I hope I shall arrive soon

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P. K. DICK

I HOPE

I SHALL ARRIVE SOON

& OTHER STORIES

All of the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,

is purely coincidental.

"How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later" and "Strange Memories of

"The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford" first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and

Science Fiction, January 1954.

"Explorers We" first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1959.

"Holy Quarrel" first appeared in Worlds of Tomorrow, May 1966.

"What'll We Do with Ragland Park?" first appeared in Amazing, November 1963.

"The Alien Mind" first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1981.

"The Exit Door Leads In" first appeared in Rolling Stone College Papers, Fall 1979.

"Chains of Air, Web of Aether" first appeared in Stellar Science-Fiction Stories #5, Del Rey

Books, 1980.

"Rautavaara's Case" first appeared in Omni, October 1980.

"I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon" first appeared (as "Frozen Journey") in Playboy, December 1980.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION: HOW TO BUILD A UNIVERSE THAT DOESN'T FALL APART TWO

DAYS LATER by Philip K. Dick

THE SHORT HAPPY LIFE OF THE BROWN OXFORD

EXPLORERS WE

HOLY QUARREL

WHAT'LL WE DO WITH RAGLAND PARK?

STRANGE MEMORIES OF DEATH

THE ALIEN MIND

THE EXIT DOOR LEADS IN

CHAINS OF AIR, WEB OF AETHER

RAUTAVAARA'S CASE

I HOPE I SHALL ARRIVE SOON

INTRODUCTION:

HOW TO BUILD A UNIVERSE

THAT DOESN'T FALL APART TWO DAYS LATER

by Philip K. Dick

First, before I begin to bore you with the usual sort of things science fiction writers say in

speeches, let me bring you official greetings from Disneyland. I consider myself a spokesperson for

Disneyland because I live just a few miles from it—and, as if that were not enough, I once had the

honor of being interviewed there by Paris TV.

For several weeks after the interview, I was really ill and confined to bed. I think it was the

whirling teacups that did it. Elizabeth Antebi, who was the producer of the film, wanted to have me

whirling around in one of the giant teacups while discussing the rise of fascism with Norman Spinrad

... an old friend of mine who writes excellent science fiction. We also discussed Watergate, but we

did that on the deck of Captain Hook's pirate ship. Little children wearing Mickey Mouse hats—

those black hats with the ears—kept running up and bumping against us as the cameras whirred

away, and Elizabeth asked unexpected questions. Norman and I, being preoccupied with tossing

little children about, said some extraordinarily stupid things that flay. Today, however, I will have to

accept full blame tor what I tell you, since none of you are wearing Mic-Key Mouse hats and trying

to climb up on me under the impression that I am part of the rigging of a pirate ship.

Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. We can't talk about

science, because our knowledge of it is limited and unofficial, and usually our fiction is dreadful. A

few years ago, no college or university would ever have considered inviting one of us to speak. We

were mercifully confined to lurid pulp magazines, impressing no one. In those days, friends would say

to me, "But are you writing anything serious?" meaning "Are you writing anything other than science

fiction?" We longed to be accepted. We yearned to be noticed. Then, suddenly, the academic world

noticed us, we were invited to give speeches and appear on panels—and immediately we made

idiots of ourselves. The problem is simply this: What does a science fiction writer know about? On

what topic is he an authority?

It reminds me of a headline that appeared in a California newspaper just before I flew here.

SCIENTISTS SAY THAT MICE CANNOT BE MADE TO LOOK LIKE HUMAN BEINGS. It

was a federally funded research program, I suppose. Just think: Someone in this world is an authority

on the topic of whether mice can or cannot put on two-tone shoes, derby hats, pinstriped shirts, and

Dacron pants, and pass as humans.

Well, I will tell you what interests me, what I consider important. I can't claim to be an authority

on anything, but I can honestly say that certain matters absolutely fascinate me, and that I write about

them all the time. The two basic topics which fascinate me are "What is reality?" and "What

constitutes the authentic human being?" Over the twenty-seven years in which I have published

novels and stories I have investigated these two interrelated topics over and over again. ' consider

them important topics. What are we? What is it which surrounds us, that we call the not-me, or the

empirical or phenomenal world?

