Customer Reviews

Dr. Bloodmoney Or, How We Got Along After the Bomb

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have been aware of the work of Philip K. Dick for a very long time; I can recall seeing the Ace Double with _Dr. Futurity_ on one side on the racks when it was new. The same is true with _Dr. Bloodmoney_. I think I made my first attempt at reading a Dick novel when I was in junior high school, and over the ensuing 40 years or so have periodically made more attempts at enjoying the work of Dick, with infrequent success.

Now it is as though I have discovered a new writer, and in some ways it's like being in elementary school and discovering Heinlein, van Vogt, Poul Anderson etc. again. In the case of this particular book, it is indeed new to me, as I never tried _Dr. Bloodmoney_ before.

This book starts out just like a mainstream novel, and slips into the stfnal mode gradually, by stages. At the beginning, it's just a normal day at a TV store in Berkeley, CA. But after a bit, things start to get a little strange, when it is revealed that the phocomelus is not only telekinetic, but also can see the future, if he drinks a bottle of beer. By the end of the book things have gotten stranger than you're likely to expect, which is part of what I love about this book. Another part is that the characters are still very believable, even when they are doing convincing telepathic impersonations of the dead, or the like.

Dick's strengths are not the strengths of most science fiction writers. His science tends to be weak, while he excels in plotting and characterization. His strongest point is his ability to juxtapose extremely weird ideas with convincing characters and plotlines. It all actually makes sense, at least if the reader has mental flexibility.

If you're a fan of Dick, I think you would like this book very much. If you're familiar with sf, but not with the work of Dick, you can expect it to not be anything like the other authors you've read. Philip K. Dick is in his own way even more idiosyncratic than Jack Vance, which is saying something!

I highly recommend this book.

The first image in this novel is that of a black man named Stuart McConchie sweeping the sidewalk in front of a Berkeley TV shop, eyeing the pretty girls on their way to work and indulging in some contempt for the approaching patients of the psychiatrist across the street. In any ordinary novel, that image would tell you that the book is going to be about that black man and those patients. In PKD, the image tells you that the book will be about prejudice.

The average author, to tackle that theme, would provide us with a group of unprejudiced characters battling a group of prejudiced ones and make it very clear which are the good guys and which the bad guys. PKD was always a little too smart for that. Just about every character in "Dr. Bloodmoney" is suspicious of pretty nearly every other character he or she meets at one time or another. That includes several characters who have good reason to be suspicious - Bruno Bluthgeld, for instance, the Dr. Bloodmoney of the title, who believes himself personally responsible for the nuclear exchange that brings the world to its knees. Hoppy Harrington, too, has good reason for his suspicions - he's a telekinetic biological sport with no arms or legs at a time when atomic radiation has produced talking dogs and musical rats, so everyone's been looking at him funny his whole life; he's not just imagining things.

However, the culture of suspicion even affects little Edie Keller and the undeveloped but quite powerful twin brother in her body. The culture of suspicion gets to Edie's father, George, who thinks his wife is cheating on him (he's right). It affects everyone, even the best of men and women. About the only character with no prejudice to speak of in "Dr. Bloodmoney" is Walt Dangerfield, left stranded in an orbiting satellite by the outbreak of war, and his lack of suspicion eventually leaves him the most vulnerable of all.

The good guys, in other words, are highly intolerant of anyone or anything new. PKD makes good use of the irony that this xenophobia blinds the people of West Marin County to the dangers that Bruno Bluthgeld and Hoppy Harrington pose to them directly, simply because both men have been around them for awhile. There are plenty of mainstream novels which deal with that very subject - you could name ten or more in less than five minutes - without the necessity of dragging in nuclear war and mutant mental powers.

In short, this is maybe the least SF that an SF novel could possibly be. This is not necessarily a criticism, of course - in fact, it would make "Dr. Bloodmoney" an excellent entry point into the works of PKD except for one thing. The story doesn't really get moving until about a third of the way in.

The novel is one of PKD's longest, and he spends a good bit of time on the events of the day the bombs come down. The story proper, however, begins seven years later, when a worldwide culture of semi-rural enclaves has settled into its routine, loosely knit together by communications from the man in the satellite. The opening events have little or no connection to the main plot, although there's a nice description of World War III as seen through the eyes of a man who just knows it's all a figment of his imagination. Nevertheless, as nicely written as those passages are, I found myself thinking that "Dr. Bloodmoney" could have used a little tightening up. Take the passage where a mushroom hunter watches Hoppy Harrington nearly get run down by a wood-burning truck. Now there's a good opening scene, I thought - why not start here and add in all that backstory during the main plot instead of making me wait all this time?

So, one star off for some loose-jointed plotting. Why not two stars off? Because those first pages, although they dangle from the book like a participle, do not strike me as unnecessary. Far from it - those pages contain some critical information, so critical that by the time the story proper kicked in I was thoroughly hooked. They just needed to be woven in more tightly, that's all. And PKD was notorious for writing fast and furiously - he needed the money. One more crime to chalk up to the American publishing industry, I suppose. Then again, they did publish "Dr. Bloodmoney", warts and all - let's be thankful for what we've got.

