Martian Time-Slip
Encyclopedia
Martian Time-Slip is a 1964 science fiction
novel
by Philip K. Dick
. The novel uses the common science fiction
concept of a human colony
on Mars
. However, it also includes the themes of mental illness
, the physics of time
and the dangers of centralized authority.
The novel is expanded from Dick's original novella
All We Marsmen, published in three parts in the August, October and December 1963 issues of Worlds of Tomorrow
magazine.
to flee from his bouts of schizophrenia
. He lives with a wife and a young son. His father Leo visits Mars to stake a claim to the seemingly worthless Franklin D. Roosevelt
mountain range
after receiving an insider tip that the United Nations
plans to build a huge apartment complex there. The complex will be called "AM-WEB", a contraction of the German phrase "Alle Menschen werden Brüder" (All men become brothers) from Schiller's An die Freude (Ode to Joy
).
Bohlen has a chance encounter with Arnie Kott, the hard-nosed leader of the Water Worker’s Union, when both Bohlen’s and Kott’s helicopter
s are called to assist a group of critically dehydrated Bleekmen, the "original" inhabitants of Mars who are thought to be genetically similar to the African Bushmen of Earth. Bohlen rebukes Kott for his hesitance to help the Bleekmen, an act that angers Kott.
After visiting with his ex-wife Anne Esterhazy about their own "anomalous" child, Kott hears of the theories of Dr. Milton Glaub, a psychotherapist at Camp Ben-Gurion, an institution for those afflicted with pervasive developmental disorder
s. Glaub believes that mental illnesses may be altered states of time perception. Kott becomes interested in Manfred Steiner, an autistic
boy at Camp B-G in the hopes that the boy can predict the future - a skill Kott would find useful to his business ventures. Since Camp B-G is scheduled for closure, Kott offers to take Manfred off Glaub's hands. Manfred in turn is afraid of a future only he can see, in which Mars is derelict and the AM-WEB is a dumping ground for forgotten people like him, where he will eventually be confined as a decrepit old man to a bed on life-support.
Kott leases Bohlen’s contract from his current employers and hires him to build a video device that can help Manfred perceive time at a regular pace (Kott is also ultimately intent on getting revenge on Bohlen). Bohlen takes a liking to Manfred but the assignment stresses him out because he fears that contact with the mentally ill may cause him to relapse. Bohlen also begins an affair with Kott’s mistress.
One of Bohlen's regular jobs is to service the simulacra at the International School, where lessons are taught by robotic simulations of historical figures. These figures are deeply disturbing to Bohlen as they remind him of his own schizoid episodes where he perceived people around him as non-living mechanisms. When he takes Manfred to the school during an assignment, the simulacra begin acting strangely, as it seems Manfred is altering their reality. Eventually Bohlen is asked to take Manfred away. In light of other events it isn't entirely clear, however, whether Manfred is actually affecting the simulacra or whether he's merely influencing Jack Bohlen's perception of them.
Only Heliogabalus, Kott's Bleekman servant, is able to connect with Manfred. From Manfred's point of view, humans are strange beings who live in a world of fractured time where they disappear from one place and reappear in another and otherwise move in a jerky, uncoordinated manner. Heliogabalus, to Manfred, moves smoothly and gracefully. He seems to talk to Manfred without words.
The precipitating event of the story is the suicide of Manfred Steiner's father Norbert which has the effect of connecting Kott to Manfred and thereby depriving Otto Zitte, a colleague of Norbert's, of his livelihood. The crux of the story is a meeting between Kott, Bohlen and Kott's mistress, Doreen Anderton, at Kott's home, with Manfred in tow. This episode is previewed three times before it actually occurs, apparently through Manfred's eyes but with participation by Bohlen. Each time the events are more surreal, the perceptions more hallucinatory. When the events of the story finally reach the crucial point, which Bohlen fears after having foreseen the outcome, Bohlen himself does not experience it. His awareness stops as he and Doreen arrive at Kott's home and picks up after they leave. He only knows that he and Kott parted ways, superficially friends but actually enemies.
