Episode Details

The SFFaudio Podcast #709 – Souvenir by Philip K. Dick; read by Mike Vendetti

This unabridged reading of the story (31 minutes) is followed by a discussion of it.

Participants in the discussion include Jesse, Paul Weimer, Evan Lampe, and Mike Vendetti

talked about on today’s show:
Fantastic Universe, October 1954, editorial introductions, the teaser, Williamson’s World, logically motivated self-interest, admired and widely read, blind self seeking, the editor, Leo Margulies, robes and university campuses, Upon The Dull Earth, cedars and walking around, attention span, a typical Philip K. Dick story, questioning the logic and assumptions of empire, Dick is criticizing the galactic polity, they literally nuke the planet, they genocide them, without irony, the Empire Of Man by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, by any means necessary, destroy the village in order to save it, homogeneity, Time Out Of Joint, one happy world, alignment, technology, a repressive troweling to a bland sameness, really ideological, eight things, gunboat diplomacy for cultural hegemony, if you don’t share those values, should information be shared, inventions being public domain, share all inventions across cultures, choosing technology, the Amish engagement with technology, an unexamined choice, globalization, one big world, the end of history, should cultures keep pace, AP Human Geography, who’s making these metrics?, the goal of all societies, the UN Human Development Index, is Williamson’s World post scarcity, they seem to LARP, the Klingons are an advanced post-scarcity society that got bored and started to LARP, a lot of time on their hands, the frontier, Mr. Spaceship, the way out of cultural decadence, the silk road, interesting fusions and developments, the Ming dynasty, crafts, back to Galactic Pot-Healer, make that jewelry, The Man In The High Castle, infantryman, page 48, ten minutes later, Corporal Pete Matson, blast rifle, instructions will follow from his relay web, the hill disintegrated into dust, his supple body alert, airborne, perfectly good spacecraft, ROTC class, dropped his wooden gun and never came back, Starship Troopers before Starship Troopers, the dream of all those generals during the atomic years, people living on Mars, what we see going on in Ukraine, Sun Tzu: you don’t destroy the fortress you want to own or inhabit, what Putin has done in Ukraine, The Art Of War by Sun Tzu, 3,000 year old wisdom, like there’s nothing of value there, hey honey what are you doing back, two souvenirs, planting his nuke mines, bought them from people on the planet, the wooden cup, nothing remains, surprise!, Pete!, special leave, 48 hours, suitcase, souvenir gathering, a Japanese head in their dufflebag, I’ll take what you want, did he buy the bolt of cloth?, spoils of war, dufflebag, a travelling salesman, more explicit, more like a business, strictly business, how’s school, another cold, military secret, a handmade wooden drinking cup, something that reminds you of a different place, he writes whole stories based on a tiny little incident, a snowglobe story, The Crystal Crypt, the writing shack, there’s no different place, where would he have picked that up?, an archaic word, how plausible this story’s premise is, Paycheck, these little tangible objects are really significant and substantial, no other authors are