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Small Town
This early work by Philip K. Dick was originally published in 1953 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Small Town' is a short story about a man with godlike power over two towns. Philip Kindred Dick was born on December 16 1928, in Chicago, Illinois. Dick and his family moved to the Bay Area of San Francisco when he was young, and later on to Washington DC following his parents divorce. Dick attended Elementary school and then a Quaker school before the family moved back to California. It was around this time that Dick began to take an active interest in the science fiction genre, reading his first magazine 'Stirring Science Stories', at age twelve. Dick married five times between 1959 and 1973, and had three children. He sold his first story in 1951 and from that point on he wrote full-time, selling his first novel in 1955. In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote an estimated 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote an estimated 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. After his death, many of his stories made the transition to the big screen, with blockbuster films such as Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report being based on his works.
24 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1954
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79 people want to read
About the author
Philip K. Dick
2,007 books22.5k followersPhilip Kindred Dick was a prolific American science fiction author whose work has had a lasting impact on literature, cinema, and popular culture. Known for his imaginative narratives and profound philosophical themes, Dick explored the nature of reality, the boundaries of human identity, and the impact of technology and authoritarianism on society. His stories often blurred the line between the real and the artificial, challenging readers to question their perceptions and beliefs.
Raised in California, Dick began writing professionally in the early 1950s, publishing short stories in various science fiction magazines. He quickly developed a distinctive voice within the genre, marked by a fusion of science fiction concepts with deep existential and psychological inquiry. Over his career, he authored 44 novels and more than 100 short stories, many of which have become classics in the field.
Recurring themes in Dick's work include alternate realities, simulations, corporate and government control, mental illness, and the nature of consciousness. His protagonists are frequently everyday individuals—often paranoid, uncertain, or troubled—caught in surreal and often dangerous circumstances that force them to question their environment and themselves. Works such as Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and A Scanner Darkly reflect his fascination with perception and altered states of consciousness, often drawing from his own experiences with mental health struggles and drug use.
One of Dick’s most influential novels is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for Ridley Scott’s iconic film Blade Runner. The novel deals with the distinction between humans and artificial beings and asks profound questions about empathy, identity, and what it means to be alive. Other adaptations of his work include Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle, each reflecting key elements of his storytelling—uncertain realities, oppressive systems, and the search for truth. These adaptations have introduced his complex ideas to audiences well beyond the traditional readership of science fiction.
In the 1970s, Dick underwent a series of visionary and mystical experiences that had a significant influence on his later writings. He described receiving profound knowledge from an external, possibly divine, source and documented these events extensively in what became known as The Exegesis, a massive and often fragmented journal. These experiences inspired his later novels, most notably the VALIS trilogy, which mixes autobiography, theology, and metaphysics in a narrative that defies conventional structure and genre boundaries.
Throughout his life, Dick faced financial instability, health issues, and periods of personal turmoil, yet he remained a dedicated and relentless writer. Despite limited commercial success during his lifetime, his reputation grew steadily, and he came to be regarded as one of the most original voices in speculative fiction. His work has been celebrated for its ability to fuse philosophical depth with gripping storytelling and has influenced not only science fiction writers but also philosophers, filmmakers, and futurists.
Dick’s legacy continues to thrive in both literary and cinematic spheres. The themes he explored remain urgently relevant in the modern world, particularly as technology increasingly intersects with human identity and governance. The Philip K. Dick Award, named in his honor, is presented annually to distinguished works of science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. His writings have also inspired television series, academic studies, and countless homages across media.
Through his vivid imagination and unflinching inquiry into the nature of existence, Philip K. Dick redefined what science fiction could achieve. His work continues to challenge and inspire, offering timeless insights into the human condition a
Raised in California, Dick began writing professionally in the early 1950s, publishing short stories in various science fiction magazines. He quickly developed a distinctive voice within the genre, marked by a fusion of science fiction concepts with deep existential and psychological inquiry. Over his career, he authored 44 novels and more than 100 short stories, many of which have become classics in the field.
Recurring themes in Dick's work include alternate realities, simulations, corporate and government control, mental illness, and the nature of consciousness. His protagonists are frequently everyday individuals—often paranoid, uncertain, or troubled—caught in surreal and often dangerous circumstances that force them to question their environment and themselves. Works such as Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and A Scanner Darkly reflect his fascination with perception and altered states of consciousness, often drawing from his own experiences with mental health struggles and drug use.
