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Our Friends from Frolix 8

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Our Friends from Frolix 8
Cover of first edition (paperback)
AuthorPhilip K. Dick
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublisherAce Books
Publication date
1970
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint
Pages189
ISBN0-441-64400-7
OCLC8131785

Our Friends from Frolix 8 is a 1970 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was written from 1968-69 and was published the next year by Ace Books. The novel is set in the 22nd century, where humanity is ruled by mutated humans, "New Men" and "Unusuals", while normal "Old Men" are discriminated against. The story follows Nick Appleton, a low-class worker who falls in love with a subversive agent, while a man named Thors Provoni has gone deep into space to find an ally to the resistance, the eponymous friend from Frolix 8. It is best known for a single scene where the characters discuss the dead body of God having been found in space.

It was written on commission for Ace Books in a period where Dick was short on money, and he himself stated that the book was a "regression" and a "throwaway". The novel is generally viewed as a poorer effort by Dick, with scholars and critics criticizing it for its unoriginality, dialogue and plot; literary scholar Patricia S. Warrick commented that "if an award were given for the most sterile Dick novel, Our Friends from Frolix 8 (1970) would be one of the leading candidates." Some of its ideas were praised, and its themes and contents have been seen as a throwback to Dick's earlier novels. The scene involving the death of God was viewed as foreshadowing themes found in Dick's later works.

Plot

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In the 22nd century,[a] the Earth is ruled by two classes of evolved superhuman men: "New Men", who have incredible intelligence and enlarged heads, and the "Unusuals", who possess paranormal abilities such as telepathy, telekinesis and precognition. Old Men, those with neither of these sets of powers (who still compose most of the population), are oppressed and disgruntled; dissident Old Men who refuse to submit are placed in concentration camps on the moon. The state heavily polices and surveils the population, and the Old Men are denied access to government positions through an examination deliberately geared toward only passing New Men and Unusuals.

A resistance figure known as Thors Provoni, who long ago went deep into space to find help for his resistance to New Men and Unusuals, has finally announced his impending return. He has found an alien being from known as Morgo Rahn Wilc, a protoplasmic sentient blob of 90 tons who has encircled Provoni's ship. Meanwhile, Nick Appleton, a lowly tire regroover — he cuts grooves into already worn tires — is further disillusioned with the system after his son Bobby fails the Civil Service examination, as he is an Old Man.

Terran authorities are holding Cordon, the leader of the dissident Old Men faction, the Under Men, in prison and preparing for his execution. This in combination with the failure of his son makes Appleton radicalize, and he falls for Charlotte "Charley" Boyer, a sixteen-year-old subversive who with her boyfriend distributes resistance literature. After the authorities discover that Appleton has become "subversive", they attempt to apprehend him and Charley. Appleton is arrested for having subversive literature, worrying the authorities this may be part of a greater trend, as he was once viewed as an everyman. Appleton is brought before Willis Gram, the Council Chairman and effective ruler; he is a mind-reading Unusual, and also in love with Charley. Gram fears the return of Provoni; he turns to a prominent New Man scientist, Amos Ild, to forsee the future, and Ild predicts through the New Man science of "neutrologics" that Provoni will be defeated with certainty. Charley predicts that Provoni will win, based on nothing.

Thors Provoni's craft has eluded Terran fleet defenses and is rapidly nearing Earth, leading to paranoid fears among the ruling elite about the possibility of violent alien invasion and their potential overthrowing. Provoni lands, and Morgo Rahn Wilc's body enveloping the ship guards it from all attempts to strike it down. Provoni is actually a New Man and an Unusual at the same time; Morgo Rahn Wilc removes all the powers of the Unusuals and New Men through physically removing parts of their brains. This renders the Unusuals normal, but the New Men become intellectually disabled and like children. The government collapses; Gram, having lost his ability to read minds, surrenders. In the end, a disempowered New Man expresses his thoughts about God in a childlike way.