In 1951, when I sold my first story, I had no idea that such fundamental issues could be pursued

in the science fiction field. I began to pursue them unconsciously. My first story had to do with a dog

who imagined that the garbagemen who came every Friday morning were stealing valuable food

which the family had carefully stored away in a safe metal container. Every dS members of the family

carried out paper sacks of S ripe food, stuffed them into the metal container, Shut the lid tightly—

and when the container was full, these dreadful-looking creatures came and stole everything but the

can.

Finally, in the story, the dog begins to imagine that someday the garbagemen will eat the people in

the house, as well as stealing their food. Of course, the dog is wrong about this. We all know that

garbagemen do not eat people. But the dog's extrapolation was in a sense logical—given the facts at

his disposal. The story was about a real dog, and I used to watch him and try to get inside his head

and imagine how he saw the world. Certainly, I decided, that dog sees the world quite differently

than I do, or any humans do. And then I began to think, Maybe each human being lives in a unique

world, a private world, a world different from those inhabited and experienced by all other humans.

And that led me to wonder, If reality differs from person to person, can we speak of reality singular,

or shouldn't we really be talking about plural realities? And if there are plural realities, are some more

true (more real) than others? What about the world of a schizophrenic? Maybe it's as real as our

world. Maybe we cann ot say that we are in touch with reality and he is not, but should instead say,

His reality is so different trom ours that he can't explain his to us, and we can't explain ours to him.

The problem, then, is that if subjective worlds are exPerienced too differently, there occurs a

breakdown ofcommunication...and there is the real illness.

I once wrote a story about a man who was injured and taken to a hosPital. When they began

surgery on him, they discovered that he was an android, not a human, but he did not know it. They

had to break the news to him. Almost at once, Mr.Garson Poole discovered that his reality consisted

of punched tape passing from reel to reel in his chest. Fascinated, he began to fill in some of the

punched holes and add new ones. Immediately, his world changed. A flock of A flew through the

room when he punched one new!1 in the tape. Finally he cut the tape entirely, whereu the world

disappeared. However, it also disapn? for the other characters in the story . . . which tj no sense, if

you think about it. Unless the o2 characters were figments of his punched-tape fanta Which I guess is

what they were.

It was always my hope, in writing novels and stories which asked the question "What is reality?",

to some day get an answer. This was the hope of most of my readers, too. Years passed. I wrote

over thirty novels and over a hundred stories, and still I could not find out what was real. One day a

girl college student in Canada asked me to define reality for her, for a paper she was writing for her

philosophy class. She wanted a one-sentence answer. I thought about it and finally said, "Reality is

that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." That's all I could come up with. That was

back in 1972. Since then I haven't been able to define reality any more lucidly.

But the problem is a real one, not a mere intellectual game. Because today we live in a society in

which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, governments, by big corporations, by

religious groups, political groups—and the electronic hardware exists bywhich to deliver these

pseudo-worlds right into heads of the reader, the viewer, the listener. Sometimes when I watch my

eleven-year-old daughter watch TV I wonder what she is being taught. The problem if miscuing;

consider that. A TV program produced for adults is viewed by a small child. Half of what is said and

done in the TV drama is probably misunderstood by the child. Maybe it's all misunderstood. And the

thing is, Just how authentic is the information anyhow, even if the child correctly understood it? What

is the relationship between the average TV situation comedy and reality? What about the cop

shows? Cars are continually swerving out of control, crashing, and catching fire. The police are

always good and they always win. Do not ignore that one point: The police always win. What a

lesson that is. You should not fight authority, and even if you do, you will lose. The message here is,

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摘要：

P.K.DICKIHOPEISHALLARRIVESOON&OTHERSTORIES2Allofthecharactersinthisbookarefictitious,andanyresemblancetoactualpersons,livingordead,ispurelycoincidental."HowtoBuildaUniverseThatDoesn'tFallApartTwoDaysLater"and"StrangeMemoriesofDeath"copyright©1985byTheEstateofPhilipK.Dick."TheShortHappyLifeoftheBrown...

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