The Simulacra

by Philip K. Dick

Paperback, 1964

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Publication

NY Ace Books 1964. (1964), Paperback

Description

Set in the middle of the twenty-first century, "Simulacra" is the story of an America where the whole government is a fraud and the President is an android. Against this backdrop Dr. Superb, the sole remaining psychotherapist, is struggling to practice in a world full of the maladjusted. Ian Duncan is desperately in love with the first lady, Nicole Thibideaux, who he has never met. Richard Kongrossian refuses to see anyone because he is convinced his body odor is lethal. And the fascistic Bertold Goltz is trying to overthrow the government. With wonderful aplomb, Philip K. Dick brings this story to a crashing conclusion and in classic fashion shows there is always another layer of conspiracy beneath the one we see.

User reviews

LibraryThing member RandyStafford
My reactions to this novel upon reading it in 1989 -- spoilers follow.

The worst Philip K. Dick novel I’ve read to date. It was obvious what Dick was trying to do. His main inspiration, I’ll wager, was William Manchester’s The Arms of Krupp (or, if not that specific book, the same historical
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topic). The book is inspired by the Nazi political structure, its various battling factions, and its industrialist underpinnings. Dick also speculated on the nature of media and psychology in American politics. The Magna Mater and simulacra are clearly themes derived from Dick’s earlier work, We Can Build You.

But Dick produces a wandering plot with a real conflict introduced only about half way through the story and one of Dick’s notoriously ambivalent endings; this one is very reminiscent of Dick’s The Penultimate Truth. Surprisingly enough, Dick doesn’t even produce any memorable characters and few memorable scenes (the best and funniest one involving talking, alive, insect-like commercials). Nicole Thibodeux is little more than a straw figure and not fleshed out. Walter Penbroke is little more than a conniving, manipulative, Gestapo-like figure. Maury Frauenzimmer (A character with an almost identical name and business appears in We Can Build You.) and the other characters seem to be little more than collection of neuroses with the people from Electronic Music Enterprises being particularly superfluous (Molly Dondolo and Julie not even being fully realized versions of Dick’s rapacious women).

Dick’s society and political machinations are absurd. The idea of the President becoming a straw figure and the First Lady becoming a media image and Fuhrer image was interesting. But Dick completely mishandled it with a hodgepodge plot -- Goltz’s secret coven of leaders, the constant use of time travel equipment, and the development of the peculiar political system is very unbelievable. In the hands of, say, Norman Spinrad it would have been much better done.
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LibraryThing member Luisali
As in many Dick's novels, there are lots of ideas introduced but most of them fizzled away. In The Simulacra there is material for another book at least. Dick stated that this book was derived from Balzac, but I don't find here nor the unity of theme nor the cohesive plot typical of the French
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author.
I still can't understand - after a second reading - the sense of Goering supblot. Who decided the abduction (the Ag carte or the Police)? Is the help to Third Reich a hint to the conflict with the Russians (the Cuban missile crisis happened few moths before the writing of "Novelty Act") ?
Anyway, I like "The Simulacra" more than "The Man in the High Castle". There are many interesting hints - from the identification between the power with the "Bad Mother", to the role of artist in the mass society - and a lot of glimpses of a dystopian future: the "relpol" tests, the mini-state condominiums, the omnipresence of TV.
The end reminded me the Ubik's one, is turning the tables in an unexpected way. "The Simulacra" is a nice reading with food for though, too much maybe.
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LibraryThing member Castlelass
Classic science fiction published in 1964 in which the government has a simulacrum as a figurehead. It tells a story of maintaining control through sustaining the status quo and limiting access to information. It is quite forward-thinking for its time of publication, anticipating the equivalent of
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video chat, increased roles for women, environmental degradation, self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, and machines that are mixtures of the biological and the mechanical.

This book in particular explores the idea that the status quo will be maintained until it falls into complete disorganization. The author applies scientific principles to social systems and plays with them in interesting ways. It also anticipates a social stratification based on access to information. The “Bes” are basically at the lowest access level. They only get carefully edited information based on officially approved broadcasts. The “Ges” are the highest level. They know precisely what is going on and they engage in power plays with each other to gain ultimate control over the government. Speaking of government, this future world has the United States of Europe and America (USEA), where Germany and other European countries have joined the US as a single conglomerate.

It includes an ability for people to escape the earth and live on Mars next to a family of simulacra neighbors, the capability of teleporting people from the past, laws outlawing the practices of mental health therapists, and a colony of modern Neanderthals living in the Pacific Northwest. It feels a bit fragmented at first, but once the puzzle pieces come together, it is quite compelling. I always find Philip K. Dick’s works creative and thought-provoking.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1964
1963-08-28 (manuscript)

Physical description

192 p.; 17.5 cm

Local notes

Omslag: Ikke angivet
Omslaget er en collage af et hoved med ledninger sat fast med skruer, et par unge kvinder og en paddehattesky
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi

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Pages

192

Rating

½ (227 ratings; 3.6)

DDC/MDS

813.54
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