So... it's a short story about a man recounting a book he read that claims aliens are invading the earth while describing a selfless alien woman who donates her body-parts to other people and the story ends with him playing Monopoly... I don't see a story here.
I know Philip K. Dick is a celebrated author, so I assume my not-getting-it problem is all-me - can someone please explain it to me?
The book isn't about aliens, it's an entirely normal book. The main character just interprets every phrase relating to a body part literally, and thinks it's talking about aliens. It's just a humorous short story, not a whole lot to it beyond that.
Philip K. Dick is having a little fun with a badly written paperback story or novel he must have found somewhere, and writing a cool science fiction story out of it. It is humor.
From the preface: "A little whimsy, now and then, makes for good balance. Theoretically, you could find this type of humor anywhere. But only a topflight science-fictionist, we thought, could have written this story, in just this way…."
Don’t read it so literally. Lots of ways to interpret it. Cultural relativism, correlation vs causation, overconfidence, conclusions in isolation, etc. I think it drags in just a bit too long but it did make me chuckle.
So... it's a short story about a man recounting a book he read that claims aliens are invading the earth while describing a selfless alien woman who donates her body-parts to other people and the story ends with him playing Monopoly... I don't see a story here.
I know Philip K. Dick is a celebrated author, so I assume my not-getting-it problem is all-me - can someone please explain it to me?