Talk:The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

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The plot summary isn't very good at all. Anne Hawthorne has a lot more importance, as does the drama on the colony. There is also no description of experience given for Can-D.

Miserlou 01:06, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Spoiler Warning ! Plot details follow.

In fact in the book is made clear (as clear as anything can be in a PKD novel :), that Palmer Eldritch is not a human but a creature of godlike status ("With vast trailing arms..."). Palmer himself describes taking over the human businessman on his way to (rather than from) Proxima Centauri. The question of the morals of palmer is also settled into the book - by a jackal in mars. Palmer Eldritch is evil (he is unclean). There is also the famous story of how Dick was inspired the figure of Eldritch - looking into the sky he saw the face he is describing in the novel. He then became a christian - his vision of eldritch was that of an evil God - and he felt the need for a good one to balance it out.

Cf : http://www.philipkdickfans.com/pkdweb/The%20Days%20Of%20Perky%20Pat.htm

CS stands for collected stories I think.

After all that I think that Palmer E is not christ - no ? Btw there is a saying - "Not everything that shines is gold". For the purposes of this article we can modify this saying as "Not all that has stigmata is Christ". I think that Palmer Eldritch is perfectly well (modulo PKD) described in the novel, plus Dick's observations cited above and the whole section "Religious Themes" is misleading. I think it should be removed, objections wellcome.

As to the plot summary: For me the best parts in the book are a) the confrontation of palmer and leo - it is not quite clear what happens with doctor smiley - how come it is there ? how come it sends a message to mayerson ? b) the parts where mayerson is trying to get hold of his wife again - these are awresome, the dreamlike technique is exquisite - again a dark point : what happens with the toxin in the tube ? why is the tube empty ? It seems like all the novel exists for the moment that mayerson looks up to Anne and sees Eldritch "and when he looked up into her eyes...". It is the most impressive example of Dick's famous play with reality - and it cannot be dismissed lightly, due to the toxin's disapearence mystery.

Unfortunately I do not have the book at the moment - I will return as soon as I have it.

The Ubik 16:16, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The Plot Summary

I agree that Mayerson's relationships with both Anne Hawthorne and his ex-wife Emily should be punched up here.

For the time being, I have only fleshed out the second half of the plot summary because a) I just reread the book and have it clearly in mind for once; and b) I think it's important to make it clear that the novel isn't just a head trip of random scenes, but that as wild and wooly as it gets, the story line can still be followed and the plot is essentially resolved at the end. 66.241.73.241 08:36, 3 April 2007 (UTC)