In My World

The World She Wanted

Two of my favorite science fiction story tellers are Jack Vance and Isaac Asimov. Sometimes both of them would shift out of science fiction mode and write a fantasy story in which no effort was made to provide a fictional scientific account of what was happening. This is problematical for me because I suffer from "fantasy blindness". Fantasy stories make me uncomfortable because I don't know what the rules are.

Look at the cover art by Milton Luros shown in the image to the right. In a science fiction story, this might be an illustration of using some kind of advanced technology to pass between two cities located on two different worlds (long-range teleportation) or possibly the same city existing in two different ages (time travel). A third option, and the one suggested by Philip K. Dick in "The World She Wanted" is that Allison Holmes is moving between two "parallel" universes.

Rumfuddle

Back in 2017 when I was commenting on The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov (1972), I discussed the popularity of science fiction stories about "multiple" or "alternative" universes. Jack Vance wrote his own multiverse story "Rumfuddle" (1973).

In the image shown to the left, I imagine an alternative version of Vance's story ("Rumduddle") that was published by Vance's analogue in the Ekcolir Reality. Philip K. Dick's story, "The World She Wanted", is a multiverse story that was published 20 years earlier, in 1953. Was Dick ahead of scientists in writing about a multiverse or was he simply making a magical fantasy story?

image source

For The Gods Themselves, Asimov depicted his multiple universes as natural phenomena and you needed advanced technology (a "pionizer") to move anything between two alternate universes. A fanciful depiction of a poionizer is in the image to the right. There is no magic in The Gods Themselves and no problem classifying that story as being science fiction. Was Dick's story "The World She Wanted" a science fiction tale or did he turn his back on science?

The Power of Positive Just Thinking. Philip K. Dick depicted Allison Holmes as being like a goddess. When she decides that it would be fun to visit a casino and gamble, suddenly a casino appears and she gets to have her gambling spree. Strangely, when she is in a bar and wants a martini, she asks for one and waits for it to be served to her. We are not supposed to understand the basis of Allison's amazing ability to (sometimes) make things happen, just accept her claim: "This happens to be my world." 

interior art for "The World She Wanted"

 My World. That's how she puts it to Larry, a dude that she meets in a bar. Allison tells Larry that they are going to get married because that will make her happy and he better get used to the idea. Larry is not happy to hear Allison's theory that he is nothing more than her toy, a mere component in a world that Allison controls from top to bottom. Reluctant to play along with Allison and simply enjoy the situation (she wins a huge amount of money gambling), Larry starts to complain: what about me? Allison explains that "the Great Designer" has made millions of worlds, including one world for each person that is their own personal world. Because Allison is cute, Larry agrees to tag along with her for a while.

the magical Allison

Larry asks Allison how she knows that this is her world. She claims that she simply figured it out, but she also mentions that it was already pretty clear what was going on when she was a little girl. Nothing really bad ever happened to her. Larry asks her why there is evil in the world if "the Great Designer" made this the best of all possible worlds for Allison's personal happiness. She has an answer for that: "the Great Designer" allows the many different worlds to "overlap", so many of the features of Allison's world have "leaked in" from other parallel universes. 

In the end, Larry decides that he can't live in Allison's version of the world. Just by thinking about it, he makes her leave his world and she slips off into another world of her own, which Larry briefly glimpses as she passes through the "portal" that connects the two universes.

image source
Manny the Bumpha

Magic
It is possible that Dick tried to make his magical fantasy story seem to be science fiction by including one line in which Allison mentions that while growing up and figuring out that this was her world, she learned about "scientific speculations of the existence of a Creator". Having just written Old Time Gaming, that one line in "The World She Wanted" resonated with me.

For the Exode Saga, I imagine that Grean the Kac'hin uses advanced Huaoshy technology to shape Earth into "the best of all possible worlds". Using time travel technology, Grean can engineer the course of human history and Grean gets "behind the scenes" help from Many Sails, the bumpha. As depicted in Old Time Gaming, everything always works out well for Rylla because Manny is looking out for her. In the Exode Saga, I always take pains to create a fictional science explanation for what happens and the alien Huaoshy essentially created we humans.

Vance the world-thinker

"The World She Wanted" reminds me of Vance's 1945 story "The World-Thinker". In that story, Vance imagined an alien who could create entire planets full of people just by thinking about them. Story tellers who are constantly creating strange new societies for the imaginary planets in their stories can't resist imagining scenarios in which entire worlds can be thought into existence.

