Originally published in 1956 when the author was a mere twenty-eight years old, The World Jones Made contains a bushel basket full of Philip K. Dick's signature sf wackiness. The novel also features an eerie foreshadowing of Pastor Jim Jones and the 1978 mass suicide and mass murder in Jonestown, Guyana. Holy hair-raising! PKD's Floyd Jones - even the same last name. Uncanny and creepy in the extreme.
We're in a future time in the aftermath of a vast nuclear worldwide war. Jones is a major thread but there is much, much more - no fewer than five intertwining storylines propel this tale. In no particular order, here's a modest sampling of what a reader will encounter:
Doug Cussick: Member of the Fedgov’s police force. In many ways, the hero of the novel, an ordinary kind of guy who values tolerance and a respect for others as well as wanting a world where future generations can grow and flourish. However, Cussick is in a tight spot – following the nuclear war caused in large measure by Mohammedans and Christian fanatics, Fedgov, the ruling power, has taken on the character of totalitarianism with its many forced labor camps, prisons and detention centers.The foundation of their ideology is what is termed “relativism,” where an individual should not voice an opinion that can’t be supported by concrete facts. According to Fedgov, citizens are best remaining silent. Sound inviting? As for me, not only would I not want to live under such suffocating conditions, I wouldn't even want to visit.
Keepers of the Status Quo: Security Director Pearson heads up the secret police and the weapons police. Also part of the Fedgov police force is a friend of Cussick - Max Kaminski, a surly, heavyset man whose lethargy and moroseness typify the mindset of the established order. Kaminski is disgusted with the direction society has taken and at one point lets Cussick know, “Fedgov is still in business. Trying out a few last tricks before it goes down in ruin.”
Jones, One: Cussick meets Floyd Jones for the first time at a carnival where Jones doesn’t tell personal fortunes but answers questions about the future of mankind. Jones can do this since he is a precog, that is, someone who knows the future; for Jones, he can see one year into the future. Such unique knowledge gives him real power. Jones can be killed but he can’t be taken by surprise. Pregcogs - a major ongoing PKD theme, men or women who are not shackled with one big drawback of “normal” human expereince– not knowing the future. Just imagine what it would be like to have such ability. Oh, how your life would charge. If nothing else, you could go to Las Vegas and play roulette.
Jones, Two: End the tyrannical reign of alien relativism. Free men’s minds! One of the slogans shouted by fanatical followers of the swelling movement lead by Floyd Jones. Jones urges the world to follow him in “The Crusade” – a futurist philosophy that will not be bound by the inertia of the Fedgov or relativism, an exciting movement and philosophy that seeks to explore worlds beyond our own, to send settlers out to colonize the stars. Oh, yes, in the new world order Jones proposes, since he can see into the future, he himself will hold sole authority and power as absolute ruler.
Nina Cussick: Pretty, independent minded Danish lady, wife of Doug and mother of their baby boy, Jack. Nina is bored with the lackluster, dull, dreary world of Fedgov; she years for excitement and change, thus she turns to the Jones movement. The inclusion of Nina in The World Jones Made adds real zest to the story.
Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n Roll: We witness one captivating scene at an underground club where crowds of young people dance to frantic rhythms, Nina is served capsules of heroin and Cossick smokes marijuana, all the while watching hermaphrodites go through their act – a man and a woman having sex, then changing into two lesbians and then a final change: the man becoming the woman and the woman becoming the man. Even in the suppression of a totalitarian society, young people will discover outlets for their creative energy and imagination.
Custom-made Mutants: There are eight miniature, mutant humans living in a “refuge" outside San Francisco. All of these mutants are inquisitive as to why they are provided with such a lavish, specialized habitat. Is their mutation a consequence of the nuclear war? There’s a Doctor Rafferty who oversees their living arrangements. The more pages we turn, the more these mutants are central to story. To say anything more would be to say too much.
War Mutants: A novel written in those paranoid 1950s I remember so well, the decade of fallout shelters and duck and cover drills. Nuclear attack could happen any day resulting in extreme genetic mutation. PKD picks up on this with Cussick seeing mutant freaks in a carnival freak show; “There were many-headed babies, a common sport. He passed by the usual display of parasites living on sibling hosts. Feathered, scaled, tailed, winged humanoid freaks squeaked and fluttered on all sides: infinite oddities from ravaged genes. People with internal organs situated outside the dermal walls; eyeless, faceless, even headless freaks; freaks with enlarged and elongated and multi-jointed limbs; sad-looking creatures peeping out from within other creatures.”
Drifters: Huge migrating protozoa, many feet in length, float down to earth from another solar system. Fedgov passes laws to protect these organisms; Jones and his followers burn them with gasoline. What course of action is best for us humans? One of the more quizzical parts of the tale.
Venus: The planet in our solar system holding a key to the solution of survival. How? You will have to read for yourself. Highly recommended for both readers new to Philip K. Dick or those fans who want to visit the author’s earlier work.
"My friends," Jones shouted, "the entrenched plutocracy has tried to silence me. But they have grown soft; like great parasites they sit behind their desks running the world. They have gown fat on us; they have feasted well. But it is going to end. I can see it."
Shouted approval.
"We must strike out!" Jones raved on. "Beyond the world, beyond the dead systems. It is our destiny. The race cannot be denied its future. Nothing will stop us. We cannot be defeated."
American Science Fiction author Philip K. Dick, 1928-1982
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