Pressured by Kott, Heliogabalus reveals that the Bleekmen's sacred rock, "Dirty Knobby", can be used as a time travel
portal that Manfred may be able to open. Kott centers his interest in altering the past on two goals: Revenge on Jack Bohlen and claiming the FDR mountains before Leo Bohlen does.
Somewhat predictably, the scheme goes badly awry. Returned in time to the point where he first appeared in the novel, emerging from the sybaritic bath-house run by the Union, Arnie Kott finds himself repeating the actions which led him to meeting Bohlen while simultaneously dealing with perceptual distortions which seem to be emanating from Manfred's mind. He is unable to get to the FDR mountains to plant his stake, being compelled by law to go the aid of Bleekmen just as he did before. He encounters Bohlen, as he did originally, but in attempting to shoot him he is "killed" by a Bleekman's arrow.
Waking from the vision, Kott realizes he has failed. He decides to give up on his schemes, abandon Doreen and let Bohlen get on with his life. He still desires to help Manfred who has wandered off during the purported "time-travel" episode. Leaving the cave in Dirty Knobby where they performed Heliogabalus's strange ritual, he encounters Otto Zitte. After the suicide of Norbert Steiner, Kott, his best customer, elected to take over Norbert's business. Zitte was competing, so Kott's men destroyed the smuggler's storage facility and the adjacent property, leaving a message that "Arnie Kott doesn't like what you stand for". Zitte has pursued Kott, following his helicopter to Dirty Knobby. He shoots Kott, who thinks he might still be stuck in another one of Manfred's hallucinations. Bohlen and Doreen land in Kott's own helicopter and take Kott back to Lewistown. Kott dies, believing to the last that he was only experiencing another hallucination.
Bohlen returns to his wife, Silvia, who had been seduced by Zitte on his sales round. Despite both admitting to infidelity, Jack with Doreen and Silvia with Zitte, they decide to maintain their marriage. There is a disturbance in the Steiner home, and Steiner's widow runs screaming into the night. Barging in, Bohlen and his father see Manfred, old and in a wheelchair, festooned with tubes, accompanied by Bleekmen. Manfred joined a group of Bleekmen after leaving Dirty Knobby, and has saved himself from AM-WEB. He has come back through time to see his family and thank Bohlen for saving him.
In a subdued final scene, Bohlen and his father are out searching for Steiner's widow in the darkness, with voices "business-like and competent and patient."
and runs approximately 9.5 hours over 8 CDs
. It was released under the title Martian Time-Slip and The Golden Man, and also includes a reading of Dick's short story "The Golden Man
." A previous Martian Time-Slip audiobook — read by Tom Parker, unabridged, approximately 9 hours over 6 audio cassettess
— was released in 1998.
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...
. The novel uses the common 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...
concept of a human colony
Terraforming
Terraforming of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth, in order to make it habitable by terrestrial organisms.The term is sometimes used more generally as a...
on Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
. However, it also includes the themes of mental illness
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
, the physics of time
Time in physics
Time in physics is defined by its measurement: time is what a clock reads. It is a scalar quantity and, like length, mass, and charge, is usually described as a fundamental quantity. Time can be combined mathematically with other physical quantities to derive other concepts such as motion, kinetic...
and the dangers of centralized authority.
The novel is expanded from Dick's original novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
All We Marsmen, published in three parts in the August, October and December 1963 issues of Worlds of Tomorrow
Worlds of Tomorrow (magazine)
Worlds of Tomorrow was an American science fiction magazine published from 1963 to 1967, after it was merged into If. It briefly resumed publication in 1970 and 1971. The magazine was edited by Frederik Pohl in its first period of publication, and by Ejler Jakobsson in the second. It has published...
magazine.