Dianetics. I've previously blogged about the science fiction origins of Dianetics. Hubbard used a fantasy story about a dream world ("The Masters of Sleep") as his launching platform for Dianetics. I would not be surprised if Philip Dick was inspired to write "The World She Wanted" by the fantasy stories that were published by Hubbard during the time when he invented the fake "science" of Dianetics.

In the Asimov Reality

 Infinite Mutation. Supposedly, Philip Dick took at least one zoology course in college. I have to wonder if he was ever interested in science. I suspect he wrote stories for science fiction magazines only because he had little luck selling his fiction elsewhere. Another story published by Dick in 1953 was "The Infinites" (Planet Stories, May). 

For "The Infinites", we are whisked off through space to an asteroid that is located "half-way across the galaxy" and which has a thick Earth-like atmosphere. I recently commented on "The Hierophants" by Margaret St. Clair, one of many science fiction stories that reveal one fact: their authors did not know the difference between a planet and an asteroid. I suspect that Philip Dick did not care about the differences between planets and asteroids.

interior art for "The Infinites"

Continuing to provide readers with the background and setting of his story, the next casual space age concept from Philip Dick is the idea that Earthlings are trying to "map and prospect every bit of rock in the galaxy". When I see statements like this in science fiction stories, I begin to suspect that the author does not know what a galaxy is.

Bacteria in Space. For "The Infinites", Dick adopted the idea that space is full of bacteria. Spacemen need to take care because some of the bacteria drifting through space will "eat" the hull of spaceships. In Dick's imagined galaxy, every planet, nay, every asteroid has life because through the wonders of panspermia, bacteria falling from the sky will seed "every bit of rock in the galaxy" with life.

The Man Who Evolved

Dick for 100. I've previously blogged about absurd science fiction versions of evolution. For many writers, mere mention of the word "mutation" is enough scientific content to float their science fiction story. What about Philip Dick and the zoology class he took in college... can he write an interesting story about evolution or is he going to invent some kind of magical mutation?

Here in 2021, Earthlings are struggling to find another world besides Earth that has life. Spaceship C-57-D X-43y finds the first asteroid ever in the whole galaxy where there is no life.

original cover art by Harry Parkhurst

What is going on? Fortunately, X-43y carries some laboratory guinea pigs that can be used to test for the mysterious force that prevents anything from surviving on this lifeless asteroid.

Spaceship X-43y is a small exploration ship with only three crew members. However, when Captain Eller calls down to the science lab, he has to pick up "the com" and dial the right number. 

Accelerated evolution. X-43y is hit by a blast of radiation coming from the center of the asteroid and all on board begin to evolve at a fast rate. This plot seems lifted right out of the 1937 story "A Million Years Ahead" by Edmond Hamilton. Dick assures his readers that the X-43y has shields that protect against actual cosmic rays, but the radiation from the asteroid is "very close to cosmic ray patterns".

energy beings

Within a few days, through the wonders of radiation-induced "mutation and alteration in cell growth" the three crew members turn into "monsters" with enormous bald heads. This is particularly hard on the one crew member who is female because, you know, she's a girl. How will she live now without her former pretty head of hair? To answer this chilling question, tune in next week for the next episode of Pigs in Space!

The crew of X-43y is saved by the guinea pigs. The humans have undergone radiation-induced accelerated evolution and with their huge brains they develop telepathic powers. Like the humans, the guinea pigs also "evolve" into a super-advanced new form of life that is composed of "pure energy". I've previously complained about the many "energy beings" that stroll through bad science fiction stories. 

brain in a box: the dis-embodied Sargon

Before the transformed pigs Infinites sail off to the Q continuum, they restore the humans (actually only two of the three) to their original physical form. The entire story arc of "The Infinites" reminds me of the Star Trek episode "Return to Tomorrow".

I despise stories in which a great technological breakthrough occurs once, never to be repeated. Such is the plot of "The Infinites". We never learn how accelerated evolution was possible... nor are we meant to. The story is not really science fiction even-though Dick stuffed it full of old Sci Fi plot elements. I can't really complain; I'm sure Dick was trying the best he could to earn a living and he was 10 years too early for Star Trek.

interior art by Herman Vestal

Speaking of pigs, Philip Dick also published a story called "Beyond Lies the Wub" in Asteroid Planet Stories. A spaceship from Earth is having trouble with its food supply, so it takes on board some animals from Mars: food to be eaten on the return space flight to Earth. One of the creatures is a telepathic "wub", who likes to discuss literature and philosophy. The Captain of the spaceship is intent on eating the wub. In the end, the wub gets the last laugh. It transfers its mind into the Captain and gets to enjoy eating itself.