And, to return to the point we started with, let's hope that "Dr. Bloodmoney" teaches us what life can be like when, like most of these characters, we lay aside our prejudices and work together to build something good.

Benshlomo says, Some good art, like some good life, is messy.

Even though Philip Dick wrote his SciFi in the 50's and 60's, his style, prose, and vision remain timeless. His ability to nail the human character transcends the time frame of his works.

In 1972, an "accident" occurred, due to a mistake by scientist Dr. Bruno Bluthgeld. Bruno, aka "Mr. Tree", hasn't been able to live with himself since the accident, and seeks the help of psychiatrist Dr. Stockstill during the year 1981. As he steps out from Stockstill's offices, the bombs begin to fall.

Surviving the bombs are also Hoppy Harrington, an armless and legless thalidomide victim with telekinetic powers, Walter Dangerfield, who was sent up in a ship with his wife to travel to Mars but wound out eternally orbiting the earth instead, Stuart McConchie, a TV repairman, and Bonnie Keller, an unhappy housewife and former associate of Dr. Bluthgeld.

They all find themselves in the same West Marin community, living an urban life with no electricity and traveling by wood-burning vehicles or horse. Bonny has a child now, a strange girl with a twin brother inside of her. Bluthgeld becomes more deranged, Walt becomes sick, Hoppy becomes a megalomaniac, and Bonnie's twin Bill awakens.

Things get stranger and stranger in West Marin as the survivors struggle to stay alive, not only in the blighted world, but inside their newly emerged social structures.

'Dr. Bloodmoney' is not the best of Philip Dick's works, but is a memorable tale to add to your collection. Strangely compelling with odd, unpredictable characters, this book makes a very nice beach or vacation read. Enjoy!

Saying a Philip K. Dick book is weird is like saying the sun will come up in the morning. But this book was weird. And great. But also weird.

A post-apocalypse story featuring telekenetic, armless, legless freaks, a man who can (or thinks he can, or can, or thinks he can) bring about nuclear war through sheer force of will, and a huge cast of characters trying to go on with their lives after nuclear war -- that's Dr. Bloodmoney. At times it feels rather plotless and aimless, full of ideas with no clear purpose, yet it somehow manages to rise above its haphazard nature and become an excellent book thanks to the richness of the cast and the interesting setting.

While there is a lot of grappling with who and what people really are, the prevailing theme here is one of prejudice, something slightly different (but not entirely alien) from Dick's usual fare. He handles the subject matter well. Lots of strange characters, unusual events, and all the stuff you expect from PKD. Dr. Bloodmoney very quietly, without the reader realizing it, becomes a very strong character study with one of PKD's largest casts.

This one is very good, only a small step away from his best work.

I cannot understand why this Dick book has been out of print for years. Some of his most interesting characters and concepts found in later books evolved from this one, his most intelligent post-bomb novel. His flare for the unusal and his this -ain't -quite -what -it -seems twists keeps the reader guessing throughout. Even though we get just a glimpse of who the characters are before the nuclear destruction, we are sympathetic to their attempt to eek out an existance and share their hopes for a new world. Their personal evolution is wonderfully illustrated.

Granted, I have only read 7 Philip K. Dick novels, but out of those 7 this one stands out as the best. This novel contains fascinating insights into the concepts of solipsism, megalomania, and paranoia (the self is everything). Dr. Bloodmoney percieves himself to be at the center of the universe, the author of all things, the entire world being a mere projection of his personal subjectivity. Using his power, he creates a nuclear war. So is he crazy, or is he really somehow behind this catastrophe? This is just one of the many interesting subplots we are presented with in this story. There are a number of other characters in this book whose situations are also very compelling, and Philip K. Dick weaves their lives together with the skill of a master storyteller. Dick has an amazing ability to seamlessly meld the tragic and the hilarious, and the end result is one of the greatest sci-fi novels ever written.

Can the world recover from a massive nuclear war or is the human race doomed to die out. The United States of America had set of tons of nuclear warheads on itself which had sparked nuclear warfare, but a lot of people in the word had escaped immediate death. Before the nuclear war started or E-day the U. S. was attempting to start a civilization on Mars. The space shuttle sent up with the Dangerfield couple never made it out of orbit. Mr. Dangerfield had watched the explosions from the spaceship and still had communication with certain places afterward. The people on Earth now relied on him to give them the news of what was going on around the world and entertain them. The only problem was Mr. Dangerfield was getting sick and once he died all communications left on the world would be gone and all entertainment too. Hoppy Harrington is a phoce, person born without arms and legs, which had survived E-day. He was very smart and had some telekinetic powers and stuff. Hoppy, although nobody knew it but him, was the one that was making Dangerfield sick. Hoppy had the technology to reach all the transmitters Dangerfield could and even imitate his voice. He had decided once Dangerfield died he would take over and none could tell the difference. Unfortunately for Hoppy there was a little girl that did know his plan and with abnormal baby lodged in her stomach she killed Hoppy and Dangerfield got better. Dr. Bloodmoney by Philip K. Dick was a creative, disgusting in the way that makes you keep reading, and revealing book that tells you some possible results from nuclear warfare.

