Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
Encyclopedia
Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said is a 1974 science fiction
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
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 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...

 about a genetically enhanced pop singer and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 star who loses his identity overnight. The story is set in a futuristic dystopia
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...

, where America has become a police state
Police state
A police state is one in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the population...

 after a Second Civil War. The novel was awarded first prize in the John W. Campbell Award
Campbell award (best novel)
The John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for best science fiction novel was created in 1973 by writers and critics Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss to honor Campbell's name...

s for the best science fiction
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 of the year in 1975. It was also nominated for a Nebula Award
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...

 in 1974 and a Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...

 in 1975.

Soon after writing this book, Dick said he experienced a series of strange coincidences in his own life. He wrote about this in the essay "How to Build a Universe that Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later," included as the introduction to his short story collection I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon
I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon (collection)
I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon is a book by Philip K. Dick, a collection of 10 science fiction short stories and one essay. It was first published by Doubleday in 1985 and was edited by Mark Hurst and Paul Williams...

.
He would later expand these experiences into one of his later novels, VALIS
VALIS
VALIS is a 1981 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. The title is an acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, Dick's gnostic vision of one aspect of God....

.

Plot summary

The novel is set in a dystopia
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...

n future United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 which is entering a post-totalitarian era with prospects of future democratic reform. Set in a then-future 1988, it extrapolates events from the late sixties and early seventies. These culminated in a "Second Civil War", also called the "Insurrection", which led to the collapse of democratic institutions in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and elsewhere. The National Guard ("nats") and US police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

 force ("pols") re-established social order through instituting a dictatorship, with a "Director" at the apex, and police marshals and generals as operational commanders in the field. Compulsory sterilization
Compulsory sterilization
Compulsory sterilization also known as forced sterilization programs are government policies which attempt to force people to undergo surgical sterilization...

 of African Americans has sharply reduced their population, and, after the laws for sterilization were eventually reversed, increased their social status to the point where even verbally harassing someone of colour is considered to be a major crime. By comparison, radicalised former university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

 students eke out a desperate existence in subterranean kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...

 communes. However, there appear to be no social barriers to the use of recreational drugs in this future, nor are some forms of paedophilia a crime.

After his former lover throws a Callisto
Callisto (moon)
Callisto named after the Greek mythological figure of Callisto) is a moon of the planet Jupiter. It was discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei. It is the third-largest moon in the Solar System and the second largest in the Jovian system, after Ganymede. Callisto has about 99% the diameter of the...

-based parasitic lifeform at him, celebrity entertainer Jason Taverner wakes up to find himself to be completely unknown to the outside world. He has no identification, there is no record of him in the extensive databases of the police government, and neither his friends nor his former fans have any memory of him. As an ex-celebrity
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...

 and an ex-citizen, he has real problems. These are exacerbated for him as a "Six", a highly rated stratum of covert genetic engineering
Genetic engineering
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...

 of humans that apparently began in the 1940s (although why this occurred and who instigated the process is left unclear).

Taverner's story is intertwined with those of Police General Felix Buckman and his hypersexual sister Alys Buckman, who has an incestuous relationship with her brother, but otherwise seems to be a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

. They have a son born of their union, Barney. After police surveillance detects Taverner's lack of identification, Felix interrogates him, but then is forced to let him go, whereupon Alys invites him to stay at her apartment.

Alys is a heavy user of recreational drugs, including KR-3, a new reality warping drug secretly being developed in police labs and tested on forced-labor inmates. Initially, she also appears to be the only person left who recognizes Jason Taverner. However, the drug has a devastating metabolic side effect in that overdose causes rapid decay. After Jason takes mescaline
Mescaline
Mescaline or 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine is a naturally occurring psychedelic alkaloid of the phenethylamine class used mainly as an entheogen....

 himself, he is horrified to find Alys' skeleton
Skeleton
The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...

 and leaves her home, before meeting Mary Ann Dominic, a potter
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

. As they discuss his recent experiences in a cafe
Café
A café , also spelled cafe, in most countries refers to an establishment which focuses on serving coffee, like an American coffeehouse. In the United States, it may refer to an informal restaurant, offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches...

, Taverner's existence returns to normal as the effects of the KR-3 that Alys took finally wear off posthumously.