In the Asimov Reality.
original cover art by Allen Anderson

I enjoy stories about mind transfer, as long as there is some fictional science account of how a mind can jump from one body to the other. "Beyond Lies the Wub" was particularly hard to enjoy because there was no attempt made to explain Dick's depiction of Mars as a planet rich with animal life and the Captain's disgusting insistence on killing and eating the mild-mannered and highly intelligent wub.

In "Beyond Lies the Wub", the alien's mind "simply" integrates into that of the Captain, who continues living as if nothing had happened. In any case, I'm thankful that the magazine editor and/or Dick terminated the story quickly. We can look upon this as a kind of sick joke story that I'd love to see a vegetarian review.

art by Margaret Brundage (see)

But then why?
If I don't enjoy the style of story that was written by Philip Dick, then why do I read them? I love the idea that some science fiction story writers have been selected by lurking and unseen space aliens and their stories used to provide we Earthlings with hints about alien technologies. 

I'm currently writing a new story about aliens using Empedocles as a tool for accelerating scientific advancement on Earth. In the case of Philip Dick, I like to pretend that there was an aborted attempt to use him as a conduit for transmitting information about advanced technologies to Earth (see "The Qua Intervention").

interior art by Leo Morey

Mr. Spaceship. I can't resist commenting on one more early Philip Dick story, "Mr. Spaceship", first published on the January 1953 issue of Imagination. I love the idea of thinking machines and I can usually enjoy stories about all sorts of artificial lifeforms. In the Exode Saga, one of the characters is Many Sails, a sentient spaceship. Many Sails is composed of zeptites and can slip in and out of the Sedron Domain, but sometimes "she" takes onboard biological organisms as passengers and during those times she can adopt the form of a conventional spacecraft. For "Mr. Spaceship", Philip Dick imagined placing a human brain (that of professor Michael Thomas) inside a steel rocket ship and allowing the brain to take control!

image source

Rockets and Rayguns. I can't stop myself from comparing Dick's 1953 story  "Mr. Spaceship" to the 1931 story "The Jameson Satellite" by Neil R. Jones which (discussed here) helped to inspire Isaac Asimov's interest in robots. The "Jameson satellite" was a rocket ship designed by Professor Jameson to place him into orbit 65,000 miles above Earth where he would be preserved until long after the demise of the human species. The plan for Jameson's "funeral rocket" involved a Super-Duper™ "radium ray" that would repulse all approaching meteoroids.

After 40,000,000 years, a Zorome spacecraft finds Jameson's dead body and using their advanced technology, the alien Zoromes revive the dead Professor, "transplanting his brain into one of our machines". The re-animated brain of Professor Jameson goes on to have great adventures among the stars as a cyborg.

Mike's brain

In the case of "Mr. Spaceship" and Professor Thomas, Earthlings are at war with pesky aliens. The aliens use biomechanical weapons and are winning the war. As a counter strategy, it is decided to equip a spaceship with a human brain because, well... what could go wrong? However, Professor Thomas is a pacifist and rather than fight the aliens, he takes two of his former students off into interstellar space where they will be able to found a new branch of Humanity that does not reflexively fight wars.

In the Asimov Reality.

One of the interesting features of "Mr. Spaceship" is that it was planned that the brain of Professor Thomas would not remain conscious after being hooked into the navigation control system of the spaceship. Dick made little effort to go into details about how a human brain was built into a spaceship. 

Before having his brain placed inside the spaceship, Professor Thomas asks to know exactly what he is getting into. Philip Dick tells us that Professor Thomas got to look at the "theoretical diagrams" for the spaceship. Does that mean blueprints or engineering plans? Who knows? All we are told is that once the brain was placed inside a vat of liquid deep inside the spaceship, electrical charges at the surface of the brain were detected and used to control the spaceship's movements. Look ma, no hands!

In the Asimov Reality

Philip Dick also assured his readers that this futuristic spacecraft of his imagination used "jet turbines" to fly off of the surface of Earth and into outer space. Then, out past the Moon, the spaceship continues to maneuver using "blasts of the turbine jets". I wonder if Philip Dick knew that there is no air in outer space.

It would be interesting to know exactly what Philip Dick expected an unconscious human brain to be able to do, however the story makes it clear that the "unconscious" brain is expected to solve the complex equations required to guide a the spaceship through gravitational fields. "Mr. Spaceship" must have a sensory system, but this gets no mention by Dick. "Mr. Spaceship" was equipped with a microphone so that people could give verbal orders to Professor Thomas' brain. However, the "big surprise" in the story is that the disembodied brain of Professor Thomas is fully conscious. 

