Introduction to the Summaries of All of Philip K. Dick’s Short Stories Project

Some time ago, I started a project attempting to organize some of the major themes occurring in the work of Philip K. Dick. It is currently a rat’s nest of notes on different sized sheets of paper, covered with quotations, page numbers, and categories.

I cover major themes such as schizophrenia, entropy, drugs, but also try to track more eccentric concerns as they appear: the treatment/depiction of coffee, alcohol, and tobacco, and the appearance of postage stamps.

Oh, and music. I started listing the names of every musical composition that appears in any of PKD’s works. This is a project that I will probably never finish or even organize adequately. But in starting it, it occurred to me that most people focus their attention on a dozen or so main novels and a handful of major stories.

I decided to read all of PKD’s short stories and to write a summary of each one. These could be helpful for readers who want to track themes in the short fiction. Which stories, for example, are post-apocalyptic? Which deal with time travel? Which feature androids, animals, or agoraphobics? I want to track dreams, taxi cabs, and dark-haired girls.

The larger project will progress slowly. For now, I will post my story summaries one at a time. I have a notebook containing handwritten summaries I plan on typing up as time permits. I have covered the first volume of short stories so far. Eventually, I will have a summary up for every story PKD wrote. Paul Williams claims he wrote 121 short stories.

Here goes.