Galactic Pot-Healer
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Galactic Pot Healer is a minor Philip K. Dick novel first published in 1969. The story concerns a man who thanklessly fixes pots in a totalitarian future Earth, only to be summoned by a godlike alien as part of a team sent to a distant world for a mystical quest - to raise a sunken cathedral from a surreal alien ocean.
Plot and Theme
The novel deals with a number of significant of philosophical and political issues such as repressive societies, fatalism, and the search for meaning in life.
The novel takes place in a dismal future America, the “Communal North American Citizen's Republic.” Not unlike George Orwell's nightmare vision of society in 1984, the United States government has become extremely intrusive and repressive, monitoring the actions, speech and even thoughts of its citizens.
The protagonist, Joe Fernwright, is a pot-healer, one who can perfectly restore pottery to brand new condition. Joe finds himself constantly depressed and idle at the opening of the novel, as his profession is not in great demand. He longs for purpose and meaning in life.
Joe finds this when he is summoned to a distant planet by a mysterious alien, the Glimmung, with seemingly godlike powers. Along with other similarly talented but depressed and alienated people and creatures from all over the galaxy they are employed by the Glimmung, in a grand endeavor to raise an ancient sunken cathedral from the ocean floor.
The Glimmung is also in a struggle with the Kalends, who are constantly writing a book that supposedly foretells the future, one which inevitably is proven right. Glimmung's determination to continue with his struggle, even when the book predicts certain failure allows Dick to explore the idea of fatalism.
Bibliographic Information
Originally published in 1969 by Berkley Medallion Books. Currently published by Vintage Books, ISBN 0679752978.