Plot summary
Jack Bohlen is a repairman who emigrated to MarsMars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
to flee from his bouts of schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
. He lives with a wife and a young son. His father Leo visits Mars to stake a claim to the seemingly worthless Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
mountain range
Mountain range
A mountain range is a single, large mass consisting of a succession of mountains or narrowly spaced mountain ridges, with or without peaks, closely related in position, direction, formation, and age; a component part of a mountain system or of a mountain chain...
after receiving an insider tip that the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
plans to build a huge apartment complex there. The complex will be called "AM-WEB", a contraction of the German phrase "Alle Menschen werden Brüder" (All men become brothers) from Schiller's An die Freude (Ode to Joy
Ode to Joy
"Ode to Joy" is an ode written in 1785 by the German poet, playwright and historian Friedrich Schiller, enthusiastically celebrating the brotherhood and unity of all mankind...
).
Bohlen has a chance encounter with Arnie Kott, the hard-nosed leader of the Water Worker’s Union, when both Bohlen’s and Kott’s helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
s are called to assist a group of critically dehydrated Bleekmen, the "original" inhabitants of Mars who are thought to be genetically similar to the African Bushmen of Earth. Bohlen rebukes Kott for his hesitance to help the Bleekmen, an act that angers Kott.
After visiting with his ex-wife Anne Esterhazy about their own "anomalous" child, Kott hears of the theories of Dr. Milton Glaub, a psychotherapist at Camp Ben-Gurion, an institution for those afflicted with pervasive developmental disorder
Pervasive developmental disorder
Pervasive developmental disorders is a diagnostic category refers to a group of disorders characterized by delays or impairments in communication, social behaviors, and cognitive development.Pervasive developmental disorders include Autism, Asperger's syndrome, Rett's syndrome, Childhood...
s. Glaub believes that mental illnesses may be altered states of time perception. Kott becomes interested in Manfred Steiner, an autistic
Autism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
boy at Camp B-G in the hopes that the boy can predict the future - a skill Kott would find useful to his business ventures. Since Camp B-G is scheduled for closure, Kott offers to take Manfred off Glaub's hands. Manfred in turn is afraid of a future only he can see, in which Mars is derelict and the AM-WEB is a dumping ground for forgotten people like him, where he will eventually be confined as a decrepit old man to a bed on life-support.
Kott leases Bohlen’s contract from his current employers and hires him to build a video device that can help Manfred perceive time at a regular pace (Kott is also ultimately intent on getting revenge on Bohlen). Bohlen takes a liking to Manfred but the assignment stresses him out because he fears that contact with the mentally ill may cause him to relapse. Bohlen also begins an affair with Kott’s mistress.
One of Bohlen's regular jobs is to service the simulacra at the International School, where lessons are taught by robotic simulations of historical figures. These figures are deeply disturbing to Bohlen as they remind him of his own schizoid episodes where he perceived people around him as non-living mechanisms. When he takes Manfred to the school during an assignment, the simulacra begin acting strangely, as it seems Manfred is altering their reality. Eventually Bohlen is asked to take Manfred away. In light of other events it isn't entirely clear, however, whether Manfred is actually affecting the simulacra or whether he's merely influencing Jack Bohlen's perception of them.
Only Heliogabalus, Kott's Bleekman servant, is able to connect with Manfred. From Manfred's point of view, humans are strange beings who live in a world of fractured time where they disappear from one place and reappear in another and otherwise move in a jerky, uncoordinated manner. Heliogabalus, to Manfred, moves smoothly and gracefully. He seems to talk to Manfred without words.
The precipitating event of the story is the suicide of Manfred Steiner's father Norbert which has the effect of connecting Kott to Manfred and thereby depriving Otto Zitte, a colleague of Norbert's, of his livelihood. The crux of the story is a meeting between Kott, Bohlen and Kott's mistress, Doreen Anderton, at Kott's home, with Manfred in tow. This episode is previewed three times before it actually occurs, apparently through Manfred's eyes but with participation by Bohlen. Each time the events are more surreal, the perceptions more hallucinatory. When the events of the story finally reach the crucial point, which Bohlen fears after having foreseen the outcome, Bohlen himself does not experience it. His awareness stops as he and Doreen arrive at Kott's home and picks up after they leave. He only knows that he and Kott parted ways, superficially friends but actually enemies.
