Martian Time-Slip

by Philip K. Dick

Paperback, 1964

Status

Available

Call number

PS3554.I3 M28

Genres

Science Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

Ballantine Books (New York, 1964). 1st edition, 1st printing. 220 pages. $0.50.

Description

"The writing is humorous, painful, awesome in its effect on both mind and heart...There are few modern novels to match it." --Rolling StoneOn an arid Mars, local bigwigs compete with Earth-bound interlopers to buy up land before the Un develops it and its value skyrockets. Martian Union leader Arnie Kott has an ace up his sleeve, though: an autistic boy named Manfred who seems to have the ability to see the future. In the hopes of gaining an advantage on a Martian real estate deal, powerful people force Manfred to send them into the future, where they can learn about development plans. But is Manfred sending them to the real future or one colored by his own dark and paranoid filter? As the time travelers are drawn into Manfred's dark worldview in both the future and present, the cost of doing business may drive them all insane.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member figre

I go into a Philip K. Dick expecting to have my mind twisted. Accordingly, I was disappointed as I started this novel. It read like a well-crafted, standard science fiction story set on Mars. Was it too early in his career? Was he still cutting his teeth and writing straight science fiction? Well,

1964 was slightly early in his career, but it was after The Cosmic Puppets. But I set this all aside and continued reading because it was good reading, if a little formulaic. Various characters were established (the housewife on Mars, the mechanic, the autistic child, the union boss) and their stories began intertwining nicely.

Then an interesting thing happened. I didn’t get back to the book for about week. No other reading, I just didn’t get any reading done for a week. I picked up where I left off, and had to check if I had the same book. I happened to pause just as Dick was about to spin the story on its head. It was Dick at his best, making me begin to wonder what was real (in his universe) and what I should believe. This is what Dick does so well – make you wonder if what he already told you is the truth, or what he is telling you now. And then there was the other fascinating level to the book wherein the main protagonist has battled and (apparently) won against schizophrenia – a disease that Dick was diagnosed (or mis-diagnosed – depending on what you read) as having. This is brought into the plot early and, recognizing Dick’s history, I was fascinated to see how he handled it. Then, as I have already mentioned, he turns the story on its head. And, as he always does, he made that alternate reality believable. Maybe, in this case, it was because he was writing (somewhat) about himself – but there appears to be a lot of himself in this book.

I think the one thing that amazes me most about Dick’s writing is that, in spite of the strange directions they take, he is still true enough to the content for me to feel content with the resolutions. The same is true for this story. It is a conclusion that makes sense to the content of the tale. And, once again, it is Dick forcing us to see things through a slightly skewed lens – one that doesn’t appear to be reality, but portrays it nonetheless

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LibraryThing member ChrisRiesbeck

The Mars in Martian Time-Slip doesn't require spacesuits. The air is thick enough for helicopters, water, while scarce, flows through ditches. You can have a radio conversation with someone on Earth without a noticeable delay. This is not real Mars. Like Ray Bradbury's Mars, this is the California

desert with red dust -- or probably more accurately, the Australian outback, with aborigines. This is not a real future. This is the 1960's, with that era's attitudes towards social roles, foreigners, autism, and schizophrenia, that are almost as foreign now as the Red Planet. As is typical for Dick, he is both participant to and observer of these attitudes. The concerns of the novel are inter- and intra-personal more than SFnal. This novel has one of Dick's richer cast of characters, including a more sympathetic portrayal of women than was typical for the time period. Dick's trademark warping of reality is held in abeyance for about half the book, but eventually arrives, including one disorienting set of chapters worthy of Chiang's The Story of Your Life. Highly recommended.

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LibraryThing member jnwelch

Martian Time-Slip delves into schizophrenia and autism and oppression of natives in the context of Earth people colonizing Mars. The corruption of a local union leader and corporations back on Earth affect the lives of settlers just trying to find a way to economically survive on Mars, and the

native "Bleekmen" who resemble Australian aborigines. The settlers try to get by either through skills such as the ability to repair malfunctioning machines, or trafficking in black market luxury goods like decent coffee, whiskey and food.

It may be that Mars is somehow increasing the incidence of schizophrenia and autism. Honest and elite repairman Jack Bohlen is struggling with his own schizophrenic episodes while trying to make his family's lives as normal as possible. "Anomalous" autistic boy Manfred may be able to see the future and even travel in time, making him of great interest to powerful Arnie Kott. Jack hopes to help Manfred escape his dark visions, but is at risk of being pulled under by the swimmer he's trying to save.

I wouldn't recommend this one as a starter PKD, but it's another entertaining thought-provoker that confirms this author's brilliance and staying power. Four stars.

