4 ms·
The Eyes Have It (1953)
- robin_reala 3y agoThis is in the PD due to the vagaries of US copyright renewal at the time, and was commonplace for pulp sci-fi. Standard Ebooks has a nice and free PKD compilation of all of the stuff that Gutenberg has if you’re looking for an ebook version: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/philip-k-dick/short-fiction https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/philip-k-dick/short-fictio...
- jacquesm 3y agoDear sir, your package has arrived in good order. When I asked for your daughters hand I meant so figuratively, not literally. Yours truly, A. Suitor.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- sctb 3y agoI'm amazed by how bright-eyed the prose style is here compared to Dick's later works, not to mention the gimmick! There's nothing like a few decades of literary failure to stamp out the pesky flame of exuberance and enable some really great writing.
- javajosh 3y ago"There's nothing like a few decades of {X} failure to stamp out the pesky flame of exuberance and enable some really great {Y}" would seem to hold for many, many (X,Y) pairs.
- sn41 3y agoWhere X is not necessarily distinct from Y, just for added emphasis :)
- quickthrower2 3y agoCan X = Y = "exuberance"
- hackcasual 3y agoThat and his addiction to amphetamines adds a heavy amount of paranoia to his later work
- dash2 3y agoI wondered if I saw the influence of PG Wodehouse on the writing.
- madaxe_again 3y agoHe’s a fascinating author to read the corpus of, in chronological order. You can see the man, quite clearly, and how he goes from chipper 50’s pulp writer to new wave prophet of banal doom, step by reality-shattering step. Some of his earlier work like “Beyond Lies the Wub” hints at what would later come, with the theme of existential query and horror. The man had a truly brilliant mind. His final works, up to and including his death, are the most concinnous possible conclusion to the arc of a life he could have executed. He lived his art.
- reqo 3y ago”The eyes chico, they never lie”
- layer8 3y agoThat’s a strange thing to claim. Don’t they usually lie in their eye sockets?
- inopinatus 3y agoThose eyes are in orbits, naturally.
- spacebacon 3y agoEver watch any Burt Lancaster movies? The trained eye can say whatever it chooses to say.
- Trasmatta 3y agoI'm a simple man, I see a PKD post, I upvote and comment. My favorite author. Highly recommend the biography Divine Invasions. He was such a fascinating (and troubled) person.
- x86x87 3y agoWe're all troubled. The empire never ended.
- Trasmatta 3y agoThe Black Iron Prison holds fast.
- palad1n 3y agoYou mean this? https://blackironprison.com https://blackironprison.com
- palad1n 3y agoAn update on that: https://ebookoflove.com/2022/05/02/victory/ https://ebookoflove.com/2022/05/02/victory/
- x86x87 3y agoTechnically it's not just the Roman Empire. The Roman empire was just an instance.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- DonHopkins 3y ago"Lies, Inc." aka "The Unteleported Man" had an eye eater! https://www.academia.edu/2360689/The_Missing_Pages_of_THE_UNTELEPORTED_MAN https://www.academia.edu/2360689/The_Missing_Pages_of_THE_UN... Freya said, "Tell me. What is the 'eye-eater'? I have to know." Her breath caught in her throat; raggedly, she managed to breathe, but with difficulty. "A fungiform," the taller of the THL agents said briefly. "One that resides here." He said nothing further. [...] The eye-eater said pleasantly, "Mr. Ben Applebaum, reach inside me and you will find a slightly-different edition of Dr. Bloode's Text. A copy of the twentieth edition, which I ingested some time ago... but as far as I can determine, not already dissolved by my gastric juices." The idea seemed to amuse it; the lower portion of its face split apart in a peal of excrutiatingly-penetrating laughter. "You're serious?" Rachmael said, feeling disorganized. And yet the eye-eater was correct; if it did possess a later edition of the text he most certainly had reason to seek it out -- wherever it lay, even within the body of the offensive eye-eater. "Look, look," the eye-eater exclaimed; it held in one of its longer [...] https://sickmyduck.narod.ru/dick15-0.html https://sickmyduck.narod.ru/dick15-0.html "A lie," the eye-eater rumbled ominously; again its pseudopodia whipped viciously, seeking out the agile creditor balloon, which dipped and bobbed barely beyond the flailing reach of the several sucker-impregnated arms. "As a matter of fact, this gentleman here-" It indicated Rachmael. "My understanding is that the lady and this individual are emotionally involved. Miss Holm is-was, whatever-a friend of mine, a very close friend. But hardly my mistress." The eye-eater looked embarrassed. [...]
- cgh 3y agoAn amazing start: “It was quite by accident I discovered this incredible invasion of Earth by lifeforms from another planet. As yet, I haven’t done anything about it; I can’t think of anything to do. I wrote to the Government, and they sent back a pamphlet on the repair and maintenance of frame houses.”
- TheOtherHobbes 3y agoThis story is 100% classic PKD, but that first para is just outstanding.
- katzenversteher 3y agoAs a non-native English speaker it took me a few paragraphs to get the punny core of the story. However, I still don't get this part: "I wrote to the Government, and they sent back a pamphlet on the repair and maintenance of frame houses" I have the feeling that there is also pun in this sentence but I can't find it.
- sireat 3y agoAs a non-native English speaker I just took that line to be a hilarious version of form letter response. "Your business is important to us" replies have been around forever. If you want to stretch it a bit there could be a pun involving frame-up but I doubt it.
- madaxe_again 3y agoNo, this is just an observation on the competence of government, a common theme of Dick’s.
- soVeryTired 3y agoIt sounds like the government might have understood it as a termite invasion.
- FartyMcFarter 3y agoI think that's exactly what the author of the story meant.
- spacebacon 3y agoStay fit, intact and well within the predefined bounds of this collective reality to avoid becoming… well… Space Bacon. Sorry I couldn’t resist to spread my science fiction based alien propaganda as well.
- dang 3y agoRelated: The Eyes Have It (1953) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30004360 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30004360 - Jan 2022 (91 comments)
- shmerl 3y agoNice story! It feels very Sheckley like in style.
- MrDresden 3y agoIt also brought Chesterton to mind.
- tetris11 3y ago> Without batting an eyelash. I'm surprised he didn't misconstrue his own prose.
- FartyMcFarter 3y ago> Without batting an eyelash. You have to be quite precise to accomplish that!