Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Below the Surface of Things Under the Hydrogen Bomb

No one takes the immaterialist philosophy of the 17th century Bishop Berkeley seriously today - that being is a result of being perceived. But perhaps we should. Isn’t this what quantum theory suggests, that only when something is noticed or measured does it become definite? And, at a more quotidian level, isn’t Berkeley’s kind of immaterialism the foundation of advertising in all its forms, from retail selling, to political campaigning, to the generating of national feeling? The only thing real is what is perceived to be real by enough people.

In Time Out of Joint, Dick explicitly takes the dear bishop at his word. But then Dick picks at a particularly loose thread. For Berkeley’s theory to work not only does everyone need to have the same perceptions, but the perceptions of each individual have to be consistent. Any dissonance among people or within anyone’s mind is problematic. Such dissonance causes doubt, and therefore inquiry, and eventually comparison of perceptions and judgments of which are right and which erroneous. Such is the perennial problem in any totalitarian state which attempts to control perception. Even the slightest lapse in propagandistic discipline will lead to trouble.

Despite their self-perception, Americans in the 1950’s lived in an arguably totalitarian state. Their perceptions of freedom was their reality. The uniformity of opinion, the banality of life, the striving to get on, the universally concealed envy, attachment to celebrity, and the vague anti-intellectualism were all part of what they meant by freedom. The shared fear of Communism and the H-bomb was a unifying perception created and sustained by government propaganda. Bishop Berkeley had been right, and America proved it.

But who watches the watchers? Who influences the influencers? Who sets the agenda for the agenda-setters? Perceptions spread like Chinese whispers, subtly evolving as they get passed on. And they’re inevitably circular; they get passed back to those who initially generated them. The big problem that the totalitarian state has is not insurrection but believing its own press. At that point its society loses touch with anything outside itself; it becomes psychotic.

Those who suspect things are not as they seem consider it is they who are psychotic. As one of Dick’s characters says to himself, “We have a hodge-podge of leaks in our reality... A drop here, a couple of drops over in that corner. A moist spot forming on the ceiling. But where's it getting in? What's it mean?” Exactly: the beginning of the end. Eventually the dam has to break and reality rushes in. Bishop Berkeley hadn’t considered death very seriously - the ultimate reality which certainly doesn’t depend on perception.


Postscript: Time Out of Joint was published in 1959. Exactly 30 years later, an episode of the television series, The Twilight Zone, entitled ‘Special Service’ had a suspiciously similar plot but no credit to Dick. Almost a decade later, the film The Truman Show was produced based on the episode. The film emphasised the sci-fi aspects of the script, making it even more like Dick’s story. Once again no credit was given to Dick. One is entitled to suspect some nefarious literary activities - right in line with the theme of Time Out of Joint. It was also produced in the same year in which the book is set. An irony about ironies? And in case you missed it just a little further below the surface: Ragle is Elgar backwards. Elgar’s 14 Enigma Variations each portray a person. Worth investigation by some young intellect with time on their hands.

View all my reviews