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zephturner's review against another edition
5.0
Loved this. A very high-concept story with an excellent concept. The plot twists were blatantly obvious and guessable but this did not detract at all from the appeal of the work as a whole. Delightful.
trigonomitron's review against another edition
3.0
This is where Idiocracy got its plot. An everyman finds himself unexpectedly relocated to the future. The people of this future are missing a fundamental human character trait that is valued by the author. This trait is common in the everyman's time, making him average there, but its absence in the future gives him an advantage in the story. It's up to him to save the world from itself.
Reading old science fiction from our vantage point here in the future more easily reveals the bemoaning message that the author tries to caution us with. It looks like we've been fearing a sort of Idiocracy since at least 1953. I think it's easy to look around and see our peers lack the qualities we wish society had, and we look back through magic glasses and believe the world of our youth was a hardier place. I'm willing to bet that some psychologist has put a name to this bias at some point. Nevertheless, this is the phenomenon that allows us to believe that society is becoming stupider while the opposite is true.
So who is the everyman in the 1950s? He's the blue-eyed, blue-collared rough-and-tumble guy. He's Steve McQueen. Hes a rebel. He's got grease on his hands and blue-jeans. He's got a plain grasp of the obvious that all of those supposedly educated guys apparently lack. He can fix a car as well as wrangle a team of horses. This is the relatable guy of those days. Contrast him with the protagonist of the more modern telling of this plot.
His ability, lost to humanity, is the ability to fix things. In the future, everybody is an over-educated white-collar specialist. No one person has enough general knowledge to understand a thing as a whole, not enough to take it apart and fix it.
The dynamic that Dick is trying to express is that of Conan vs civilization. Lament the loss of the physical manly-man. The smarty-nerd world doesn't make sense to him. It misses some point. It's a sad, American perspective that prevails still today as anti-intellectualism. How dare we pursue book-smarts in favor of "real," fix the pickup truck, throw a football, milk the cows, life ends at high school, level of smarts.
In a way, the story almost inadvertently touches on an actual loss that may be creeping up on us today. It's that issue of fixing things. It's not due to this pretentious notion of losing our masculinity, though. Rather it's capitalism. You used to have a local TV repair shop. Now TVs have gotten so complex, you aren't expected to repair one. Cars are coming with less and less user serviceable parts: Some of them require a machine shop to dismantle the whole front compartment just to change a headlight. DRM is sneaking its way into everything to prevent you from fixing, tampering, or even owning the things you own, and the law backs it up. Obsolescence is deliberately built right in to most products so that you will have to return to a company with your wallet every few years.
I think that just as we all groan and observe that we've already entered our own Idiocracy, Philip K. Dick was already seeing his world lose the qualities that he valued in his time. We can take a bit of comfort, however, in the observation that we are 60 years in his future and his beloved small-town American testosterone is still obnoxiously present in our society today. Perhaps in 60 years, though our world will be made condescendingly simple, we won't find ourselves to be any less arrogant about our society's intellectual level than we are today.
Reading old science fiction from our vantage point here in the future more easily reveals the bemoaning message that the author tries to caution us with. It looks like we've been fearing a sort of Idiocracy since at least 1953. I think it's easy to look around and see our peers lack the qualities we wish society had, and we look back through magic glasses and believe the world of our youth was a hardier place. I'm willing to bet that some psychologist has put a name to this bias at some point. Nevertheless, this is the phenomenon that allows us to believe that society is becoming stupider while the opposite is true.
So who is the everyman in the 1950s? He's the blue-eyed, blue-collared rough-and-tumble guy. He's Steve McQueen. Hes a rebel. He's got grease on his hands and blue-jeans. He's got a plain grasp of the obvious that all of those supposedly educated guys apparently lack. He can fix a car as well as wrangle a team of horses. This is the relatable guy of those days. Contrast him with the protagonist of the more modern telling of this plot.
His ability, lost to humanity, is the ability to fix things. In the future, everybody is an over-educated white-collar specialist. No one person has enough general knowledge to understand a thing as a whole, not enough to take it apart and fix it.
The dynamic that Dick is trying to express is that of Conan vs civilization. Lament the loss of the physical manly-man. The smarty-nerd world doesn't make sense to him. It misses some point. It's a sad, American perspective that prevails still today as anti-intellectualism. How dare we pursue book-smarts in favor of "real," fix the pickup truck, throw a football, milk the cows, life ends at high school, level of smarts.
In a way, the story almost inadvertently touches on an actual loss that may be creeping up on us today. It's that issue of fixing things. It's not due to this pretentious notion of losing our masculinity, though. Rather it's capitalism. You used to have a local TV repair shop. Now TVs have gotten so complex, you aren't expected to repair one. Cars are coming with less and less user serviceable parts: Some of them require a machine shop to dismantle the whole front compartment just to change a headlight. DRM is sneaking its way into everything to prevent you from fixing, tampering, or even owning the things you own, and the law backs it up. Obsolescence is deliberately built right in to most products so that you will have to return to a company with your wallet every few years.
I think that just as we all groan and observe that we've already entered our own Idiocracy, Philip K. Dick was already seeing his world lose the qualities that he valued in his time. We can take a bit of comfort, however, in the observation that we are 60 years in his future and his beloved small-town American testosterone is still obnoxiously present in our society today. Perhaps in 60 years, though our world will be made condescendingly simple, we won't find ourselves to be any less arrogant about our society's intellectual level than we are today.
myriadreads's review against another edition
3.0
Great premise, but the book seemed rushed and just didn't transport me as PKD's fiction usually does.
mayastone's review against another edition
adventurous
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
fleural's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
The Variable Man by Philip K. Dick is a fast-paced, action-packed adventure of a novella that isn´t as nuanced or thought-provoking as perhaps other works by PKD but is still interesting and entertaining.
mike_word's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
dandelionking's review against another edition
2.0
I loved the story but unfortunately it had one scene that was not needed. For that, I've given this interesting story 2 instead of 4 or 5 stars because of this.
smthuriot's review against another edition
3.0
It was OK, not one of his best works, but not bad for a short story.
oluwaran's review against another edition
4.0
A wonderful story about how intuition can save the day. With growing evidence, we are seeing that intuition should not be as highly prized as we once imagined, but this story is an example of how it still has its uses. Also, it does not demonize the concept of being a jack of all trades, which is usually followed by the insult "master of none." The author also throws in some dystopian ideas such as the worship of machines, intergalactic war, and a monopoly on power.