Felix discovers that Alys had a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

 affair with Heather Hart, another elite "Six" (and one of Jason's ex-lovers). It is revealed that Alys set the whole plot in motion. By using KR-3 her mind became "unbound" from her own reality, allowing her to imagine a new "irreal" world where she knew Taverner personally. But the drug brought him over too, taking him from his own reality so she could perceive and interact with him in an adjacent world, one where Jason Taverner had never existed before. She fixated on Taverner due to her appreciation of his musical talent.

Jason surrenders himself to the police, so that he can be cleared of Alys' death, which duly occurs. Heartbroken, Felix then travels to the countryside to mourn the loss of his sister and lover.

In an epilogue
Epilogue
An epilogue, epilog or afterword is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature or drama, usually used to bring closure to the work...

, the final fates of the prior characters are disclosed. Felix Buckman retires to Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

 where he is assassinated for writing an exposé
Investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Investigative journalism...

 of the global police apparatus. His son Barney becomes a police officer as well, but is invalided out of the service, and becomes an antiques
Antiques
An antique is an old collectible item. It is collected or desirable because of its age , beauty, rarity, condition, utility, personal emotional connection, and/or other unique features...

 collector
Collecting
The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world...

. Jason Taverner dies of old age after a lifetime of hedonism
Hedonism
Hedonism is a school of thought which argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure .-Etymology:The name derives from the Greek word for "delight" ....

, while Heather Hart abandons her celebrity career, and becomes a recluse. Mary Anne Dominic's pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

 wins an international award and her works become of great value while she lives into her eighties. KR-3 test trials continued in secret for a few years but are deemed too destructive and the project is scrapped. Ultimately, the revolutionary students give up and voluntarily enter forced-labor camps. The detention camps later dwindle away and close down, the police-state government no longer poses a threat, and police marshals are abolished in 2136 CE.

The themes of celebrity, genetic enhancement, altered reality, and drugs are interwoven with discussion of the value of love and the meaning of identity.

Reception

New York Times reviewer Gerald Jonas praised the novel, saying that "Dick skillfully explores the psychological ramifications of this nightmare," but concludes that the story's concluding unconvincing rationalization of its events is "an artistic miscalculation [and] a major flaw in an otherwise superb novel."

Title

The title is a reference to Flow my tears
Flow my tears
Flow my Tears is a lute song by the accomplished lutenist and composer John Dowland.Originally composed as an instrumental under the name Lachrimae pavane in 1596, it is Dowland's most famous ayre, and became his signature song, literally as well as metaphorically: he would occasionally sign his...

, a piece by the 16th century composer John Dowland
John Dowland
John Dowland was an English Renaissance composer, singer, and lutenist. He is best known today for his melancholy songs such as "Come, heavy sleep" , "Come again", "Flow my tears", "I saw my Lady weepe" and "In darkness let me dwell", but his instrumental music has undergone a major revival, and has...

, setting to music a poem by an anonymous author (possibly Dowland himself). The poem begins:
Flow, my tears, fall from your springs,
Exiled for ever, let me mourn
Where night's black bird her sad infamy sings,
There let me live forlorn.

Author's interpretation

In his article 'How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later'http://deoxy.org/pkd_how2build.htm Dick recounts how in describing an incident at the end of the book (end of chapter 27) to an Episcopalian priest, the priest noted its striking similarity to a scene in the Books of Acts
Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...

 in the Bible. In Dick's book, the police chief, Felix Buckman, meets a black stranger at an all-night gas station, with whom he uncharacteristically makes an emotional connection. First of all he hands the stranger a drawing of a heart pierced by an arrow. He then flies away, but quickly returns and hugs the stranger, after which they strike up a friendly conversation. In the Book of Acts (chapter 8), the disciple Philip meets an Ethiopian eunuch
Ethiopian eunuch
The Ethiopian eunuch is a figure in the New Testament of the Bible. The story of his conversion to Christianity is recounted in Acts 8.-Biblical narrative:...

 (i.e. a black man) sitting in a chariot to whom he explains a passage from the Book of Isaiah
Book of Isaiah
The Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, preceding the books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the Book of the Twelve...

, and then converts him to Christianity.