One of Dick’s most influential novels is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for Ridley Scott’s iconic film Blade Runner. The novel deals with the distinction between humans and artificial beings and asks profound questions about empathy, identity, and what it means to be alive. Other adaptations of his work include Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle, each reflecting key elements of his storytelling—uncertain realities, oppressive systems, and the search for truth. These adaptations have introduced his complex ideas to audiences well beyond the traditional readership of science fiction.
In the 1970s, Dick underwent a series of visionary and mystical experiences that had a significant influence on his later writings. He described receiving profound knowledge from an external, possibly divine, source and documented these events extensively in what became known as The Exegesis, a massive and often fragmented journal. These experiences inspired his later novels, most notably the VALIS trilogy, which mixes autobiography, theology, and metaphysics in a narrative that defies conventional structure and genre boundaries.
Throughout his life, Dick faced financial instability, health issues, and periods of personal turmoil, yet he remained a dedicated and relentless writer. Despite limited commercial success during his lifetime, his reputation grew steadily, and he came to be regarded as one of the most original voices in speculative fiction. His work has been celebrated for its ability to fuse philosophical depth with gripping storytelling and has influenced not only science fiction writers but also philosophers, filmmakers, and futurists.
Dick’s legacy continues to thrive in both literary and cinematic spheres. The themes he explored remain urgently relevant in the modern world, particularly as technology increasingly intersects with human identity and governance. The Philip K. Dick Award, named in his honor, is presented annually to distinguished works of science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. His writings have also inspired television series, academic studies, and countless homages across media.
Through his vivid imagination and unflinching inquiry into the nature of existence, Philip K. Dick redefined what science fiction could achieve. His work continues to challenge and inspire, offering timeless insights into the human condition a
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 25, 2019
First published in Amazing (1954), Philip K. Dick’s “Small Town” features Verne Haskel, a Walter Mitty type character, but Dick’s story has none of James Thurber’s sweetness. Haskel, alienated both from wife and work, habitually takes refuge in the basement where he devotes himself to his hobby: the construction of a exact replica of Woodlawn, the town where he lives, as the background for his model train set. Then one day, an idea occurs to him: why not alter the model town to make it better? He becomes the city-planner and benevolent dictator of mini-Woodlawn. But then, things start to go wrong.
As Dick remarked a quarter of a century later, in an anthology of his stories called The Golden Man (1980), “A defeated small person . . . may be a mask for thanatos: the antagonist of life; he may not secretly wish to rule; he may wish to destroy.”
April 30, 2018
“The town had always been against him. Miss Murphy in high school. The frats in college. Clerks in the snooty department stores. His neighbors. Cops and mailmen and bus drivers and delivery boys.”
This sums up pretty well Mr. Verne Haskel, protagonist of PKD’s short story Small Town, a 43-year old office worker, who is dissatisfied with his job, and whose wife cheats on him with his own psychiatrist. Okay, one might feel inclined to pity Verne because he suffers from his job, and even though he does not really suspect his wife of being unfaithful, his married life is anything but a bliss. But having a whole town against you, from the cops to the very delivery boys, might be something that says more about your own mental default setting – namely that you are probably a bit on the whiny side – than about the town itself.
Our protagonist Verne has found an ideal haven for withdrawing from the claims and clamours of oppressive reality, and this is his model trains which he runs through an exact replica of Woodland, the very town he hates so much. And yet, he has spent all his years from childhood on to rebuild it in every little detail. Talking about someone being in love with his own problems! One evening, however, a new thought occurs to Verne, or actually it follows on the heels of a spontaneous act consisting in replacing the building of his employer with another, to him less offensive, construction: Why not change the town completely so as to make it a more agreeable place to life in? From now on, Verne spends his time re-modelling his miniature edition of Woodland, even quitting his job in order to dedicate himself fully to this new enterprise, and although he does it with a view to creating a more egalitarian town and to having more parks and playgrounds instead of factories, he also allows himself to be guided by resentment partly, e.g. when he gives some people, who he thinks have especially harmed him, very derelict houses, or when he eradicates his old boss completely from “his” Woodland. After all, the new town has now become a mirror-image of the narrow and resentful mind of a man haunted by feelings of inferiority:
Verne has his power fantasy culminate by making himself the mayor of this little town, and by removing all taxis for the simple reason that he never liked them particularly, anyway.
