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Ubik

Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author Philip K. Dick
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Science fiction novel
Publisher Doubleday
Publication date 1969
Media type Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages 202 pp
ISBN NA

Ubik is a 1969 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. Philip Kindred Dick (December 16 – March 2) was an American Science fiction Novelist and Short story Writer. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of Literature or Information &ndash the activity of making information available for public view The Doubleday Publishing Group is the fifth largest Book Publishing company in the world A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a Book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with Cloth Paperback, softback, or softcover describe and refer to a Book by the nature of its binding. The year 1969 in literature involved some significant events and new books A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story Philip Kindred Dick (December 16 – March 2) was an American Science fiction Novelist and Short story Writer. In 2005, Time Magazine named it one of the one hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Time (trademarked in capitals as TIME) is a weekly American Newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and Year 1923 ( MCMXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. [1]

Contents

Plot synopsis

The novel takes place in the North American Confederation in an alternate version of 1992, wherein technology has advanced to the extent of permitting civilians to reach the Moon and psi phenomena are widely accepted as real. Technology is a broad concept that deals with a Species ' usage and knowledge of Tools and Crafts and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt Parapsychology is a discipline that seeks to demonstrate the existence and causes of Psychic abilities and life after death using the Scientific method The protagonist is Joe Chip, a debt-ridden technician for Glen Runciter's "prudence organization," which employs people with the ability to block certain psychic powers (as in the case of an anti-telepath, who can prevent a telepath from reading a client's mind) to enforce privacy by request. The Protagonist or main character is the central figure of a story. Debt is that which is owed usually referencing Assets owed but the term can cover other obligations Prudence (latprudentia is classically considered to be a Virtue, and indeed one of the Cardinal Virtues. Parapsychology is a discipline that seeks to demonstrate the existence and causes of Psychic abilities and life after death using the Scientific method Telepathy ( Greek τηλε tele meaning "distant" and πάθεια patheia meaning "to be affected by" describes the purported transfer Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively Runciter runs the company with the assistance of his deceased wife Ella, who is kept in a state of "half-life", a form of cryonic suspension that gives the deceased person limited consciousness and communication ability. Cryonics is the low-temperature Preservation of Humans and other Animals that can no longer be sustained by contemporary Medicine until

The company’s main adversary is Ray Hollis, who leads an organization of psychics. Hollis appears only briefly in the novel.

When business magnate Stanton Mick hires Runciter’s company to secure his Lunar facilities from telepaths, Runciter assembles a dozen agents for this task. The group includes Pat Conley, a mysterious young woman who has an unprecedented parapsychological ability to undo events by changing the past. Joe Chip is shown at several points to have sexual feelings for the defiant Pat Conley, who once gives the impression of reciprocating them.

When Runciter, Chip, and the others reach Mick’s moon base, they discover that the assignment is a trap, presumably set by Hollis. A bomb explosion apparently kills Runciter without significantly harming the others. They rush back to Earth to place him in half-life.

Afterwards, the group begins to experience strange shifts in reality. Consumables, such as milk and cigarettes, begin to expire prematurely. Also, the group sees Runciter's face on coins and receives strange messages from him in writing and on television. Most of these messages imply that Runciter is in fact alive, while the others are in half-life, or "cold-pac" as it is informally called. Group members who separate from the group are found dead, in a gruesome state of decomposition.

The reality gradually shifts backward in time until the group finds itself in a world resembling the United States in 1939. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Year 1939 ( MCMXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. They try to figure out what is causing these strange occurrences, prevent each other from dying, and find a mysterious product called Ubik, which is advertised in every time period they enter. Messages from Runciter indicate that Ubik may be their only hope of survival.

Ultimately, Joe Chip learns that Runciter, in fact, was the sole survivor of the explosion on Luna, and that his messages to the group are the result of his attempts to communicate with them while they are in half-life. The regressing world in which they find themselves is discovered to be the product of Jory Miller, another half-lifer whom Runciter encounters earlier in the story while communicating with Ella. Jory devours the life force of other people who are in suspended animation to prolong his own present existence. Suspended animation is the slowing of life processes by external means without termination Of the group of anti-psychics and technicians, only Joe Chip eludes him, aided by the substance called Ubik. This substance, whose name is derived from the word "ubiquity", has the property of preserving people who are in half-life. Joe Chip is instructed in its use by Ella Runciter, who is on her way to a reincarnation.

In the living world, Glen Runciter encounters several coins showing Joe Chip's face. He suspects that this is "just the beginning. "

Themes

Whereas the confusion between real and unreal, obscured by the perception of the main character(s), is common in Dick's work, in Ubik this confusion occurs in more than one way. Given the premise of half-life (the term is related to radioactive half-lives in that the partially dead person continues to slowly die and eventually is completely dead), one puzzle lies in resolving the false reality of the deceased with the real perceptions of those who are still alive. Half-Life (computer-game page here It's already listed in the disambiguation page This is further complicated by Pat Conley, whose ability to change the past (and thus the present) may be causing the reality changes. The interference of psychics causes further confusion. The story presents unsettling shifts between realities and timelines, so that the reader is never certain what is real and what is illusion.

Another theme is the opposition between the twin forces of decay (the regression experienced by the characters) and restoration (Ubik, which reverses that decay).

