“Galactic Pot-Healer” (written in 1968, published in 1969) could be seen as the start of Philip K. Dick’s heavy interest in God and religion that defined his 1970s work (although it is definitely found in prior works, too).
The back half of the book – wherein an alien called Glimmung aims to raise a Cathedral from an ocean on Plowman’s Planet – is almost entirely a religious metaphor. That said, it’s quite readable despite its bizarre turn, as the titular Joe Fernwright holds our attention.
USA goes full Communist
The first half of the book is extremely prescient to 2020 – although it’s set in 2046 — as PKD populates Cleveland (a huge city in the now openly Communist USA) with people who are either jobless or hate their job.
“Galactic Pot-Healer” (1969)
Composition year: 1968
Author: Philip K. Dick
Genre: Science fiction
Setting: Plowman’s Planet, 2046
Joe travels from his hovel to his cubicle every day only to fail to hear from any customers looking to have their ceramic pots fixed. In the real world – thanks to the new habits fast-tracked by stay-at-home orders — we might be in the concluding days of people having distinct homes and workplaces, if it’s not necessary for their job.
After being threatened by the police with a ticket for walking too slow (the city blimps can’t handle the commuter demand), Joe’s day consists of finding nothing in his mail tube and killing time by playing The Game.
He and other sad sacks around the globe use computer translation programs to translate a famous book title from English to another language and back into English; then you must figure out the original title. Today, a YouTube channel remixes songs based on bizarre Google Translate translations.
In reading PKD’s portrayal of government-run encyclopedias and dictionaries – wherein you are allowed a limited amount of free access in a given period – we can be thankful in the U.S. that the government hasn’t taken control of the internet.
Runaway inflation
However, the author’s portrayal of runaway inflation is germane to the real world: When Joe gets his regular allotment of stamps (outright called “Mickey Mouse money” by citizens), he – like every other veteran on the dole – immediately buys goods with them before their value drops further. A handful of old-school quarters is worth millions of dollars of the 2046 currency.
There’s no doubt Joe’s Cleveland is centrally planned and oppressive. Even Plowman’s Planet is a society of fatalism, as everyone consults The Book (updated daily), which tells people their upcoming endeavors and the results.
But “Galactic Pot-Healer” also comments on Joe’s individual malaise, and how everyone must find inner inspiration rather than waiting around for society and government to change. One less-savory colleague suggests Joe could break into the museum and destroy all their pots, thus generating work for himself (“broken-window” economics theorists would no doubt favor this approach, too).
Later, Joe’s more positively inclined love interest, the green humanoid alien Mali, suggests that Joe go into business making new pots. Joe would fit right in in the real-world 2020 as he discovers how his skill set from a defunct profession translates to the new needs of the market. As Mali says, it might not be as dire as he thinks. (However, PKD is in a cynical mood here. The first pot Joe creates is, by Joe’s own expert admission, “awful.”)
Joe’s fiscal and employment travails are half of “Pot-Healer’s” thematic content. The other half is the religious stuff – wherein I suspect a reader’s mileage will wildly vary. I’m looking forward to learning about the metaphorical tie-ins to world religions by doing some more research.
Horror imagery from PKD
For now, I can appreciate the excellent imagery. When Joe and Mali don diving suits and enter the black ocean where the cathedral is submerged, it’s some of PKD’s best writing at establishing a sense of place. We get nightmare-type imagery such as Joe encountering a barely living corpse of his future self, as this ocean is a place that exists out of time.
Glimmung is a godlike figure in the PKD tradition that also includes Palmer Eldritch – a biological being who is godlike because he is more evolved than humans. Glimmung is cuddlier than Eldritch, though, as he hires Joe and other down-in-the-dumps sentients, requiring their specific skills in the raising and restoration of the cathedral.
Glimmung doesn’t force anyone to take the job, although he could if he wanted to. Indeed, he can absorb people into himself and draw from everyone’s energy. I picture Glimmung as a giant version of “Futurama’s” green ectoplasmic creature, even though that’s not precisely what PKD describes.
Through Glimmung’s absorption ability, PKD ties “Pot-Healer” back to its theme of Communism, as seen in the earlier portrayal of Cleveland. Joe and one other random character choose to leave Glimmung’s embrace and look for a job elsewhere, but everyone else – even Mali — opts to stay inside the giant ectoplasmic being.
Communism (and more broadly speaking, socialism and collectivism) is an objectively miserable form of government to live under, as Joe’s experience shows. But the reason it’s not relegated to the history books is because a lot of people yearn for it.