Philip K Dick’s first novel Solar Lottery is a bold look into a world without heart, replaced by logic and rules. The book follows the life of Ted Benteley, a guy in an average social class who wants to make a difference in the world. It’s through this desire that he comes to influence the outcome of a struggle for political power. I won’t spoil the plot too much here, but I will say I highly recommend reading the book.
Here are some of my favourite quotes from the book:
“I’d like to pull this whole thing down with a big loud crash. But I don’t have to; it’s collapsing by itself. Everything is thin and empty and metallic.”
“I’m a sick man. And the more I see the sicker I get. I’m so sick I think everybody else is sick and I’m the only healthy person”
“It isn’t brute instinct that keeps us restless and dissatisfied. I’ll tell you what it is: it’s the highest goal of man—the need to grow and advance… to find new things… to expand. To spread out, reach areas, experiences, comprehend and live in an evolving fashion. To push aside routine and repetition, to break out of mindless monotony and thrust forward. To keep moving on…”
Solar Lottery is about being grey
I once read that a cannibal does not know they are a cannibal. This may be true—that evil mostly appears to themselves as the righteous party. This speaks to what the Solar Lottery is—less black and white and more grey. The reader doesn’t ever get a definitive sense of whether the main character is actually in the right or not, things just move forward.