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LibraryThing member baswood

Published in 1964 Martian Time Slip is one of the many Philip K Dick novels in the masterwork series and I find Dick at the top of his game with this one.
It is set on the planet Mars, which has been colonised for some years, however despite the advertising life is tough. Water is strictly rationed,

colonists cannot be self sufficient and so rely on expensive imports from earth. The earlier enthusiasm for a new life on a new planet is faltering despite issues of overcrowding on earth. Jack Bohlen is a repair man flying around the desolate planet patching up faltering machinery. Arnie Knott has become a powerful man in the colony and lures Jack to work for him. Jack has suffered from schizophrenia in the past and contact with a neighbours ten year old son who is currently totally uncomunicative is drawing Jack back to another bout of illness. Mars has an indigenous population (Bleekmen) something like the aborigines in Australia and the colonists confine them to the desert, however they have a latent power and can communicate with those children whose mental illness is severe in nature. There is a rumour that important mineral deposits have been discovered in the desert and speculators from earth are arriving to buy up the land. Arnie Knott believes that he can make use of the Bleekmen and the schizophrenics to beat the speculators to the land grab.

The time slip in the title of the book refers to the idea that the schizophrenics live outside of time and may have the power, when harnessed with the Bleekmen to slip backwards in time. Philip K Dick slowly reveals this narrative as he concentrates on setting out the lives of a few of the inhabitants. I enjoyed his portrayal of most of the characters especially Arnie Knott and Jack Bohlen, however it was his experiments with the narrative drive that was most eye catching. He repeats certain scenes from different points of view as though there has been a slippage of time not quite flashbacks but interruptions in the linear narrative. They are not intrusive and easy enough to follow when the reader understands what is happening. Three major themes emerge; the ravages of time on people and buildings, the colonists failure to understand or adapt to their environment and the treatment of people with severe mental illnesses.

The world building of the earlier chapters is effective enough and the characters that populate the book are believable. There is the mystery of the Bleekmen and the machinations of Arnie Knott leading to the narrative climax, this was more than enough to keep me reading as well as some interesting comments on education, loneliness and the sex lives of people living in harsh conditions. 4 stars.

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LibraryThing member questbird

An interesting view of Mars as a colony of broken-down people in a remote and desolate environment. There are petty colonial powerbrokers, black marketeers and the Bleekmen, native Martians who are despised by the settlers for their primitiveness and hopelessness in the face of colonisation. They

reminded me of Australian aborigines. The book examines schizophrenia and autism in its protaganists, and the focus is the psychology of the characters rather than a hard-science fictional imagining of how people would live on Mars. (Apart from the lack of water and the remoteness from earth, the colony could really be any desert world.) I enjoyed this book almost as much as the Man in the High Castle.

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LibraryThing member eenerd

A roller coaster ride of a narrative, and Dick doesn't shy away from mixing up points of view. What really knocked me out was his use of inner monologue. Oh and yeah the story was a page turner (though at times showed its age, but not annoyingly so)...so all in all a great story told in a complex

way.

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LibraryThing member ragwaine

Cool, shizo stuff but kind of boring and dated, simillar but not as good as 'Sirens of Titan'

LibraryThing member sharonlflynn

I didn't enjoy this as much as other Philip K. Dick books. I didn't find it as clever.
The story is set in the future, when mankind has colonised Mars. A number of people have moved there and a social and political society has grown. But the expected investment of time, money and interest from Earth

has not happened, and the migrants feel abandoned by home.
The book is not a commentary on society, but rather on its treatment of those who are different, focusing on an autistic child.
One aspect I did like was the view of education in the future. Teachers have been replaced by machines, each machine with its own personality and teaching style. I found the descriptions of the teaching machines very amusing. "Its advantage over a human teacher lay in its capacity to deal with each child individually. It tutored, rather than merely teaching."
Ultimately, I found the book unsatisfying. The reader is left unsure of what is real and what is not. Which version is being imagined? Maybe that's the whole point.

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LibraryThing member helver

This is a story about a boy named Manfred and his struggles to find a place as a schizophrenic in a harsh and mostly cobbled-together pioneer civilization on Mars. Along the way we meet a cured schitzophrenic repairman - his lonely wife, a minor robber baron, his ex-wife, his current mistress and a

psychiatrist with delusions of grandeur. Even though Manfred only speaks one or two intelligible words during the entire story, at the end of the book we find out that this is definitely about him, in classic mind-fuck style.

The book deals heavily with schizophrenia, autism and society's ability (or inability) to include those people in constructive roles in society. One of the major precepts of the book is that schizophrenics may actually live in an alternate time stream and so may be able to move back and forth in time.

The book took a little while to pick up steam, but when it finally got moving, the implications of a schizophrenic being able to move through time start being felt. And the implications have teeth.

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LibraryThing member RandyStafford

Some of my reactions upon reading this book in 1989 -- spoilers follow.

One of Dick's best. The scenes of the world through schizophrenic eyes were the best; they were powerful, eerie, frightening, and creepy. Manfred Steiner's entropic view of life was scary, compelling and a very original view of

madness.

