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| Time Out of Joint | |
.jpg) Cover of first edition (hardcover) |
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| Author | Philip K. Dick |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| Publisher | J. B. Lippincott Company |
| Publication date | 1959 |
| Media type | print (hardcover & paperback) |
| Pages | 221 pp |
| ISBN | NA [1] |
Time Out of Joint is a novel by Philip K. Dick, first published in novel form in the United States in 1959. An abridged version was also serialised in the British science fiction magazine New Worlds Science Fiction in several installments from December 1959 to February 1960, under the title Biography in Time.
The novel epitomises many of Dick's themes, with its concern about the nature of reality, and ordinary people in ordinary lives having the world unravel around them. The title is a reference to the line uttered by Hamlet to Horatio after being visited by his father's ghost and learning that his uncle Claudius murdered his father; in short, a shocking supernatural event that fundamentally alters the way Hamlet perceives the state and the universe ("The time is out of joint; O cursed spite!/That ever I was born to set it right!" [I.V.211-2]), much as do several events in the novel.
Several of the novel's themes and ideas were used for the basis of an award-winning 1998 film starring Jim Carrey, The Truman Show, which featured a man who discovers that his entire life is an elaborate soap opera.
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Plot summary
As the novel opens, its protagonist Ragle Gumm believes that he lives in the year 1959 in a quiet American suburb. His unusual profession consists of repeatedly winning the cash prize in a local newspaper competition featuring the question, "Where will the little green man be next?". However, at intervals some object around him, such as a drink stand in the local park, fades away into nothingness, leaving behind only a small slip of paper with the name of the object printed on it. Other mysterious events occur, including references to objects that would be anachronisms in 1959 and the mention of the name Ragle Gumm by people who have no apparent reason to do so, including military air pilots. Few other characters notice these or experience similar anomalies; the sole exception is Ragle's supposed brother-in-law, Victor "Vic" Nielson, in whom he confides.
Confusion gradually mounts for Gumm; his neighbor William "Bill" Black, observing this, starts worrying: "Suppose Ragle was becoming sane again?". In fact, Gumm does become sane, and the deception surrounding him (erected to protect and exploit him) begins to unravel.
Gumm eventually learns that the idyllic neighborhood he lives in is a constructed reality designed to protect him from the frightening fact that he lives on a then-future Earth (circa 1998) that is embroiled in a colonial war of independence with the Moon comparable to England's war against the American Revolutionaries. Gumm's is the only consistently accurate method for predicting where nuclear strikes will be aimed, in that his puzzle-solving skills have saved untold thousands of lives over the years by enabling antimissile deflection. The town provides a psychological safety blanket that allows him to perform this task without understanding his dire responsibility. Having learned the truth, Gumm defects to the Lunar colonists, deciding that the values and perceptions of the Earthlings are a mistake. There is an indication that the war might end as a result.
References
- ^ First edition published prior to adoption of ISBN standard
Criticism
- DiTommaso, Lorenzo, "A logos or Two Concerning the logoz of Umberto Rossi and Philip K. Dick's Time Out of Joint", Extrapolation, 39:4, 1998, pp. 285-98.
- Potin, Yves, "Four Levels of Reality in Philip K. Dick's Time Out of Joint", Extrapolation 39:2, 1998, pp. 148-165.
- Rossi, Umberto, "Just a Bunch of Words: The Image of the Secluded Family and the Problem of logos in P.K. Dick's Time out of Joint", Extrapolation, Vol. 37 No. 3, Fall 1996.
- ______________, “The Harmless Yank Hobby: Maps, Games, Missiles and Sundry Paranoias in Time Out of Joint and Gravity’s Rainbow”, Pynchon Notes #52-53, Spring-Fall 2003, pp. 106-123
See also
- Simulated reality
- Ding an sich, a concept mentioned in the story.
- Ender's Game, a 1985 novel with a similar premise
External links
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