I wonder if Philip K. Dick was familiar with the Q & A:
Q: Why do ducks fly over Cleveland upside down?
A: There's nothing worth crapping on.
I ask since this novel opens in dystopian Cleveland in the year 2046, a futuristic city where absolutely nothing is worth crapping on - it's totalitarian with a vengeance: state officials utilize sinister mind control techniques and a ruthless, intrusive police force maims, brutalizes and otherwise inflicts itself on the city's inhabitants at every turn.
Joe Fernwright is the book’s protagonist. Joe is a pot-healer, a mender of broken ceramic pots as his father was before him. Similar to those master craftsmen who helped build medieval cathedrals, Joe takes a special pride in his skill.
Unfortunately, he’s living in a world of computers and other highly advanced technology, a world where everything is made out of plastic. Poor Joe. His talents are no longer needed and he sits in his office cubical alone, without work, and, as a way to kill time and take the edge off his boredom and frustration, he uses a Skype-like program to play The Game (a clever intellectual guessing game) with other men across the globe who are likewise bored and frustrated. When he’s not playing The Game, Joe ponders: What do I really want?
But then Joe receives a mysterious note: "Pot-healer, I need you. And I will pay.” Immediately thereafter all varieties of bizarre events ensue until Joe finds himself interrogated and threatened at a Cleveland police station. He can't take the cruelty, runs out the door and is rescued in a strange, outer space kind of way by a strange outer space kind of being.
Glimmung is the name of the outer space being and author of the aforementioned quizzical communique. Glimmung presents Joe with an opportunity to infuse new meaning into his life by healing pots on his distant planet of Sirius 5. Divorced, childless, unemployed and now that he's a wanted man by the police, Joe figures he has little to lose and accepts Glimmung's proposition, thus setting out on what Joseph Campbell termed “The Hero’s Journey.”
Galactic Pot-Healer strikes me as a cross between a sacred Gnostic text from Nag Hammadi and a book written by Philip K. Dick. Wait a minute, is that a legitimate description? Well, avid Dickheads will know what I’m driving at. For others, think of a wild, weird, very funny science fiction novel (not “hard” sf since PKD doesn’t get into the actual science behind traveling from Earth to another Earth-like planet) complete with Jungian archetypes written in a way that touches on ancient esoteric mythology and religion.
The Hero’s Journey is never an easy one - recall the trials of Odysseus, of Gautama Buddha, of Joan of Arc, of Luke Skywalker. Joe encounters all sorts of people, places, things and far-out creatures as part of his quest. To list a number:
Glimmung: A being with enormous size and tremendous powers who can manifest in diverse forms. Glimmung assembles scores of specialists in the arts and sciences from all over the galaxy to his current home planet of Sirius 5 aka Plowman’s Planet for a specific purpose: to help raise Heldscalla, a cathedral sunken beneath a vast ocean. Joe’s ongoing dealings with Glimmung place our luckless pot-healer, in many ways an ordinary kind of guy, in the role of probing philosopher. At the top of the list is that perennial human question: yea, yea, yea . . . but what about me?!
Harper Baldwin: One of the other human specialists recruited along with Joe. Harper is the prototypical manager/organization man, forever giving directions and attempting to assert his will as self-appointed leader. Harper's bluster and American-style pragmatism add much color and comedy to the tale.
Mali Yojez: Did I say Joe was luckless? That has more to do with his life in Cleveland. The specialist sitting next to Joe on the flight to Sirius 5 is a marine biologist, a stunning young lady from a planet very much like Earth. A strong emotional bond quickly develops. Joe and Mali team up and wherever Joe goes, Mali is sure to follow. Lucky guy! The two of them even share an apartment together at the Sirius 5 luxury hotel. In this way, Mali becomes the novel’s second main character. And Mali has an intriguing take on the English language. That’s the way to juice up your story, PKD!
Anomalous Aliens: All types of intelligent, non-humans the size of humans from other planets are among the specialists. At one point Joe observes: “A chitinous multilegged quasiarachnid and a large bivalve with pseudopodia arguing about Goethe’s Faust. A book which I’ve never read – and it originated on my planet, is the product of a human being.” Fortunately, every one of these creatures has a sense of proper decorum and never even thinks of making a meal of Joe.
Willis: Without question, the coolest dude in the story. And Willis is a robot. But a robot with the temperament and timing of a stand-up comic, right up there will George Carlin and Jonathan Winters and the deadpan comic Jackie Vernon. Willis is one fantastic reason Galactic Pot-Healer rocks the house.
Book of the Kahlends: The one and only book written on Sirius 5, a book that purports to predict the future. To say more would be to say too much - you will have to read all about it for yourself.
The New Man: The Hero’s Journey is one of continual discovery. What Joe Fernwright learns about himself, how he grows as a person, the decisions he makes regarding his chosen craft and the steps he takes to actualize his capacity and spirit for individual creativity is nothing short of uplifting. I can clearly picture Philip K. Dick siting at his typewriter, tingling with excitement (even without drugs or many cups of black coffee) as he put the finishing touches on Galactic Pot-Healer.
“A man is an angel that has become deranged, Joe Fernwright thought. Once they – all of them – had been genuine angels, and at that time they had had a choice between good and evil, so it was easy, easy being an angel."
“Death is very close, he thought. When you think in this manner. I can feel it, he decided. How near I am. Nothing is killing me; I have no enemy, no antagonist; I am merely expiring, like a magazine subscription: month by month.”
― Philip K. Dick, Galactic Pot-Healer
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