Tag: Short Story

Philip K. Dick, PKD Short Story

Of Withered Apples

We Can Remember CoverAccording to the PKD fan site, the short story Of Withered Apples was written in 1950, after PKD’s attempt at a novel entitled The Earth Shaker.  Supposedly, an outline and a few chapters of that novel are extant, but I have no access to it yet.

After submitting the short story to SMLA in 1953, it was published in Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy in July of 1954. Categorically I define it as a fantasy/horror story; and at a mere 8 pages, it begins with a summoning.  The version I read can be found in Citadel Press Book’s collection, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale and Other Classic Stories by Philip K. Dick.

A withered leaf makes its way into the hands of the young wife Lori. She, recognizing the Withered Applesadulterous message it brings, coyly begs for permission to go (to the modern reader these implorations will seem archaic, and perhaps even offensive, but remember this scene was set in 1950s America).  Steve, her husband, and Ed, her father-in-law, not wanting to be bothered as they conduct business, dismissively allow her visit–with the understanding she’ll be back in time to prepare their supper.

At the sexually charged rendezvouz with the old withered apple tree, Lori (Eve?) lamely rejects her arboreal paramour; but it is evident that this is not their first encounter. Agressively, the dry and shriveled lover manages to plant his seed within her, sending her off with a small, but potent taste of his fruit.

Later that night, Lori awakens in excruciating pain, and dies from appendicitis.  Steve, in agony, laments bringing her to the country away from the city, and blames himself for her untimely death.  His father’s futile attempts to console him do little to ease his pain.

Later, when visiting her grave site with his father, the two men encounter a young vibrant rosy apple tree rising from Lori’s burial ground. Shaken, with Steve’s father sensing the obvious danger, the two retreat and make a hasty exit.

Disclaimer: this is an amateur attempt, and I claim no academic or inside knowledge.  I am only a fan, and in no way affiliated with PKD. I’ll make sure to credit my sources, but errors will be made, and I will be solely responsible.  Feel free to correct me, but please do so with a gentle hand. Let’s talk first.

 

Philip K. Dick, PKD Short Story

Stability

Paycheck_Cover

At the time of the writing of Sutin’s PKD biography Stability was an unpublished SF story that survived from his high school years. According to Sutin:

“… Stability depicts a post-twenty-fifth-century dystopia governed by the stifling principle of “Stabilization,” which permits no political or technological change. Similar static dystopias would appear in two of Phil’s SF novels of the fifties: The World According to Jones and The Man Who Japed.”

Rickman says it:

“[involves] … a dystopian human society displaced by a dystopian machine-run world. Such characteristic Dickian tropes as talking robot cabs and time-travel paradoxes are fully formed and in place.”

According to the PKD fan site, Stability was written in 1947, but was not published until forty years later in 1987.  The version I read can be found in Citadel Press Book’s collection, Paycheck and Other Classic Stories by Philip K. Dick.  A short 11 pages, the sci fi tale follows Robert Benton’s time travels to discover a sinister lost city manipulating it’s evil return to civilization.

It’s first few paragraphs introduce us to an airborne angelic Benton and his home world of an undisclosed future civilization, which unable to progress and unwilling to regress, has elected and enforced a static society to maintain order and stability. Then through an altered time line, Benton comes into possession of a diabolical time machine with slavish consequences.

Sources:

Lawrence Sutin. Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick. Kindle Edition.

Rickman, Gregg (1989), To The High Castle: Philip K. Dick: A Life 1928-1963, Long Beach, Ca.: Fragments West/The Valentine Press.

Paycheck and Other Classic Stories by Philip K. Dick, (2003), Citadel.

Disclaimer: this is an amateur attempt, and I claim no academic or inside knowledge.  I am only a fan, and in no way affiliated with PKD. I’ll make sure to credit my sources, but errors will be made, and I will be solely responsible.  Feel free to correct me, but please do so with a gentle hand. Let’s talk first.