The Eyes Have It (1953) | Hacker News Reader

The Eyes Have It (1953)

gutenberg.org

193 pointsKye38 comments

An amazing start:

“It was quite by accident I discovered this incredible invasion of Earth by lifeforms from another planet. As yet, I haven’t done anything about it; I can’t think of anything to do. I wrote to the Government, and they sent back a pamphlet on the repair and maintenance of frame houses.”

This story is 100% classic PKD, but that first para is just outstanding.

As a non-native English speaker it took me a few paragraphs to get the punny core of the story. However, I still don't get this part:

"I wrote to the Government, and they sent back a pamphlet on the repair and maintenance of frame houses"

I have the feeling that there is also pun in this sentence but I can't find it.

As a non-native English speaker I just took that line to be a hilarious version of form letter response. "Your business is important to us" replies have been around forever.

If you want to stretch it a bit there could be a pun involving frame-up but I doubt it.

No, this is just an observation on the competence of government, a common theme of Dick’s.

It sounds like the government might have understood it as a termite invasion.

I think that's exactly what the author of the story meant.

I see, that kind of makes sense!

This is in the PD due to the vagaries of US copyright renewal at the time, and was commonplace for pulp sci-fi.

Standard Ebooks has a nice and free PKD compilation of all of the stuff that Gutenberg has if you’re looking for an ebook version: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/philip-k-dick/short-fictio...

That might be where I originally read it. It stuck with me over the years because it's exactly the sort of silly thing I would write.

I had trouble scanning that first sentence as I read “PD” as “Philip Dick”!

I'm amazed by how bright-eyed the prose style is here compared to Dick's later works, not to mention the gimmick! There's nothing like a few decades of literary failure to stamp out the pesky flame of exuberance and enable some really great writing.

"There's nothing like a few decades of {X} failure to stamp out the pesky flame of exuberance and enable some really great {Y}" would seem to hold for many, many (X,Y) pairs.

Where X is not necessarily distinct from Y, just for added emphasis :)

Can X = Y = "exuberance"

That and his addiction to amphetamines adds a heavy amount of paranoia to his later work

A Scanner Darkly builds on his personal experience with addiction and addicts in recovery.

And his late paranoia wasn't only present in his work:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24468452

I wondered if I saw the influence of PG Wodehouse on the writing.

He’s a fascinating author to read the corpus of, in chronological order. You can see the man, quite clearly, and how he goes from chipper 50’s pulp writer to new wave prophet of banal doom, step by reality-shattering step. Some of his earlier work like “Beyond Lies the Wub” hints at what would later come, with the theme of existential query and horror.

The man had a truly brilliant mind. His final works, up to and including his death, are the most concinnous possible conclusion to the arc of a life he could have executed. He lived his art.

"Lies, Inc." aka "The Unteleported Man" had an eye eater!

https://www.academia.edu/2360689/The_Missing_Pages_of_THE_UN...

Freya said, "Tell me. What is the 'eye-eater'? I have to know." Her breath caught in her throat; raggedly, she managed to breathe, but with difficulty.

"A fungiform," the taller of the THL agents said briefly. "One that resides here." He said nothing further. [...]

The eye-eater said pleasantly, "Mr. Ben Applebaum, reach inside me and you will find a slightly-different edition of Dr. Bloode's Text. A copy of the twentieth edition, which I ingested some time ago... but as far as I can determine, not already dissolved by my gastric juices." The idea seemed to amuse it; the lower portion of its face split apart in a peal of excrutiatingly-penetrating laughter.

"You're serious?" Rachmael said, feeling disorganized. And yet the eye-eater was correct; if it did possess a later edition of the text he most certainly had reason to seek it out -- wherever it lay, even within the body of the offensive eye-eater. "Look, look," the eye-eater exclaimed; it held in one of its longer [...]

https://sickmyduck.narod.ru/dick15-0.html

"A lie," the eye-eater rumbled ominously; again its pseudopodia whipped viciously, seeking out the agile creditor balloon, which dipped and bobbed barely beyond the flailing reach of the several sucker-impregnated arms. "As a matter of fact, this gentleman here-" It indicated Rachmael. "My understanding is that the lady and this individual are emotionally involved. Miss Holm is-was, whatever-a friend of mine, a very close friend. But hardly my mistress." The eye-eater looked embarrassed. [...]

The Eyes Have It (1953) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30004360 - Jan 2022 (91 comments)

Dear sir, your package has arrived in good order. When I asked for your daughters hand I meant so figuratively, not literally. Yours truly, A. Suitor.

Stay fit, intact and well within the predefined bounds of this collective reality to avoid becoming… well… Space Bacon.

Sorry I couldn’t resist to spread my science fiction based alien propaganda as well.

Nice story! It feels very Sheckley like in style.

It also brought Chesterton to mind.

> Without batting an eyelash.

I'm surprised he didn't misconstrue his own prose.

> Without batting an eyelash.

You have to be quite precise to accomplish that!

”The eyes chico, they never lie”

That’s a strange thing to claim. Don’t they usually lie in their eye sockets?

Those eyes are in orbits, naturally.

Ever watch any Burt Lancaster movies? The trained eye can say whatever it chooses to say.

I'm a simple man, I see a PKD post, I upvote and comment. My favorite author.

Highly recommend the biography Divine Invasions. He was such a fascinating (and troubled) person.

We're all troubled. The empire never ended.

The Black Iron Prison holds fast.

You mean this?

https://blackironprison.com

An update on that:

https://ebookoflove.com/2022/05/02/victory/

Technically it's not just the Roman Empire. The Roman empire was just an instance.

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