This book was creative and weird the whole way through. When after E-day they where talking about animals one could talk and one could play the flute. Also the idea of having an astronaut constantly circling the Earth to give news and entertainment was creative and the thought of a person being born without arms and legs and with mechanical limbs instead in there place is kind of weird and creative.

The way that Stuart McConchie after the war had killed a rat running around and ripping the skin off with his hands, only to eat it raw was quite a disgusting thought. The way that Hoppy Harrington killed a man by picking him up thousands of feet into the air and smashing him into the ground was gruesome, and when they described how after Stuart McConchie left his horse for a couple of minutes to go look for stuff and all that was left when he got back was the bones because a group of men had eaten it was very nasty.

In the book there are many creative ideas on what it would be like after a nuclear war. The idea of having special and different types of animals being born is a possibility. Also the way that everyone values a handyman like Hoppy who can fix mechanical stuff is probably right, and also the way that some people start up businesses like before the war, like making cigarettes, but of course not real cigarettes because they can't grow tobacco, or traps meant to catch these new horrible yet terrific animals. There is a lot of new productions the world stars to adapt to the condition of the planet.

Dr. Bloodmoney was a good read and I would recommend it to anyone that is willing to think about new ideas and not be too skeptical on what is going on. It is well written and well composed and if anyone has time to read this creative book then they definitely should.

M. Becouvarakis

Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb, was published in 1965, and owed its title to the inspiration of Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. However, it has no relationship to the film other than the coincidental presence of a mad scientist and a nuclear war. The first third of the novel takes place on the day nuclear bombs strike the San Francisco area; the rest is set years later in western Marin County, where a small community of survivors has adapted to the post-holocaust environment. Perhaps the most surprising feature of this world is how much life is proceeding as normal. There is a large cast of characters through whose eyes we alternately view the events of the story. Among them is Bluthgeld, the scientist who helped create the Bomb, who in his paranoia and solipsism massively affects the reality of the other characters. But each of them subtly touch the lives of all others. Everyone in the book can and does have the power to affect each other's universe, warping each other's everyday reality in many little ways. The post-holocaust setting has its greatest significance in presenting a community, a microcosm of humanity, forming a common reality as the sum of their mutual interexperience.

This book in which author Philip K. Dick is least like his usual self is perhaps (along with Man in the High Castle) the most worthwhile read of all his books for non-Dick or non-SF fans. Not so much for the quality of the story or the writing (which are "merely" above average sci-fi level) but for the interplay of the four almost mythopoeic figures in the book (a couple of which Dick seems to have invented all by himself): Bruno Bluthgeld, the human Madman, is eclipsed by Hoppy Harrington, the Madman In The Machine, the childish mind who then mounts an assault on Walt Dangerfield, the sane and unifying Voice Of Humanity In The Machine, only to be finally thwarted by Bill, the Innocent Child in the withered old man's body, who is in communication with all of the Dead. Life affirming Archetypes for the technological age

If I understand aright, PKD's amazing prolicity stemmed largely from the fact that much of his career was spent in grinding poverty, and churning out novel after novel was the only was he could stay afloat (not wholly dissimilar from Balzac in that sense). It's indicative of the man's genius that the novel's he wrote in this manner (of which I am assuming Dr. Bloodmoney is one) are as good as they are; unfortunately--but unsurprisingly--they are not nearly as good as they ought to be, however, and this is a prime example of that. Dick takes on any number of themes here, but he never follows through. Did he intend the novel to address racism and bigotry in general, via the characters of Stuart and Hoppy? He takes a few experimental pokes at the subject, but never follows up. Did he intend to examine the way the lack of an outside authority causes a community to develop? The terrifying willingness of its inhabitants to play judge, jury, and executioner--and the general unconcern with the murder of outsiders (and on a related note, are we meant to be sympathetic too or repelled by Bonny Keller, who does, after all, cold-bloodedly arrange the execution in question on a highly dubious pretext)?--would seem to indicate that this would play a major part in the novel, but it doesn't, ultimately, and the reader is left baffled--this is not intentional ambiguity; it's quite clear that Dick himself had not fully worked out what he was trying to accomplish. Was the Christ figure of Dr. Bluthgeld meant to be a meditation on faith and on the possibility of messianic fallibility? Perhaps, but again, it never goes anywhere. What of Hoppy Harrington? An interesting and conflicted character who devolves all too quickly into a garden-variety villain. Quite unfortunate.

Beyond the larger problems, there are weird little inconsistencies which should have been worked out: early in the novel, Orion Strout attempts to run Hoppy over with a truck, while later on it becomes clear how bizarre this is;The physiological nature of the relationship between Edie and Bill seems to change for no other reason than novelistic convenience. Not big issues in themselves, but symptomatic of the novel's overall problem.

This should have been a brilliant, genre-transcending, classic--the characters are uniformly interesting (even with the inconsistencies of personality), and the post-nuclear world is wonderfully-rendered. But it received insufficient attention, and so it's not. A shame.