The twist in this tale is maybe so predictable for modern readers that I need hardly mention it here. What I find especially interesting about Small Town, however, is that it pinpoints the underlying problems of social utopias, namely that they often depend on the power of one or a small group of masterminds but that these masterminds are rarely free from the problems that human beings often carry around with them. In this case, Verne might plan his new town with a view to create a fairer community, but soon his resentment and his personal whims get the better of him, and one may in fact ask whether staunch egalitarianism as such is not based both on the lust for power and on resentment against those to whom the egalitarianist somehow feels inferior.
A second problem is the essentially materialist outlook of most utopias: Verne simply assumes that by giving his town a certain structure and face, he will change the lives of his citizens accordingly. This may be true to some extent, but people’s decisions shape their surroundings probably as much as surroundings influence people’s way of thinking and acting. The utopian’s panaceas, however, is to meddle from above, satisfying his own desire for power (and destruction) and cherishing the belief that by pressing the right buttons they will be able to create a society of unchanging perfection. Whereas change and imperfection are the essence of life …
This sums up pretty well Mr. Verne Haskel, protagonist of PKD’s short story Small Town, a 43-year old office worker, who is dissatisfied with his job, and whose wife cheats on him with his own psychiatrist. Okay, one might feel inclined to pity Verne because he suffers from his job, and even though he does not really suspect his wife of being unfaithful, his married life is anything but a bliss. But having a whole town against you, from the cops to the very delivery boys, might be something that says more about your own mental default setting – namely that you are probably a bit on the whiny side – than about the town itself.
Our protagonist Verne has found an ideal haven for withdrawing from the claims and clamours of oppressive reality, and this is his model trains which he runs through an exact replica of Woodland, the very town he hates so much. And yet, he has spent all his years from childhood on to rebuild it in every little detail. Talking about someone being in love with his own problems! One evening, however, a new thought occurs to Verne, or actually it follows on the heels of a spontaneous act consisting in replacing the building of his employer with another, to him less offensive, construction: Why not change the town completely so as to make it a more agreeable place to life in? From now on, Verne spends his time re-modelling his miniature edition of Woodland, even quitting his job in order to dedicate himself fully to this new enterprise, and although he does it with a view to creating a more egalitarian town and to having more parks and playgrounds instead of factories, he also allows himself to be guided by resentment partly, e.g. when he gives some people, who he thinks have especially harmed him, very derelict houses, or when he eradicates his old boss completely from “his” Woodland. After all, the new town has now become a mirror-image of the narrow and resentful mind of a man haunted by feelings of inferiority:
”The new Woodland was going to be moral. Extremely moral. Few bars, no billiards, no red light district. And there was an especially fine jail for undesirables.”
Verne has his power fantasy culminate by making himself the mayor of this little town, and by removing all taxis for the simple reason that he never liked them particularly, anyway.
The twist in this tale is maybe so predictable for modern readers that I need hardly mention it here. What I find especially interesting about Small Town, however, is that it pinpoints the underlying problems of social utopias, namely that they often depend on the power of one or a small group of masterminds but that these masterminds are rarely free from the problems that human beings often carry around with them. In this case, Verne might plan his new town with a view to create a fairer community, but soon his resentment and his personal whims get the better of him, and one may in fact ask whether staunch egalitarianism as such is not based both on the lust for power and on resentment against those to whom the egalitarianist somehow feels inferior.
A second problem is the essentially materialist outlook of most utopias: Verne simply assumes that by giving his town a certain structure and face, he will change the lives of his citizens accordingly. This may be true to some extent, but people’s decisions shape their surroundings probably as much as surroundings influence people’s way of thinking and acting. The utopian’s panaceas, however, is to meddle from above, satisfying his own desire for power (and destruction) and cherishing the belief that by pressing the right buttons they will be able to create a society of unchanging perfection. Whereas change and imperfection are the essence of life …
October 29, 2019
Oh you know the story about a man and his trains, right, yes no maybe....me either. Now I do.
May 3, 2020
As other reviewers noted the "twist" isn't much of a twist for the modern reader. However, it is worth noting that this story predates The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits. In its time this was an intriguing story. I liked the twist. I give the story less than 5 stars because it felt longer than it needed to be. I got that the wife was unsupportive, pretty mean and dismissive of Verne yet the author underscores this point with far too many repeats of her wailing. Other than that, I liked the story.
November 29, 2023
I purchased this as part of a promotion by Amazon 6 months ago. I am at this time attempting to clean up the books, box sets, and megapacks on my Kindle Fire.
I listened to this as part of The 12th Science Fiction Megapack. It was a quick entertanting listen.
