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| Review Summary |
Philip K Dick's 1974 masterpiece Flow My Tears the Policeman Said, is set in the near furure (1988!), where Universities have become prisons, people are condemned to forced labor camps for scant reason, and the Pols and Nats (police and national guard) monitor everyone constantly. It is in this bleak world that global celebrity and singing sensation Jason Taverner suddenly finds that no one knows who he is; that his identity is gone, that he seems never to have existed at all. As Jason scrambles through a nightmare reality desperately trying to regain his identity, he is constantly harrassed and betrayed. Though Jason is a genetically modified "6", his superior intellegence and endurance fail to help him reestablish his own existance.
Scott David Mclemore, Resident Scholar
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Jason Taverner, singer of hit records and host of a long-running and successful TV show, wakes up one morning and finds that he has no ID and nobody knows him -- not even his lover Heather Hart. In fact, there's no record of him ever having been born. It's a nightmare, and he's going to have to think fast or he'll end up in a forced labor camp, which would be a shame for a rare "6" like himself (the sixth generation of a series of human genetic reconstruction systems -- very handsome and intelligent). Taverner eventually comes to the attention of Police General Felix Buckman, who becomes very interested in the case, and of Buckman's twin sister Alys, a druggie and fetishist who has plans of her own for Jason. This bewildering but enthralling 1974 book (which is officially set in 1988 but describes a world still a little ways off in the future for us) won the Joseph W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year.
David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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When reading this book, you feel as if there is no plot and things are just going round and round without much care shown to the development of an actual plot. But this book is much more than that. Its about emotion, religion, sex and beliefs. Its about how people cope with the world they are given. Even though Jason Taverner is supposedly listed as the main character, I feel much more empathic towards Felix Buckman who loses his wife/sister and needs some form of human contact. The impulsivity of human emotion is described in a heartwarming scence where Felix pulls up to a gas station and hugs a black man. So if you are in the mood for a bizarre tale of lost identity and gained emotions, read this book. (You might not like the part about the mind-and-space altering drug, I didn't! I felt that maybe Philip K. Dick wasn't trying hard enough in explaining Jason's predicament.)
Alexander Babiera, Resident Scholar
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This is one of my most favorite books in the world. The premise which the plot turns on is bizarre but it's not even about that in the end. It's about people searching for who they are and dealing with loss.
Jesi Bornemann, Resident Scholar
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Though the plot is a little thin, this is one of my favorite PKD books. The themes of the books are very interesting. Most notably the discussion Jason Taverner (main character) and Ruth Rae have about grief is very touching. Another scene, where the antagonist Felix Buckman lands at a gas station in the middle of the night and is comforted by a black man also getting gas is interesting. Philip K. Dick was told later by his minister that the scene almost exactly replicates one from the Bible, in a part of it that PKD had never read. Many parts of the book parallel sections and ideas from the Bible. It is interesting to try and find them.
Trent Dick, Resident Scholar
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Jason Taverner the famous entertainer wakes up some morning and finds that no one recognizes him. And that's about it. He spends the rest of the book trying to figure out why. At the end we're given a very, very lame excuse--someone else (not him) took a drug, and that caused him to shift to another dimension. What drug was Philip Dick taking when he wrote this?
Steve, Resident Scholar
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| Detailed literary breakdown of Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 10%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 30%
Tone of book
- depressing/sad
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION?
- science fiction story
Repressive society story
Yes
Repressive because:
- strict rationing of freedoms/goods
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 40's-50's
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- very athletic
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- police/lawman
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Physique
- average physique
Setting
Earth setting:
- 20th century
Takes place on Earth?
Yes
Style
Person?
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
scientific jargon? (SF only)
- none/very little science jargon needed
Sex in book?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references only
How much dialogue?
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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