The Simulacra (original 1964; edition 1964)

In questo romanzo c'è dentro di tutto. Intanto una marea di personaggi le cui storie, all'inizio completamente scorrelate, si intersecano durante lo svolgimento del romanzo, ma anche i temi sono vari e eventuali; macchine del tempo, viaggi su marte, poteri cinetici a molto altro.
L'ambientazione è una Terra del futuro in cui però la seconda guerra mondiale è finita in modo diverso da come sappiamo (questo stesso tema è già presente in [b:The Man in the High Castle|216363|The Man in the High Castle|Philip K. Dick|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172783357s/216363.jpg|2398287]) e lo stato democratico-repubblicano che copre America e grossa parte dell'Europa è governato dal presidente (der Alte) e dalla first lady (Nicole). Ci sono però diversi segreti alla base del potere e il conoscerli o meno divide la popolazione nei Ge (i pochi che sanno) e nei Bes (il resto del popolo).
Su questo sfondo si alternano le vicende di una coppia di fratelli impiegati nelle due fabbriche concorrenti produttrici dei simulacri, quelle di due fratelli suonatori d'anfora che vogliono partecipare al talent show della Casa Bianca (questa storia in realtà nasce come racconto a se: "Novelty Act", da qui Dick ha dato vita a tutto il romanzo), a quella di un pinista telecinetico ma instabile e dell'ultimo psichiatra rimasto e così via (perchè c'è molto altro).
La narrazione alterna le varie storie che acquistano sempre più punti in comune raggiungendo la conclusione; i temi sono vari, però uno dei principali è quello annunciato dal titolo stesso, quello che crediamo essere vero non lo è, quello che vediamo spesso è un simulacro, qualcosa messo lì per confonderci e tenerci buoni mentre il potere, assieme alla nostra sorte, è in altre mani. ( )

Secret cabals, hidden plots, psychoanalysis, time travel, Germanic culture, simulacra, aliens, off world refugees, religious cults, throwbacks to the age of Neanderthals, an attempt to go back in time & psychoanalyse Hitler in the 1920s – classic Dick. Published in 1964 the plot is pretty tight in this novel & I enjoyed it very much. Especially after the last few I’d read were the product of a fast unraveling mind. This all seems normal by comparison. ( )

I'm really digging Philip K Dick lately. The Simulacra has a lot of different layers and seems to be a commentary about the illusory underpinnings of the culture in which we live. Seems to suggest that the structure on which we base our lives and which we find vitally important may be a construct. Not just an organic construct, a gradual building up of the system as we know it by generations of individual actions and an unwritten social contract, but an intentional construct devised by individuals for the purpose of controlling the masses and maintaining their own power. This book explores what happens when those in power learn they really aren't and the reality on which we all depend crumbles. When I put it that way, it sounds a little bleak. But I actually found it somewhat hopeful. ( )

My reactions to this novel upon reading it in 1989 -- spoilers follow.

The worst Philip K. Dick novel I’ve read to date. It was obvious what Dick was trying to do. His main inspiration, I’ll wager, was William Manchester’s The Arms of Krupp (or, if not that specific book, the same historical topic). The book is inspired by the Nazi political structure, its various battling factions, and its industrialist underpinnings. Dick also speculated on the nature of media and psychology in American politics. The Magna Mater and simulacra are clearly themes derived from Dick’s earlier work, We Can Build You.

But Dick produces a wandering plot with a real conflict introduced only about half way through the story and one of Dick’s notoriously ambivalent endings; this one is very reminiscent of Dick’s The Penultimate Truth. Surprisingly enough, Dick doesn’t even produce any memorable characters and few memorable scenes (the best and funniest one involving talking, alive, insect-like commercials). Nicole Thibodeux is little more than a straw figure and not fleshed out. Walter Penbroke is little more than a conniving, manipulative, Gestapo-like figure. Maury Frauenzimmer (A character with an almost identical name and business appears in We Can Build You.) and the other characters seem to be little more than collection of neuroses with the people from Electronic Music Enterprises being particularly superfluous (Molly Dondolo and Julie not even being fully realized versions of Dick’s rapacious women).

Dick’s society and political machinations are absurd. The idea of the President becoming a straw figure and the First Lady becoming a media image and Fuhrer image was interesting. But Dick completely mishandled it with a hodgepodge plot -- Goltz’s secret coven of leaders, the constant use of time travel equipment, and the development of the peculiar political system is very unbelievable. In the hands of, say, Norman Spinrad it would have been much better done. ( )