All this escalation of philosophical intensity leads to big expectations, but when the truth comes out, it’s anticlimactic. It’s a good enough idea in and of itself, but it only barely ties in with the philosophical speculation that precedes it. The slips of paper, for example, make little sense other than to heighten the mystery. They suggest something metaphysical that just isn’t there. Also, a practical matter ~ wouldn’t it have been easier to just build a soft-drink stand than to brainwash people into seeing one? In a civil war", Ragle said, "every side is wrong. It's hopeless to try to untangle it. Everyone is a victim." Review [Spanish] by Alberto Cairo (2001) in Las 100 mejores novelas de ciencia ficción del siglo XX Published and marketed along with his SF canon, but written during the period of his mainstream efforts and less "far out there" than many of his works. Written in 1958 when Phil was just 30, and published in '59, this is the earliest of his novels that I've read. He may not have always shown it over the course of his 45-novel career, at least in part because he wrote some of those novels in two-week amphetamine binges, but Time Out of Joint reminds me that not only did he have brilliant ideas, but that by this early point in his career he was also a real craftsman who knew what he was doing with a story. There's an elegant simplicity to this novel, yet it somehow managed to keep surprising me.

I read Time Out of Joint right after going through the amazing PKD life story, and it definitely affected how I saw the book. Rossi, Umberto, “The Harmless Yank Hobby: Maps, Games, Missiles and Sundry Paranoias in Time Out of Joint and Gravity’s Rainbow”, Pynchon Notes #52–53, Spring-Fall 2003, pp.106–123 Then we have the last part of the book, which is a political thriller. Yeah, the whole buildup ends in quite a disappointing revelation. What I most enjoyed in the book was the philosophical speculation about the nature of reality and the meaning of words. When Ragle initiates a conversation with his brother-in-law about philosophy, he cites George Berkeley ~ the Idealist philosopher who proposed that nothing actually exists except as ideas in the mind of God. “ How do we know that piano exists?” says Ragle and Vic replies “ I’m sorry, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s just a bunch of words” (49). What I was trying to do in that book was account for the diversity of worlds that people live in. I had not read Heraclitus then, I didn’t know his concept of idios kosmos, the private world, versus koinos kosmos, which we all share. I didn’t know that the pre-Socratics had begun to discern these things. There’s a scene in the book where the protagonist goes into the bathroom, reaches in the dark for a pull-cord, and suddenly realizes there is no cord, there’s a switch on the wall, and he can’t remember when he ever had a bathroom when there was a cord hanging down. Now, that actually happened to me, and it was what caused me to write the book. It reminded me of the idea that Van Vogt had dealt with, of artificial memory, as occurs in THE WORLD OF NULL-A where a person has false memories implanted. A lot of what I wrote, which looks like the result of taking acid, is really the result of taking Van Vogt seriously! I believed Van Vogt, I mean, he wrote it, you know, he was an authority figure. He said, people can be other than whom they remember themselves to be, and I found this fascinating. You have a massive suspension of belief on my part."

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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. While the rest of the world toils at their jobs, Ragle Gumm stays at home, his sole source of income a daily newspaper contest called "Where will the little green man appear next?" When odd things start happening, Ragle thinks he may be having a nervous breakdown. Is he or is it something much more sinister? Then comes the second part, which is very Kafkaesque. Ragle Gumm wants to run away from the city, but everybody and everything is preventing him from achieving that. I almost see K. and his Trial in here - when K. is trying to change the course of events, it only leads to failure. However, Ragle succeeds and manages to break away. This was published in 1959, one of his earlier novels and an observant reader of PKD will notice a more subtle approach than some of his later, Kafkaesque absurd and over the top science fiction vehicles. But even this early some ubiquitous themes emerge such as latent conspiracy theories, paranoia, mirror image delusions of grandeur and references to mental illness and self destruction. Also present are familiar classical, biblical and psychological references.

Ragle Gumm is an ordinary man leading an ordinary life, except that he makes his living by entering a newspaper contest every day -- and winning, every day. But he gradually begins to suspect that his life -- indeed his whole world -- is an illusion, constructed around him for the express purpose of keeping him docile and happy. But if that is the case, what is his real world like, and what is he actually doing every day when he thinks he is guessing 'Where Will The Little Green Man Be Next?' A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.In many ways, PKD is playing with the readers mind, because he isn’t giving too much away, or offering any number of ideas on the nature of Ragle’s reality. The bulk of the plot is a spoiler, so to say as little as possible about this book: A man called Ragle Gumm lives an ordinary life next door to some great neighbors and in a seemingly ordinary town in the same house with his sister and his brother in law. He makes a living, oddly, by winning big prizes from newspaper competitions. Ragle starts searching for answers when a soda-pop turns into a slip of paper with Soda-pop written on it before his eyes, and he slowly notices other objects turning to slips of paper. He sets out on a journey for the truth along with his brother in-law and the curtains slowly unravel as the pieces of the puzzle are put together. It’s clear to us that you believe what you say. But don’t you see what you’re doing? Because you believe everyone’s against you, you force everyone to be against you.” In una qualunque cittadina, di una qualunque provincia americana, Ragle Gumm vive con la sorella Margot, il cognato Victor ed il nipotino Sammy. Under everything else,’ Ragle said. ‘The word. Maybe it’s the word of God. The logos. ‘In the beginning was the Word‘”(170).

The Truman Show, a 1998 American comedy-drama film that chronicles the life of a man who discovers he is living in a constructed reality soap opera, televised 24/7. Ragle Gumm has a unique job: every day he wins a newspaper contest. And when he isn t consulting his charts and tables, he enjoys his life in a small town in 1959. At least, that s what he thinks. But then strange things start happening. He finds a phone book where all the numbers have been disconnected, and a magazine article about a famous starlet he s never heard of named Marilyn Monroe. Plus, everyday objects are beginning to disappear and are replaced by strips of paper with words written on them like "bowl of flowers" and "soft drink stand." When Ragle skips town to try to find the cause of these bizarre occurrences, his discovery could make him question everything he has ever known.The philosophical foundation of Time Out of Joint is the Platonic distinction between the true nature of reality and the illusion that we usually mistake for reality. Once Ragle sets out to discover the truth, it is Immanuel Kant that he cites. Kant’s philosophy distinguishes between the world of our perceptions and the world as it truly is. “ The Ding an sich, as Kant said” (170). Vic’s dismissal of Berkeley’s metaphysics as “ just a bunch of words” inspires further speculation by Ragle. The book is about Ragle Gumm, an unemployed middle aged man who lives with his sister, her husband and their small kid. Ragle is a local celebrity in his small American town on account of the fact that he keeps winning a newspaper contest that requires extraordinary skills in mathematics. When he is not working hard at the contest, he is swilling beer and lusting for his neighbors wife. But Ragle senses that something is not right with his existence. Small clues lead him to question the very nature of his reality and what he believes to be true. Ragle could be at the centre of a sinister plot by the government to hide the truth about space travel and its benefits from the citizens. It had nothing to do with minerals, resources, scientific measurement. Nor even exploration and profit. Those were excuses. The actual reason lay out-side their conscious minds. If he were required to, he could not formulate the need, even as he experienced it fully. No once could. An instinct, the most primitive drive, as well as the most noble and complex. It was both at once." I still love the book, but now, having read PKD's biography, I understand a little bit more about his relationships with women. He really sees his ideal partner as a stupid and dependent young female. PKD had a lot of problems, and his emotional immaturity is quite visible here, but hey, we all have our mistakes, and PKD is still an excellent writer. So, for me, three and a half stars rounded up.