Background and publication

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Refer to caption
Philip K. Dick in the early 1960s

The novel was written from 1968-69, completed 2 July 1969,[1] and published in 1970 in paperback format by Ace Books.[2][3] This was unlike the publication of other books of his in this period, which were usually initially hardcover.[3] The novel was written on commission for Ace Books, as Dick was short on money.[4][5] Its working title was Our Friends from Frolix 5; its outline was initially completed November 6, 1968, later published in the 19th issue of the PKDS newsletter in January 1989).[1] This outline differs in many ways from the final, published version.[6]

Dick himself called the book a "throwaway" and a "regression" and said he had simply written it for money.[7][3] He said of the time that he wrote it that: [7]

At that point I was beginning to become desperate because I was petrified, I mean ossified in my field. My structure, my characters were ossified. Everything.

Literary scholar Patricia S. Warrick said the book was the end of Dick's "Entropic" period, with his drug use, personal problems and "inhuman writing schedule" taking a negative toll on the work.[8] After its publication, Dick took a hiatus of several years.[9] A French translation, Message de Frolix 8, was published by Éditions OPTA [fr] in their Anti-mondes collection, for presenting the best of science fiction; it was the 13th book of his to be translated into French.[10]

Themes

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The theme of power struggles, utilized in previous Dick books, is returned to here.[8] Michael Rogers interpreted the novel as being about class struggle.[11] Other themes include freedom of choice, commitment to a cause, and the involvement of other powers in human affairs, as the Frolixian's motives are often ambiguous.[12] Douglas A. Mackey viewed the Frolixian as representing "the egoless moral integrity toward which humanity is rising".[13] Other books of Dick had already dealt with the idea of society being controlled by a small group of men, including one of his earlier novels, Solar Lottery;[14] both books similarly lead by space travels searching for other worlds.[15] Charles Thorpe compared the struggle between the New and Old Men to the conflict between the Bes and Ges in another Philip K. Dick novel, The Simulacra, comparing both to the rise of newer modes of societal advancement replacing older ones in American society.[16]

Mackey called it "in a sense a throwback";[3] Patricia S. Warrick said that themes common in his novels from the mid 1950s to 1960s, like violence, economic exploitation, media manipulation, totalitarianism and loss of morals, were present here as well, though they only "stir[red] feebly."[17] Jorge Rosa described the novel as "atypical" for that period of Dick's writings, and described the novel as a "partial reversing" of the premise of The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.[18] Gregg Rickman argued otherwise, saying that it did belong in the surrounding period of Dick's writings, throughtying into other works of the time through Dick's overall concern with "a God-figure coming to save us".[19]

Kim Stanley Robinson described the ending of the book as a deus ex machina, but argued that the hopefulness of this ending was "ambiguous at best".[20] The novel is most famous for a single joke,[21][20] where Nick and Charley discuss that the corpse of God had been found in space:[20]

"Listen to this, 'God tells us-'"

"God is dead," Nick said. 'They found his carcass in 2019. Floating out in space near Alpha."

"They found the remains of an organism advanced several thousand times over what we are," Charley said. "And it evidently could create habitable worlds and populate them with living organisms, derived from itself. But that doesn't prove it was God."

"I think it was God."

Robinson noted this as one of the earlier discussions of religion in Dick's works, which would show up more often in his later ones.[20]

Reception

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Patricia S. Warrick criticized the book. She described it, alongside the other books published by Dick at the start of the 70s (Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said and We Can Build You) as being "not among his strongest works",[22] and said that "if an award were given for the most sterile Dick novel, Our Friends from Frolix 8 (1970) would be one of the leading candidates."[8] Andrew M. Butler said it was dull in comparison to his other novels of the time, though there was nothing "wrong" one could point out, but that "dystopia meets space opera is all you can say about it".[23] Mackey called its plot "thin" compared to other books that had been written by Dick prior, with some of the weaknesses of more standard SF conventions appearing. He criticized its style and the dialogue of the characters, which he characterized as "babbling".[3] However, he called it "typical Dick, involving and entertaining", with its casualness being endearing though not a "masterpiece of structure".[24]