In the Asimov Reality

Soon enough, the brain of Professor Thomas "speaks" through the ship's electronic speaker, revealing that the brain is still conscious. During the test flight of "Mr. Spaceship", the ship goes "out of control" and stops taking orders. An attempt is made to reason with Professor Thomas' brain and get it to return control of the spaceship to the ordinary human pilot who is onboard. "Mr. Spaceship" reluctantly lets its passengers transfer to another spaceship then heads off into space at high speed.

We don't have to wonder why Earth is doing so poorly in the war against the Evil Aliens™. The next day, "Mr. Spaceship" returns to the Moon and tricks everyone in the Space Force. Unrecognized, "Mr. Spaceship" (there are now standing Space Force orders to destroy the runaway "Mr. Spaceship") picks up two of his former students and takes them away into interstellar space; a new Adam and Eve for starting a new pacifist off-shoot of Humanity.

My favorite line from "Mr. Spaceship".

I have to conclude that Philip Dick was blissfully ignorant of science and unconcerned about technical details in his science fantasy stories. Dick's style reminds me of Ray Bradbury who had the grace to admit that he wrote fantasy, not science fiction.

at war with the alien Yucconae
from Proxima Centauri

At the end of the story, "Mr. Spaceship" expresses optimism that as a cyborg, he can live for 100 years and nurture the first generations of a new human civilization on some distant world, getting them off on a good solid pacifist footing. Since Professor Thomas' brain is safely floating in a vat of liquid (similar story in 1936) at the center of the spaceship, it/he need worry about nothing... not even a supply of oxygen and glucose to keep the brain cells alive.

Last month (see this blog post) I mentioned that in the June 1952 edition of Startling Stories was an editorial trying to refute a claim that dreams of space travel were merely symptoms of a people running away from our troubles on Earth. Philip Dick's "Mr. Spaceship" provides a good example of a science fiction story that is all about running away from Earth's troubles.

interior art by Julian Krupa

Magazines such as Imagination seem to have been good places for Philip Dick to publish short stories.  William Hamling was looking for entertaining stories that did not require much thinking by the reader... or any large degree of scientific knowledge in the head of the author. 

I read the first published story by Hamling, "War with Jupiter" (published in Amazing Stories), a silly bit of military science fiction. Set 5,000 years in the future, it reads like a re-write of World War I in a space setting.

In that same issue of Amazing Stories was "The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use" by Isaac Asimov, his second published story. Under the editorial control of Raymond A. Palmer, Amazing Stories went in one direction while Astounding went in another. As a budding scientist, Asimov eventually became a better fit for Astounding.

In the Asimov Reality.
original cover art by Robert Fuqua

In the early days of the science fiction genre, astronomy was advancing and it was becoming doubtful that every planet in the Solar System had an intelligent species that could engage in World War I-style combat with Earthlings. Asimov quickly out-grew the urge to write stories about wars with space aliens and he later regretted depicting the surface of Venus as being like a jungle on Earth. In 1953, Philip Dick was still ready for war with aliens, but it is amusing that in "Mr. Spaceship" he could not even be bothered to provide a reason for the war between humans and the Yucconae. "Mr. Spaceship" reads like it was written in two parts and I have to wonder if it was started years before it was eventually finished.

In the case of "The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use", the young Asimov had a good reason for the war between Venus and Earth (the Venusians don't like Earthlings taking over their planet). 

irresistible Sci Fi plot elements

From my perspective (not interested in military science fiction), the first part of Asimov's story ("The Ancient Ruin", which takes place on Venus before the war) is the best part of the story. I'm a sucker for "ancient archeology" stories like Assignment Nor'Dyren. 

In part 2 of "The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use", Asimov descended into a dreary lecture on mind-body dualism and the fantastic Venusian technology that "has the power of disconnecting mind from brain". "The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use" concludes with one of the most despicable plot elements in science fiction: with the fantastic Venusian technology that wins the war being thrown away, never to be discovered again.

Isaac Asimov went on to earn a Ph.D. and he learned how to write interesting hard science fiction stories. I'm going to have to continue my search through Philip Dick's writings in order to learn how he matured as a writer of science fiction. John Fekete's view was that "Dick's reputation properly rests on the middle decade of his work, 1962-72". In my next blog post, I'll comment on some stories that were published by Philip Dick in that later time period.

Related Reading: "Living Space",  brain in a box and The Golden Man

Next: more stories by Philip Dick

interior art by Julian Krupa