religious ideologies — warnings which are as relevant today as they were during the Cold War. That covers, however, just the framing story and two of the fantasy worlds. More generally, he is urging us to consider whether our beliefs and fears are well grounded, because they too may endanger our welfare and happiness even while external influences do not.
Show Less
LibraryThing member stravinsky
...and they lived happily ever after. Until they got cancer.
LibraryThing member mkfs
Not one of PKD's best.
A group of eight or so people fall through a beam or a positronic ray or something, and must live through the delusional worlds of their fellow victims before they can reach consciousness. There's some fun-poking at anti-communists and the middle class and religious
A group of eight or so people fall through a beam or a positronic ray or something, and must live through the delusional worlds of their fellow victims before they can reach consciousness. There's some fun-poking at anti-communists and the middle class and religious
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fundamentalists, but it's written more like Twilight Zone fanfic than a classic Philip K Dick mindf*ck. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1957
Physical description
256 p.; 17.7 cm
ISBN
0099207605 / 9780099207603
Local notes
Omslag: Ikke angivet
Omslaget viser et stor menneskeskabt metalkonstruktion, et fabriksanlæg med tanke, radioaktivitetsmærkning og faresymboler
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Omslaget viser et stor menneskeskabt metalkonstruktion, et fabriksanlæg med tanke, radioaktivitetsmærkning og faresymboler
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Other editions
Øjet på himlen by Philip K. Dick (Paperback)
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Pages
256
DDC/MDS
| 813.54 |