A contemporary review from the SF zine Luna Monthly praised it as a "readable and entertaining" book, which while having many "far-out ideas" had "more logic and cohesion" and being easier to follow than most of the author's works, calling its plot well structured and noting its scene and POV shifts to be typical of him.[25] Darrell Schweitzer, in the Science Fiction Review in 1978 called it "not top drawer Dick", but said that even "his middle drawers are more interesting than most",[26] while a review in the British sf magazine Vector called it "a lively, entertaining book, abrim with ideas", that presebts "no solutions to the various moral dilemmas" portrayed within.[12] Daniel Phi, writing in Horizons du Fantastique [fr], disliked the novel,[27] and Jean-Pierre Andrevon described it as "banal, empty, badly constructed, like a bad van Vogt novel"[27] and said it was "as dull and worn-out as possible".[28] Reviewing the French translation alongside A Maze of Death, Andervon said both novels were among his worst; while disliking both, he noted A Maze of Death as still better than Our Friends from Frolix 8, which he called a "great mediocrity".[29] Valerio De Angelis and Umberto Rossi also compared it to van Vogt, saying that while it and other works about the same time had poorly constructed plots, it was an excellent satire of the objectivity of TV commentary in parts.[30]

Darko Suvin described the plot points as happening like a "succession of rabbits out of a hat, in a quite arbitrary way".[2] Michael Rogers, writing for the Library Journal, described the novel as being "couched in the usual sf trappings", though noted it would appeal to those who were already fans of Dick and Blade Runner.[11] Warrick said that in writing the book, Dick had taken from his old works ideas and hastily put them together, in what she described as a "haphazard arrangement held with staples and binder twine", with "not one original idea".[8] Andrevon expressed a similar sentiment, saying that Dick had "merely systematically and inspiredly reused schemes he had once used infinitely better" in other works.[14] While describing it as "not successful", Warrick said it contained "passages rich with interesting ideas and characters", which allowed for a better understanding of Dick's creativity. She pointed out Provoni's character as an example of this.[31] Andrevon criticized the setting as unbelievable with the powers of the New Men seeming to be nothing more than the ability to understand higher math even though they behaved "like idiots"; he said that the setting was "so tenuous, so hollow, so badly structured, that a gust of wind would be enough to topple it".[32]

Notes

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  1. ^ There are various inconsistencies in the date given for the present time. While it says the mutants have been in powers for 50 years, since 2085, this would be 2135, however a calculation from Provoni's given age would make the date 2190.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Butler 2007, p. 93.
  2. ^ a b Suvin 2002, p. 374.
  3. ^ a b c d e Mackey 1988, p. 101.
  4. ^ Dick & Rickman 1988, p. 184.
  5. ^ DePrez 1977, p. 9.
  6. ^ Sandner 2020, p. 127.
  7. ^ a b Dick & Rickman 1988, pp. 183–184.
  8. ^ a b c d Warrick 1987, p. 61.
  9. ^ Andrevon 1973, p. 162.
  10. ^ Andrevon 1973, pp. 161–162, 166.
  11. ^ a b Rogers 2003, p. 134.
  12. ^ a b Evans 1976, p. 35.
  13. ^ Mackey 1988, p. 103.
  14. ^ a b Andrevon 1973, p. 164.
  15. ^ Rickels 2010, p. 200.
  16. ^ Thorpe 2011, p. 428.
  17. ^ Warrick 1987, p. 35.
  18. ^ Rosa 2013, p. 67.
  19. ^ Dick & Rickman 1988, p. 13.
  20. ^ a b c d Robinson 1981, p. 102.
  21. ^ Gorman 1983, p. 2D.
  22. ^ Warrick 1987, p. 150.
  23. ^ Butler 2007, p. 94.
  24. ^ Mackey 1988, p. 102.
  25. ^ Evers 1971, p. 43.
  26. ^ Schweitzer 1978, p. 58.
  27. ^ a b Bozzetto 1988, p. 131.
  28. ^ Andrevon 1973, p. 165.
  29. ^ Andrevon 1973, pp. 162–163.
  30. ^ De Angelis & Rossi 2006, p. 89.
  31. ^ Warrick 1987, p. 115.
  32. ^ Andrevon 1973, pp. 164–165.

Works cited

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