Eye in the Sky by Philip K. Dick
"Eye in the Sky" is a novel that explores the consequences of a catastrophic event during the testing of a powerful atom smasher called the Bevatron. The plot centers around Jack Eye in the Sky Hamilton, his wife Marsha, and their friend Charley McFeyffe, who, along with other bystanders, are injured when an uncontrolled proton beam causes an accident. As they recover, the trio experiences bizarre occurrences, including Jack's encounter with a plague of locusts and the unsettling transformation of their guide, Bill.
The narrative takes a surreal turn when Jack and Charley find themselves in an otherworldly realm governed by the perceptions of various characters, each representing different worldviews shaped by their personal biases and fears. Each subjective world reveals the characters' struggles and the absurdity of their viewpoints, leading to a series of strange scenarios. The climax occurs as they navigate through these fragmented realities, ultimately striving to return to their own reality. The novel concludes with their awakening back in the real world, prompting reflections on perception, reality, and the human experience.
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Eye in the Sky
First published: 1957
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—inner space
Time of work: October 2, 1959, and immediately before and after
Locale: San Francisco, California
The Plot
Jack Hamilton, a bright young engineer; Marsha, his wife; and Charley McFeyffe, their friend, go to witness the testing of a new attachment on the Bevatron, a powerful new atom smasher on which Hamilton has been working. An uncontrolled proton beam slices away the viewing platform, hurling the three of them, their guide, and four tourists through the beam to the floor of the chamber sixty feet below. All are injured and hospitalized, and they recover at different rates.
Jack, Marsha, and Joan Reiss, one of the tourists, are the first to be released. They go to the Hamilton home, where strange things begin to happen. For example, Jack is attacked by a plague of locusts, and Bill Laws, their black guide (who has dropped in to visit), gradually devolves into a drawling, shuffling caricature of a black man. Eventually, Charley also joins them. Jack and he are carried up to heaven while hanging onto an umbrella. In heaven, they are examined by an enormous eye, the “eye in the sky” of the title. Finally, they understand that the proton beam has somehow freed them from the real world and locked them into the world as seen by Arthur Silvester, another of the tourists trapped with them in the fall.
That worldview collapses when Arthur is knocked unconscious, and the group moves on to the next setting. At first, they think they are back in the common world, but once again, things begin to go awry: The newspaper has no bad news in it, there are no annoying flies and gnats, and Russia seems simply to have disappeared. It becomes clear that this is the world according to Edith Pritchett, another accident victim. Edith simply eliminates from her view anything she does not like, and there are many such things. When she censors cats, ugly industrial sites, and sex, they know they must act. Holding their breath, they trick her into deleting air from her world and wait until she faints.
The rules of the next world are laid down by Joan, an extremely paranoid woman. The two chapters of this worldview are perhaps the most harrowing of the novel. The protagonists escape Joans universe only when she encloses herself in an impenetrable cocoon and dies.
The fourth and last subjective world, after some initial misunderstanding, turns out to be that of Charley. A Communist, he sees the United States as a nation of tough-talking, Chicago-style gangsters who exploit ordinary citizens. He, too, is eventually knocked out. The characters awake safely in the real world at the novels end.
Bibliography
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Lem, Stanislaw. Microworlds: Writings on Science Fiction and Fantasy. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984.
Mackey, Douglas A. Philip K. Dick. Boston: Twayne, 1988.
Mason, Daryl. The Biography of Philip K. Dick. London: Gollancz, 2006.
Olander, Joseph, and Martin Harry Greenberg, eds. Philip K. Dick. New York: Taplinger, 1983.
Palmer, Christopher. Philip K. Dick: Exhilaration and Terror of the Postmodern. Liverpool, England: Liverpool University Press, 2003.
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Warrick, Patricia. Mind in Motion: The Fiction of Philip K. Dick. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987.
Williams, Paul. Only Apparently Real: The World of Philip K. Dick. New York: Arbor House, 1986.