The novel leaves several questions unanswered or only vague suggestions of answers. Is the setting the schizophrenic world of someone? As with so many Dick novels, it is hard to say what, if any, perception is "correct".

However, I'm not sure Dick intended in this work to give any firm answers as to what is madness and reality. I did like Dick's ruminations. The one flaw of the novel is Dick's premise that Manfred Steiner experiences time at a different rate. Dick seems to confuse two people perceiving the same events at different rates of time resolution with one person jumping ahead to perceive events in the future. Dick's flawed sf premise of autistics jumping ahead in time is rather nonsensical but interesting.

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LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind

You really scare me sometimes, Phil.

LibraryThing member Lyndatrue

PKD invokes schizophrenia, one of his favorite topics. Mars is yet another. This is a reissue of the book that was originally printed in 1964. He always looked at the world from some perspective that most never seemed to see.

LibraryThing member jonfaith

Mister, they take a brave journey. They turn away from mere things, which one may handle and turn to practical use; they turn inward to meaning. There, the black-night-without-bottom lies, the pit. Who can say if they will return? And if so, what will they be like, having glimpsed meaning? I admire

them.

I truly hated the first 70-80 pages, it read like too much of the other Dick I've encountered: paranoia, despair, the disabled. Martian Time-Slip then took a few flips and I admit I was dazzled. The premise is simple an overcrowded Earth leaves many to emigrate to Mars. Colonies of Nation-States and Unions savvy about for leverage on a bleak planet, lacking water where the weather breaks down all machines---essentially, Australia or Nevada. People with autism are kept in a facility where the avarice of the elect leads them to exploit the segregated savants for purposes of time-travel. The novel is eventually better than it sounds. It is almost quaint imagining organized labor having political sway in the future .

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LibraryThing member HenryJOlsen

This might not be my favorite PKD novel, but it is the first one I've read that didn't seem to lose steam towards the end.

LibraryThing member languagehat

A terrifying novel about schizophrenia, right up there with The Man in the High Castle in the sf pantheon.

LibraryThing member DanielSTJ

Definitely not Dick at his forté.

LibraryThing member scottcholstad

To be honest, I've always been a bit middle of the road on this one. Not nearly as good as his early stuff, but vastly better than his later religious garbage. It's a good tale, but it always creeped me out a little more than most of his stories, and I'm not sure why, but man, that kid... I hardly

know what to say. Glad I read it, probably won't so again. Recommended for Philip K Dick fans, but NOT for those just venturing into his work for the first time.

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LibraryThing member kslade

OK novel, but I think he's done better.

LibraryThing member burritapal

The setting, Mars, was the best thing about this story. One of the most politically incorrect books I've read, it makes the reader cringe for the way the author talks about humans on the autism spectrum, and the natives of planet Mars.

LibraryThing member ikeman100

I always enjoyed Dick's short stories but as I grow older I'm less impressed by his novels. This was an interesting premise but mostly a space opera. There are a few more of his novels I will read but my expectations are now lower.

LibraryThing member kjuliff

Time Waits for no Woman
Not having read any works by Philip K. Dick for many a year, I really didn’t know what to expect. Had my tastes changed? Were the charges of Dick’s sexism and racism justified? Would a book set in the “future” of 1996 even make any sense?

It so happened that Dickwas

able to hold my interest, and though the plot was all over the place and full of holes, there’s something about this writer’s story-telling that kept me reading.

Martian Time-Slip is set on a Mars that hasn’t been terraformed. There’s oxygen, water (though limited), and humans live normal lives. They are grouped into “colonies” that reflect the geopolitical Earth of the 1960s, overly stereotyped.

So much so that for a while I thought I was reading a Johnathan Swift-like satire. There is the New Israel colony full of wealthy Jews, the corrupt trade union colony where member union fees are spent by the union bosses on their own earthly pleasures. And then there are the indigenous people, the Bleekmen, lazy noble savages, pushed back into the inhospitable FDR mountain range that has no obvious value. The UN has bureaucratic control over movement between the colonies and the FDR wilderness, as well as transport to and from earth.

I had an audio version from the Talking Books library. It was recorded in 1986. Hopefully the use of the N-word has been edited out. I found it disturbing. It was used in a matter-of-fact way, by the writer in his description of the Bleekmen, and not by any character in the story, so there was no excuse and its use was either due to racism or ignorance.

The story centers around the idea that schizophrenics are able to move through time. This is not realised by the Earth immigrants, but the indigenous Bleekmen seem to be aware; unaware until the villain of the piece goes back in time and decides to buy land in the FDR mountains, knowing that the price will rise as the government will open it up for industrial development.

No need to say any more. It was readable enough not to throw away. The stereotyping is even-handed and apart from the use of the N-word there’s no overt racism. There are the usual prejudices common in the sixties. No excuse but it is what it is.

The moral of this story is that Dick-heads have been around for a while and there’s no likelihood that they will vanish with time.

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