Philip K. Dick's Time Out of Joint

I have a theory about some of the blockbuster movies and television series that have come out over the past few decades. It is that those responsible for creating some of these successes lifted, possibly unconsciously, the premises for them from earlier, relatively unknown stories. Stories by authors like Philip K. Dick. Take his 1959 science fiction novel Time Out of Joint, which I recently read, as an example.

Like Dick's realism novel Voices From the Street, which I had earlier reviewed, Time Out of Joint reminds me vividly of a television series and a movie: The Prisoner (again) and The Truman Show, respectively. The story's protagonist is Ragle Gumm, a single, deliberately unemployed middle-aged man who resides in a small town with his sister and her husband and makes a small fortune posting consistently winning entries in an ongoing nationwide newspaper game. Originally content with his lifestyle, circumstances begin to unravel and Gumm decides to leave town and begin his life afresh. But he soon finds out that everyone out of town knows him by name and appearance and is working to bring him back "home". He even intercepts radio broadcasts mentioning him by his name and location. So Gumm realizes that he is living a life of illusion: a very important life, evidently, from the perspective of others. But a fake one, nevertheless, in a contrived location around contrived people and family. Why? Having probably already revealed too much of the plot, I'll leave it at that. But you should be able to make the connection I made with The Prisoner (the original series) and The Truman Show. Time Out of Joint also has the feel of a very well-written Twilight Zone episode, creating an atmosphere of mystery and intrigue while ending with a relatively mundane explanation.

As I read through this novel, I began to identify more with Ragle Gumm. Is this because I may have paranoid or narcissistic tendencies, believing that in some hidden way I am the center and reason for everything going on around me, or is it more that I believe that there is something very significant underlying my life of which I am as yet unaware? The former choice is unhealthy from a psychological standpoint, but the latter view is that of a "seeker", i.e. one who believes that there is more to life than everyday existence. A seeker strikes out to find answers. And then to find the appropriate questions for those answers!

Time Out of Joint, so far, is my favorite Philip K. Dick novel. It really helps to be able to strike up some empathy for the protagonist, not always the case for me with some of his other works. I am currently reading another science fiction novel of his titled The Cosmic Puppets, which more closely resembles something that Stephen King might have written (like his The Regulators, published under "alter ego" pseudonym Richard Bachman).