re:mote voices: literature

Title: Radio Free Albemuth
Author: Philip K. Dick
Publisher: Voyager

Kennedy has been assassinated, America is involved in the Vietnam war, things are not going entirely well. President Freemont maintains that there is a negative element in America, which is weakening their endeavours. This element comes from the organisation Aramcheck, who are subversive and are the enemy of the American people. But against a background of hippies and communists and generally changing politics, the extremists haven't even heard of Aramcheck. Regardless the president sets up the Friends of the American People, an organisation that watches everyone, reporting perceived indiscretions and subversions. Which sets Radio Free Albemuth up as a book with a background against a tyrannical and highly paranoid America. Though the way this works isn't as pronounced as I initially expected.

The story is from the point of view of a science fiction writer called Philip K. Dick who is under observation by the FAP because of the strange ideas in his books. But at the same time it isn't about him, the story is about his friend Nicholas. Nicholas is experiencing strange things, which increasingly seem to take the form of information beamed into his head in the middle of the night, remembered to varying degrees in the waking hours. He confides in his friend Phil in the hope that he can explain what is happening, but as Phil says, everything he writes about is fiction. As the situation in America continues to get worse and paranoia reaches new levels it becomes clear that Nicholas is a tool for the resistance. Though much of the book is spent on speculation as to what that really means and where the voices in his head are really coming from than actually forming a resistance or acting.

The first part of the book is the best, it works up the background detail well. With that it is interesting for Dick to have cast himself as the narrator. Particularly when he goes off on a tangent about how he was portrayed as a druggy by the media and how it just wasn't true. But at the same time we see how his house is broken into, how he is visited by the FAP who are trying to trap him or get him to incriminate his friends. In some ways this builds a nice level of paranoia, at times reminiscent of A Scanner Darkly.

The second part switches to the perspective of Nicholas and how he becomes increasingly in tune with the organisation sending messages to him. With this there is a lot of speculation as to what it is - is it the notional Aramcheck, or is it a biblical action that signals the last days with the rebirth of the true believers, or instead an alien intelligence trying to get back in touch with its lost children and help them fight against evil. This speculation gets a little out of hand for me, the character getting bogged down in the details of his fantasies and the whole strangeness of what is happening to him. Which I suppose to be fair, if you were convinced you were receiving messages in your sleep and at times there was someone taking control of your body then you would try and work out what is going on. Either that or everyone would think you were mad, and there are several people that do tell him that. There is some nice material in this section, and it does move the whole along, but too slowly. One of the nicest touches in this section is seeing the author from his characters' view point!

RVWR: PTR
November 2001