Ubik features several character types common to Dick's fiction: Chip as the downtrodden, working class protagonist; Conley as the dark-haired, alluring, unattainable, possibly insane, sadistic, and by some means empowered woman; Runciter as a cynical but fatherly old man; and (most characteristically) with a position of great power on the top of the society's climax (as Leo Bulero in Eldritch and the policeman in Flow my tears). Working class is a term used in academic Sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe depending on context and speaker those employed in specific fields or types The Protagonist or main character is the central figure of a story. Power is a measure of a person's ability to control the environment around them including the behavior of other people The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is a 1965 Novel by American Science fiction writer Philip K Flow My Tears The Policeman Said is a 1974 Science fiction Novel by Philip K These character types are nearly universal to his work and tend to follow similar roles: the downtrodden protagonist finds himself at odds with a large and complicated plot, not specifically against him, but in which he becomes inadvertently entangled. He is then alternately aided by, confused by, or maliciously harmed by the dark-haired woman, is helped indirectly by the fatherly old man (whose warnings are often unheeded or too late), and faces the spokesman of the evil conspiracy, who is mysterious, powerful, well-informed, and more or less undeniable, leaving the downtrodden hero with little or bittersweet success. Generally, multiple explanations for the nature of the events, the outcome of the story, and the nature and identity of the evil spokesman are available, especially if drug use or other psychic complications blur the lines of reality. Generally speaking, the narrator participates in the perspective of the characters, so the revelation of whether the experience is a drug-induced delusion or a bona fide event is left vague for the reader. A drug, broadly speaking is any chemical substance that when absorbed into the body A delusion is commonly defined as a fixed False Belief and is used in everyday language to describe a belief that is either false fanciful or derived from Deception Ultimately, the reader is left to wonder what actually happened in the "real world" of the story and is left little clues, much as a person rehabilitated from extended drug use might look back at the recent months of life and wonder what was real, what was misinterpreted, and what was false.

Literary allusions

Cover of the 1970 Dell paperback edition of Ubik
Cover of the 1970 Dell paperback edition of Ubik

The term Ubik comes from the Latin word ubique, which means "everywhere" and is the source of the English language word ubiquitous, which means being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time. Year 1970 ( MCMLXX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Paperback, softback, or softcover describe and refer to a Book by the nature of its binding. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States This may be considered ironic, considering that Ubik is much sought-after and rare in the novel, but it may also indicate that Ubik is a life-force of sorts.

Ubik also references Plato’s idea of Forms, great universals that define the essence of all matter. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Platonic realism is a philosophical term usually used to refer to the idea of realism regarding the existence of universals after the Greek When the world begins to seemingly regress in time and all objects in it (such as television sets, refrigerators and automobiles) become that time period’s version of that object, Chip remarks that each is coming closer to barest, simplest Form. Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic A refrigerator (often called a " fridge " for short is a cooling appliance comprising a thermally insulated compartment and a Heat pump -

The name "Joe Chip" has the same initials as "Jesus Christ". Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE) Parallels can be drawn between Chip as a Christ figure (who suffers a temporary death or near-death and subsequent resurrection), Runciter as God-the-father, and Ubik as the Holy Spirit. Death is the termination of the biological functions that define living Organisms It refers both to a specific This article concerns itself with Jesus Christ Christian, Islamic and other religious interpretations of resurrection in general God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. However, these and other possible allusions to Christianity are by no means straightforward, and it is much more useful to examine the religious metaphors of Ubik in the context of Dick's larger spiritual and metaphysical worldview rather than as a readily explicable religious tale. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings

Adaptations

Videogame

In 1998, Cryo Interactive Entertainment released Philip K. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) Cryo Interactive Entertainment was a French video game development and publishing company founded in 1992, but existing unofficially since 1989 Dick’s Ubik, a tactical action/strategy videogame very loosely based on the book. The game allowed players to act as Joe Chip and train combat squads into missions against the Hollis Corporation. The game was available for Sony PlayStation and for Microsoft Windows and was not a significant commercial success. The PlayStation (abbreviated PS, PSone, PS1, or informally as PSX) is a 32-bit fifth generation Video game console Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft.

Attempts to produce an Ubik film

In 1974, French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin commissioned Dick to write a screenplay for an Ubik film. The cinema of France comprises the art of Film making within the nation of France or by French filmmakers abroad Jean-Pierre Gorin (born 1943 in Paris) is a French Filmmaker and Professor, best known for his work with Nouvelle Vague Dick completed the screenplay, turning it in within a month, but Gorin never filmed the project. The screenplay was published in 1985 as Ubik: The Screenplay (ISBN-13: 978-0911169065).

Tommy Pallotta, who produced the film adaptation of Dick's A Scanner Darkly, said in a July 2006 interview that he "still [has] the option for Ubik and will be looking to make a live action feature from it. Tommy Pallotta (born May 25, 1968, in Houston Texas) is an American Film director and producer. A Scanner Darkly is a 2006 film directed by Richard Linklater based on the novel of the same name by Philip K A Scanner Darkly is a 1977 Science fiction Novel by Philip K Dick. "[2] According to Dick's daughter Isa Dick Hackett, the film adaptation of Ubik is in advanced negotiation. [3]

As of May 2008 the film has now been optioned by Celluloid Dreams. The film will be produced by Hengameh Panahi of Celluloid Dreams and Isa Dick Hackett, the author's daughter, of Electric Shepherd Productions. It is slated to go into production in early 2009. [1]

References in popular culture

See also

References

  1. ^ Ubik - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME
  2. ^ GreenCine | article
  3. ^ http://www.calendarlive.com/books/cl-et-dick15sep15,0,5604716.story?coll=cl-books-features
  4. ^ UBIK www.editions-ubik.com - jeux de roles, jeux de cartes, jeux de plateaux, figurines
  5. ^ : Ub!k Io libraio :
A closet drama is a play that is not intended to be performed onstage but read by a solitary reader or sometimes out loud in a small group perhaps in a small room called Simulated reality is the proposition that Reality could be simulated—perhaps by Computer simulation —to a degree indistinguishable from "true" Reality
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