Dick further notes that a few months after writing the book, he himself uncharacteristically came to the aid of a black stranger who had run out of gas. After giving the man some money and then driving away, he returned to help the man reach a gas station. Dick was then struck by the similarity between this incident and that described in his book (approaching a black stranger, and returning again).

Stage

Mabou Mines
Mabou Mines
Mabou Mines is an avant-garde theatre company founded in 1970 and based in New York City.-History:Mabou Mines is a collaborative, avant-garde theater company based in New York City...

 presented the world premiere of their adaptation of Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said at the Boston Shakespeare Theatre from June 18–30, 1985. The play received mixed reviews and a lot of attention from the Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 media. Linda Hartinian, a personal friend of Dick's, adapted the novel to the stage and designed the set (she also played Mary Ann Dominic, and read Dick's 1981 "Tagore Letter" at the end of the play).

The Boston Phoenix quotes Hartinian on the subject in an interview before the play opened: "He was someone I admired and looked up to, and I knew he had always wanted one of his works to be adapted. One day when I came to visit him he jumped up and grabbed this manuscript and said 'I want to give you something, but I don't have anything, so I'm going to give you this manuscript, and someday its gonna be worth a lot of money.'" The Phoenix continues, "It was a draft of Flow My Tears, and as Hartinian discovered when she sat down to adapt the book, it contained many passages that had been cut from the published text, including a discussion of ways to remember deceased writers that was to prove prescient. Naturally Hartinian based her script on her private edition."

The play was directed by Bill Raymond
Bill Raymond
Bill Raymond is an actor who has appeared in film, television and theatre since the 1960s.-Life and career:He featured in the second and fifth seasons of the HBO drama The Wire as "The Greek", the mysterious head of an international criminal organization. Other TV appearances include Miami Vice,...

, Hartinian's husband. "It was in response to Linda's loss that we chose Tears," he told the Phoenix, "because Flow My Tears is in fact a novel about grief, and not necessarily just about loss of identity." The play has been performed by Mabou Mines in Boston and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 and by the Prop Theatre in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

. It was published by the Dramatic Publishing Company of Woodstock, Illinois
Woodstock, Illinois
Woodstock is a far northwest suburb of Chicago in McHenry County, Illinois. The population was 20,151 at the 2000 census. The 2010 Census shows 24,770 residents. It is the county seat of McHenry County...

, which also leases stock and amateur acting rights to the play.

Film

On February 1, 2004, Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

announced that Utopia Pictures & Television
Utopia Pictures & Television
Utopia Pictures & Television is a production company and film distributor whose credits include the three movies based on the novel, Shiloh. On February 1, 2004, Variety announced that they had acquired the rights to produce three of Philip K. Dick's works: Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, VALIS...

 had acquired the rights to produce three of 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...

's works: Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, VALIS
VALIS
VALIS is a 1981 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. The title is an acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, Dick's gnostic vision of one aspect of God....

and Radio Free Albemuth
Radio Free Albemuth
Radio Free Albemuth is a novel by Philip K. Dick, written in 1976 and published posthumously in 1985. Originally titled VALISystem A, it was his first attempt to deal in fiction with his experiences of early 1974. When his publishers at Bantam requested extensive rewrites he canned the project and...

.

In May 2009, The Halcyon Company
The Halcyon Company
The Halcyon Company is an American privately financed, media development company headed by Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson. They are perhaps best known for acquiring the global rights to the Terminator franchise in 2007 and for producing Terminator Salvation, which was released worldwide in the...

, known for developing the Terminator
Terminator (franchise)
The Terminator series is a science fiction franchise encompassing a series of films and other media concerning battles between Skynet's artificially intelligent machine network, and John Connor's Resistance forces and the rest of the human race....

franchise, announced that after Terminator Salvation
Terminator Salvation
Terminator Salvation is a 2009 American science fiction action film directed by McG and starring Christian Bale and Sam Worthington. The fourth installment in the Terminator series, the film is set in 2018 and focuses on the war between Skynet and humanity, with the human Resistance fighting...

, they will next adapt Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. Halcyon acquired the first-look rights to the works of Philip K. Dick in 2007.

Publication information

  • Philip K. Dick, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, ISBN 0-679-74066-X

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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