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Ubik is a 1969 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. Because of the multiple layers of reality and unreality within the plot and the sheer number of strange science fiction concepts in the book, it is considered one of Dick’s strangest works.

Plot Synopsis

Template:Spoilers Glen Runciter is the head of a “prudence organization,” which hires people with the abiliy to block certain psychic powers (for instance, an anti-telepath can prevent a telepath from reading a client's mind). The company’s main adversary is a man named Hollis, who leads a group of psychics (Hollis appears only briefly in the novel). Runciter runs the company with the assistance of his deceased wife Ella, who is kept in a state of “half-life,” a form of cryonic suspension that gives the deceased person limited consciousness and communication ability.

Runciter’s latest recruit is Pat Conley, a mysterious young woman with the peculiar parapsychological ability to change the past. She begins an affair with Joe Chip, Runciter’s debt-ridden technician.

Eventually, business magnate Mick Stanton hires Runciter’s company to secure his Lunar facilities from telepaths. Runciter, Conley, Chip and several agents of the company travel to Stanton’s moon base. They discover that the assignment is a trap, presumably set by Hollis. An explosions on the base apparently kills Runciter without significantly harming the others. They rush back him to Earth to place him in half-life.

Afterwards, the group begins to experience strange shifts in reality. Consumables, such as milk and cigarettes, begin to expire prematurely. Also, the group sees Runciter's face on coins and receive strange messages from Runciter in writing and on television. Group members that are separated from the group are found dead, in a gruesome state of decomposition.

Eventually, the reality shifts back in time until the group finds itself in a world resembling the United States in 1939. They try to figure out what is causing these strange occurrences, prevent each other from dying and find a mysterious product called Ubik, which is advertised in every time period they enter. Messages from Runciter indicate that Ubik may be there only hope.

Themes

While the confusion between real and unreal, obscured by the perception of the main character(s), is common in Dick's work, in Ubik this confusion occurs is more than one way. Given the premise of half-life (no relation to radioactive half-life), one puzzle lies in resolving the false reality of the deceased with the real perceptions of those who are still alive. This is further complicated by Pat Conley, a woman whose ability to change the past (and thus the present) may be causing the reality changes. Plus, the interference of psychics causes further confusion. As a result, the story presents unsettling shifts between realities and timelines and the reader is never certain what is real and what is illusion.

Another theme is the opposition between the twin forces of decay (the regression experienced by the characters) and restoration (the mysterious product Ubik, which reverses that decay).

Ubik features several character types common to Dick's fiction: Chip as the downtrodden, working class protagonist, Conley as the vindictive and alluring woman and Runciter as a cynical but fatherly old man.

Literary Allusions

The term Ubik comes from the Greek word ubique, which means “everywhere.” It is also the source of the English language word ubiquitous, which means being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time. This may be considered ironic considering that Ubik is much sought-after and rare in the novel but it may also indicate that Ubik is a life-force of sorts.

Ubik also references Plato’s idea of Forms, great universals that define the essence of all matter. When the world begins to seemingly regress in time and all objects in it (such as television sets, refrigerators and automobiles) become that time period’s version of that object, Chip remarks that each is coming closer to barest, simplest Form.

Adaptations

Videogame

In 1998, Cryo Interactive Entertainment released Philip K. Dick’s Ubik, a tactical action/strategy videogame very loosely based on the book. The game allowed players to act as Joe Chip and train combat squads into missions against the Hollis Corporation. The game was available for Sony Playstation and for Microsoft Windows and was not a significant commercial successful.

Attempts to Produce a Ubik Film

In 1974, French film maker Jean-Pierre Gorin commissioned Dick to write a screenplay for a Ubik film. Dick completed the screenplay but Gorin never filmed the project. The screenplay was published in 1985.

Independent producer John Alan Simon currently owns a provisional purchase agreement to write and sell a new screenplay based on the book. It is unknown when and if he plans to write the screenplay.

Possible Influence on Other Works

Though the connection (if any) is unknown, some elements in Ubik have appeared in subsequent motion pictures. The frozen starship captain in John Carpenter's Dark Star is in a similar state to half-life, as is the hero of Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky and its Spanish original, Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes).

• 1969 books
• Science fiction novels
• Philip K. Dick novels