Mental Otherness in Philip K. Dick’s Martian Time Slip
Mental Otherness in Philip K. Dick’s Martian Time Slip

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses the situation of mentally incapacitated characters of Philip K. Dick’s 1964 novel The Martian Time Slip, in which the writer uses the possibilities of Martian setting to construct a dramatic narrative that features two people whose comprehension of the surrounding reality differs from that of the ‘normal’ characters. The novel focuses on the social incongruity of those who are considered mentally ill, and their struggle to overcome society’s conformity and ignorance, when it comes to accepting such people in society. The two focal characters are Manfred Steiner and Jack Bohlen; the former is an autistic child and the latter suffers from a latent form of schizophrenia. Both of them struggle to survive in the grim and oppressive environment of Martian colonies. The work is also an exploration of a subject that Dick returned to very often: the relationship between subjective and objective worlds. Dick shapes his view on Heraclitean formulation of the universe as consisting of private idios cosmos and the collective koinos cosmos, twin spheres determining our existential place in the world. In Dick’s understanding of Heraclitus the two cannot be easily distinguished.

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