Book Review - Philip K. Dick's Our Friends From Frolix 8
Our Friends From Frolix 8 by Philip K. Dick
Published by: Mariner Books Classics
Publication Date: 1970
Format: Kindle, 208 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)
22nd century Earth is ruled by two groups, the New Men, with their large craniums and IQs to match, and the Unusuals, who possess psychic powers from telepathy to precognition. There are only six thousand New Men ruling with the help of four thousand Unusuals. And yet the majority of the world, literally billions, is made up of Old Men, excluded from any form of job other than the menial. Nick Appleton is an Old Man. He works as a tire regroover. Yet he doesn't think to question the system until his son Bobby fails his Civil Service examination. The test is designed to fail Old Men. Bobby didn't have a chance. And this wakes Nick up. He is politicized, buying illegal booze and political tracts. The booze he gets from an alcoholic named Denny, the tracts he buys from Denny's girl, Charley. It's really for the sixteen-year-old subversive Charley that Nick is willing to be radicalized. He has fallen for her and through her learns more about the Under Men. A third group which wishes to lead but can't because they are composed of Old Men. Their second in command, Eric Cordon, is imprisoned and awaiting execution, but his tracts still reach the ears of those who will listen. But news comes that the leader of the Under Men, Thors Provoni, is returning to Earth. He has been to the outer reaches of the galaxy in what many thought was a vain attempt searching for help in unseating the ruling powers. There he found a "Friend from Folix 8," a sentient 90-ton gelatinous protoplasmic slim being known as Morgo Rahn Wilc. Needless to say this sends the New Men and the Unusuals into a tizzy. This is literally the alien invasion they have always feared coupled with the possible overthrowing of their government. Their leader, the Council Chairman of the Extraordinary Committee for Public Safety, Willis Gram, a telepath, starts making erratic calls. He has Eric Cordon executed, he has Nick Appleton labelled "subversive," and he asks for Charlotte "Charley" Boyer to be brought to him. What any of this has to do with stopping Thors Provoni we'll just have to wait and see. Perhaps Gram sees something no one else does?
Philip K. Dick can sometimes be amazingly precinct. Perhaps he himself is an Unusual? Because one of the first things that stood out to me when reading Our Friends From Frolix 8 was that Dick proclaimed that God is dead, they found his carcass floating out in space in 2019. And that folks, right there, explains everything that has happened since. 2020 and the pandemic predicted in 1970. Otherwise this is a very typical Dick novel, morally ambiguous male protagonist searching for meaning clings onto very one-dimensional woman. And if you know anything about Dick's personal life and his number of marriages, his inability to understand women is par for the course. It just so happens that Charley is unfortunately only sixteen so there's a major creepy pedophile factor which actually dovetails right into the Donald Trump of it all. Willis Gram is a bombastic and manipulative politician. He was obviously meant to be Richard Nixon. Reading this after Donald Trump became president makes it all the more eerie. Because Willis Gram IS Donald Trump. A man driven by base desires and revenge. A corpulent man who wishes to have his wife murdered by his enemy, Eric Cordon. Live on TV. Because it would kill two birds with one stone. Plus, the pageantry and the outpouring of sympathy for himself while he stalks closer to Charley is a dream come true. Sound familiar? You'd feel sorry for Mike Pence if he ever came out and condemned Trump for attempted murder, but that would never happen from Trump's bootlicker in chief. And the Trump of it all is my problem with this book. Willis Gram is the only interesting character and he's Trump. I don't want to think about Trump. I don't want to read about Trump. I want absolutely nothing in my life in any way connected with Trump. So reading this book was hard. I mean, as satire it's amazing. It's so spot on it's eerie. And I know the importance of using satire to emasculate our enemies, just look to Charlie Chaplin and Nancy Mitford during World War II. But there was something too immediate here. I just couldn't get past the Trump of it all. Perhaps one day when Trump is history without the "recent" qualifier I will reread this book and enjoy it more. Until then it still makes me shudder.
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