The Unteleported Man
Encyclopedia
The Unteleported Man is a 1966 science fiction
novel by Philip K. Dick
, first published as a short story in 1964.
Rachmael ben Applebaum, whose spaceship business has been ruined by teleportation, decides to make the journey to Whale's Mouth in his own craft, the Omphalos. Driven by a powerful hunch that the utopian vision may be false, he chooses to make the trip the old-fashioned way in case some of the colonists wish to return. Powerful figures oppose his journey.
Lies, Inc., the expanded version of The Unteleported Man, includes a new first chapter and about one hundred pages of additional exposition. This previously unpublished material begins in Chapter 8 with the phrase, "Acrid smoke billowed about him, stinging his nostrils." What then ensues is a truly horrific drug trip, described in excruciating detail, that Rachmael endures after arriving at his destination and being hit by an LSD
-tipped dart. The expansion material finally terminates in Chapter 16 just before the repeated phrase, "Acrid smoke billowed about him, stinging his nostrils."
Confusion may arise in the reader, however, over Dick's attributing at least part of the perceptual chaos to a deliberately incorporated effect of the teleportation process. Circumstances had forced Rachmael to abandon his original plans and to journey to Newcolonizedland via energy transfer instead. Sinister modifications to the "Telpor" technology apparently cause its victims to experience a variety of so-called "paraworlds" which are thought to actually exist, somehow, as viable alternate realities. Participants are fearful that consensus or agreement amongst themselves as to the paraworlds' descriptions could somehow cause one or the other paraworld to manifest itself ever more aggressively until eventually displacing the current reality-paradigm altogether. And Rachmael's own paraworld experience is said to be the worst one of all.
The novel in its current form is itself a tangled, chaotic jumble of interactions, perceptions and jump-cuts that leave the reader nearly as bewildered as Rachmael ben Applebaum himself. And the supremely anti-climactic resolution makes one wonder, whether Dick intended it or not, if there weren't possibly a more satisfying ending lurking about somewhere earlier in the story.
Magazine in 1964. The story rights were then bought by Ace Books
but Dick's subsequent revisions to bring the manuscript up to novel-length were rejected and the original story was published in 1966. Its first novel publication was as one half of Ace Double G-602, bound dos-à-dos
with The Mind Monsters by Howard L. Cory.
In 1983, the expanded 80,000-word story was published by Berkley Books. Dick had been revising the material to include his original 1965 expansions (some pages of the 1965 manuscript were missing, leading to continuity problems), before he died in March 1982, leaving the revision incomplete. The original story was published, with Dick's revisions and the recovered lost pages, in 1984 as Lies, Inc..
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel by Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
, first published as a short story in 1964.
Plot summary
A new teleportation technology makes travel by spaceship obsolete. A new colony, Whale's Mouth, has been the destination for forty million emigrants, but it is a one way trip - teleportation back to Earth is supposedly impossible. The only way to return is by spaceship, an eighteen-year journey for passengers who are subjected to a limited form of suspended animation.Rachmael ben Applebaum, whose spaceship business has been ruined by teleportation, decides to make the journey to Whale's Mouth in his own craft, the Omphalos. Driven by a powerful hunch that the utopian vision may be false, he chooses to make the trip the old-fashioned way in case some of the colonists wish to return. Powerful figures oppose his journey.
Lies, Inc., the expanded version of The Unteleported Man, includes a new first chapter and about one hundred pages of additional exposition. This previously unpublished material begins in Chapter 8 with the phrase, "Acrid smoke billowed about him, stinging his nostrils." What then ensues is a truly horrific drug trip, described in excruciating detail, that Rachmael endures after arriving at his destination and being hit by an LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
-tipped dart. The expansion material finally terminates in Chapter 16 just before the repeated phrase, "Acrid smoke billowed about him, stinging his nostrils."
Confusion may arise in the reader, however, over Dick's attributing at least part of the perceptual chaos to a deliberately incorporated effect of the teleportation process. Circumstances had forced Rachmael to abandon his original plans and to journey to Newcolonizedland via energy transfer instead. Sinister modifications to the "Telpor" technology apparently cause its victims to experience a variety of so-called "paraworlds" which are thought to actually exist, somehow, as viable alternate realities. Participants are fearful that consensus or agreement amongst themselves as to the paraworlds' descriptions could somehow cause one or the other paraworld to manifest itself ever more aggressively until eventually displacing the current reality-paradigm altogether. And Rachmael's own paraworld experience is said to be the worst one of all.
The novel in its current form is itself a tangled, chaotic jumble of interactions, perceptions and jump-cuts that leave the reader nearly as bewildered as Rachmael ben Applebaum himself. And the supremely anti-climactic resolution makes one wonder, whether Dick intended it or not, if there weren't possibly a more satisfying ending lurking about somewhere earlier in the story.
Publishing history
This particular book has an unusual publishing history compared to other novels by Dick. The story originally appeared in FantasticFantastic
The Fantastic is a literary term that describes a quality of other literary genres, and, in some cases, is used as a genre in and of itself, although in this case it is often conflated with the Supernatural. The term was originated in the structuralist theory of critic Tzvetan Todorov in his work...
Magazine in 1964. The story rights were then bought by Ace Books
Ace Books
Ace Books is the oldest active specialty publisher of science fiction and fantasy books. The company was founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn, and began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns...
but Dick's subsequent revisions to bring the manuscript up to novel-length were rejected and the original story was published in 1966. Its first novel publication was as one half of Ace Double G-602, bound dos-à-dos
Dos-à-dos binding
In bookbinding, a dos-à-dos binding is a binding structure in which two separate books are bound together such that the fore edge of one is adjacent to the spine of the other, with a shared lower board between them serving as the back cover of both...
with The Mind Monsters by Howard L. Cory.
In 1983, the expanded 80,000-word story was published by Berkley Books. Dick had been revising the material to include his original 1965 expansions (some pages of the 1965 manuscript were missing, leading to continuity problems), before he died in March 1982, leaving the revision incomplete. The original story was published, with Dick's revisions and the recovered lost pages, in 1984 as Lies, Inc..