Paycheck

When “Paycheck” appeared in 1953, Philip K. Dick was in his mid-20s and had been publishing for two years. The Golden Age of science fiction was in full swing in a year that gave us still-popular works by Poul Anderson, Arthur C. Clarke, Brian W. Aldiss, Ray Bradbury, Hal Clement, Theodore Sturgeon, Clifford D. Simak, Frederick Pohl, Robert Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov. Somehow, though, I never think of PKD as a contemporary of most of these writers. He seems younger to me.

The movies have something to do with that impression. His work has always inspired glossy, updated treatments by Hollywood. “Paycheck,” for example, got a second life in 2003 when it was adapted into a movie by John Woo with Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman. The show more action of the film is as quick as a Marvel superhero epic. The script and special effects provide an appropriately futuristic, if unergonomic, look and feel to the technology.

All this glitz conceals the story’s Cold War roots. Jennings, PKD’s protagonist, is not a programmer, a hacker, or engineer. He is a “mechanic” hired to work on computer programs as if they were Model-Ts. He is not, like Affleck’s character, a high-priced, valued professional. He considers himself a working stiff who wants his life to follow the pattern of a Horatio Alger story, where the hero starts poor and, through luck and pluck, gets rich and marries the boss’s daughter. Uma Thurman’s Rachel is a stronger character than PKD’s Kelley, especially in the action scenes.
In its own time, the story was forward-looking. It explores some ideas we would hear more about later in the decade. Jennings sees himself caught between the corporations and the government, between what C. Wright Mills would call elements of “the power elite.” Like Thorby in Heinlein’s 1957 Citizen of the Galaxy, he wants to use corporate power to start a revolution to overthrow the police state. His life, he says, “depends on the Company,” and he wants “to get inside before it’s too late.” None of these political ideas appear in the movie. Affleck and Thurman’s characters take the money and are content to tend their greenhouse. show less

Hoo-hoo, people must have been pissed when they bought this one, thinking they were getting some novelization of a movie they once half-watched on a plane. Instead they find they've bought (quelle horror!) a collection of twelve kind of/sorta related short stories, drawn from throughout Philip Dick's career. There are some good tales included but this was a pretty clever (i.e. dishonest) marketing gimmick by somebody, old stories packaged with a flashy new cover. P.T. Barnum would've approved...

When mechanic Jennings completes his contract with Rethrick Construction, he learns he turned down a fortunate for a number of trinkets. Since his memory of the two years he served with Rethrick has been erased, he has no idea why he gave up his paycheck. When the secret police come for him, they do not believe he has "forgotten" two years of his life and everything he knew about Rethrick. As Jennings realizes the trinkets are helping him escape from complex situations, he realizes the only way to be safe is to blackmail Rethrick into protecting him from the government. With the way the trinkets are always the perfect object at the perfect time, Jennings also realizes he was working on a machine that allowed one to view the future. He show more created a plan to ensure his success and survival.

SPOILERS:
The trinkets that Jennings received as payment are as follows:
-- A length of fine wire (to short out and open a police car door)
-- A bus token (to speed escape from the police)
-- A ticket stub (to locate the hidden Rethrick's building)
-- A green strip of cloth (as a worker's armband it enables him to sneak into Rethrick's building)
-- A code key (to open an exit from the Rethrick's building)
-- Half a broken poker chip (to gain entry into a gambling establishment where he hides from multiple factions)
-- A parcel receipt (to access the material he stored to blackmail Rethrick) show less

This collection holds 12 of PKD's 121 short stories.
To be honest, these are mostly in the "just OK" and "hadn't aged that well" area, and far from his best.
Or his second best.
Or even his third best...

The idea behind the story is pretty good, especially considering it came from, what, the 1940s? (And I guessed it was an older one as soon as I saw "rockets" mentioned.) But I didn't really get into it. At least "Paycheck" was a quick read and a bit interesting in parts. I have the feeling, though, that this might be one of those rare cases where the movie is better than the story/book behind it... of course, I've yet to watch the movie...