Pressured by Kott, Heliogabalus reveals that the Bleekmen's sacred rock, "Dirty Knobby", can be used as a time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
portal that Manfred may be able to open. Kott centers his interest in altering the past on two goals: Revenge on Jack Bohlen and claiming the FDR mountains before Leo Bohlen does.
Somewhat predictably, the scheme goes badly awry. Returned in time to the point where he first appeared in the novel, emerging from the sybaritic bath-house run by the Union, Arnie Kott finds himself repeating the actions which led him to meeting Bohlen while simultaneously dealing with perceptual distortions which seem to be emanating from Manfred's mind. He is unable to get to the FDR mountains to plant his stake, being compelled by law to go the aid of Bleekmen just as he did before. He encounters Bohlen, as he did originally, but in attempting to shoot him he is "killed" by a Bleekman's arrow.
Waking from the vision, Kott realizes he has failed. He decides to give up on his schemes, abandon Doreen and let Bohlen get on with his life. He still desires to help Manfred who has wandered off during the purported "time-travel" episode. Leaving the cave in Dirty Knobby where they performed Heliogabalus's strange ritual, he encounters Otto Zitte. After the suicide of Norbert Steiner, Kott, his best customer, elected to take over Norbert's business. Zitte was competing, so Kott's men destroyed the smuggler's storage facility and the adjacent property, leaving a message that "Arnie Kott doesn't like what you stand for". Zitte has pursued Kott, following his helicopter to Dirty Knobby. He shoots Kott, who thinks he might still be stuck in another one of Manfred's hallucinations. Bohlen and Doreen land in Kott's own helicopter and take Kott back to Lewistown. Kott dies, believing to the last that he was only experiencing another hallucination.
Bohlen returns to his wife, Silvia, who had been seduced by Zitte on his sales round. Despite both admitting to infidelity, Jack with Doreen and Silvia with Zitte, they decide to maintain their marriage. There is a disturbance in the Steiner home, and Steiner's widow runs screaming into the night. Barging in, Bohlen and his father see Manfred, old and in a wheelchair, festooned with tubes, accompanied by Bleekmen. Manfred joined a group of Bleekmen after leaving Dirty Knobby, and has saved himself from AM-WEB. He has come back through time to see his family and thank Bohlen for saving him.
In a subdued final scene, Bohlen and his father are out searching for Steiner's widow in the darkness, with voices "business-like and competent and patient."
Audiobook
An audiobook version of Martian Time-Slip was released in 2007. The audiobook, read by Grover Gardner, is unabridgedAbridgement
Abridgement or abridgment is a term defined as "shortening" or "condensing" and is most commonly used in reference to the act of reducing a written work, typically a book, into a shorter form...
and runs approximately 9.5 hours over 8 CDs
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
. It was released under the title Martian Time-Slip and The Golden Man, and also includes a reading of Dick's short story "The Golden Man
The Golden Man
"The Golden Man" is an 11600-word science fiction novelette by Philip K. Dick. It was received by the Scott Meredith Literary Agency on June 24, 1953, and first published in the April 1954 issue of If magazine. The story was illustrated by Kelly Freas in its original publication...
." A previous Martian Time-Slip audiobook — read by Tom Parker, unabridged, approximately 9 hours over 6 audio cassettess
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
— was released in 1998.
Criticism
- Aldiss, Brian, "Dick's Maledictory Web", Science-Fiction Studies # 5, 1975, pp. 42-7.
- Jameson, Fredric. Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions, London and New York: Verso, 2005.
- Pagetti, Carlo. “Dick verso la metafantascienza” [Introduction], Philip K. Dick, Noi marziani, Milan: Nord, 1973.
- _______________. "I procioni di Marte", Philip K. Dick, Noi marziani, Milan: Nord, 1973, pp. 7-21.
- Vallorani, Nicoletta. “Con gli occhi di un bambino: Lo sguardo di Manfred su una società psicotica”, Trasmigrazioni: I mondi di Philip K. Dick, V.M. De Angelis and U. Rossi (eds.), Firenze: Le Monnier, 2006, pp. 178-187.