P. Dick's an interesting writer. Maybe its because of the time difference but I can't appreciate some aspects of the social dynamics in his stories. The ending of Paycheck for example, blackmailing your way into a really marriage proposal that's really just framed around sex so its more of a proposition. I definitely laughed but it was so bad because the rest of the story was so good. Its almost like an editor/publisher demanded a hollywood-happy ending to the story.
Paycheck approached self perception in an interesting way by using science fiction to create a more extreme dichotomy of past/present/future 'me'. The protagonist separated from his past self calling himself as he or him instead of I. This degree of separation was based on his not knowing what 'he' was doing. This lack of knowledge does indeed create a schism and calls into question what experiences are actually formative, whether or not the ones we forget or don't know matter to the being as a person. For the protagonist these unknown periods are critical to his continued survival so its interesting that he chooses to distance himself from himself and refers to 'he' and not 'I'. Since the story is mostly action its difficult to gauge what sort of person the protagonist is. He is willing to blackmail, explore forbidden technologies, and prepare to revolt against a government with a mom and pop guerilla warfare business. Is the reader supposed to trust the business because they came from quaint family roots in Maine? The narrator tells us, as does Rethrick, that businesses in their world are just as bad as the government. There seems to be constant revolt and one of the first pieces of info we're privy to is that a new more powerful government has taken over. If Rethrick is a power its probably also a power with its own agendas and downfalls
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