This is a very good Science Fiction novella quick read. As with all multipe story book, box set, and Megapack I like some better than other but the is normal 2023
I listened to this as part of The 12th Science Fiction Megapack. It was a quick entertanting listen.
This is a very good Science Fiction novella quick read. As with all multipe story book, box set, and Megapack I like some better than other but the is normal 2023
November 13, 2018
Fit for an episode of the twilight zone. Like The Lathe of Heaven without all the philosophizing.
June 13, 2020
The story of a simple man who wants nothing more than to fix the obvious and glaring flaws of his small town, except written by Philip K. Dick.
August 29, 2020
How we create our own reality. Even if it is by model trains.
October 30, 2021
Via SFFaudio Podcast. This could be a Twilight Zone episode.
May 28, 2024
Deranged psychopath who rearranges a city's landscape through escapism.
August 22, 2024
Interesting take on the “man acts as God” story. Short but manages to be memorable and chilling.
December 10, 2012
In einem kleinen Kaff namens Woodland lebt Vernon lebt mit seiner Frau. Vernon ist mit seinem Leben unglücklich. Er hasst seinen Job, er hasst das Leben in Woodland, einer klassischen amerikanischen Kleinstadt. In seiner Ehe krieselt es, seine Frau hat eine Affäre mit seinem Psychiater. Nur eines macht Vernons Leben erträglich: seine Modelleisenbahn. Im Keller hat er Woodland detailgetreu nachgebaut, bis er eines Tages beschließt, die Stadt nach seinen Vorstellungen zu gestallten.
Klingt jetzt nicht überragend, ist prinzipiell vorhersehbar und erinnert an Kurzgeschichten von Stephen Kind. Was diese Geschichte besonders macht ist ihre sehr direkte Sozialkritik. Vernon baut erst die Stadt nach bis er beschließt, dass es so nicht weitergehen kann und er die Stadt baut, wie sie sein sollte, damit es sich in ihr für die Mehrheit gut leben lässt.
„Diese Banken wuchern wie Unkaut – Weg mit der Bank – Stattdessen wieder ein Spielwarenladen […] Und weg mit dem Prunkbau der Elektrizitätswerke, ich bin sicher, die betrügen mich bei jeder Abrechnung […] diese Stadt hatte schon immer zu wenig Spielplätze […] Verkleinerung des Gewerbe und Großmarktgebiets, dafür Stärkung von Fachhandel und kleinen Betrieben. Entfernung überflüssiger Verwaltungsgebäude, stattdessen die Einrichtung eines Theaters und eines Krankenhauses. Die größten Villen der Stadt wurden eingeebnet, die Grundstücke in Parks und Erholungsgebiete für die Allgemeinheit umgewandelt, den Besitzern wurden angemessene Wohnungen in den Apartmenthäusern am Stadtrand zugewiesen. Das reiche Viertel ist gemäßigt, das arme angehoben worden, eine Stadt in der es sich leben lässt.“
Die Kurzgeschichte Small Town - Kleine Stadt erschien 1954 und ist unglaublich aktuell. Vernon führt im Kleinen durch, was die Politiker heute im Großen durchführen sollten. Dieses BR Hörspiel aus dem Jahr 2000 ist nur 19 Minuten lang und dennoch birgt es so viel geballte Sozialkritik. Ein minimalistisches Kurzhörspiel mit nur drei Sprechern, guten Soundeffekten und sozialkritischer Geschichte, die ob ihrer Wendung und ihres Endes zwar sehr vorhersehbar ist, dennoch durch brandaktuelle Aspekte ausfällt.
Vernon: Michael Tregor
Madge: Regine Leonhardt
Frank: Stefan Hunstein
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=...
Klingt jetzt nicht überragend, ist prinzipiell vorhersehbar und erinnert an Kurzgeschichten von Stephen Kind. Was diese Geschichte besonders macht ist ihre sehr direkte Sozialkritik. Vernon baut erst die Stadt nach bis er beschließt, dass es so nicht weitergehen kann und er die Stadt baut, wie sie sein sollte, damit es sich in ihr für die Mehrheit gut leben lässt.
„Diese Banken wuchern wie Unkaut – Weg mit der Bank – Stattdessen wieder ein Spielwarenladen […] Und weg mit dem Prunkbau der Elektrizitätswerke, ich bin sicher, die betrügen mich bei jeder Abrechnung […] diese Stadt hatte schon immer zu wenig Spielplätze […] Verkleinerung des Gewerbe und Großmarktgebiets, dafür Stärkung von Fachhandel und kleinen Betrieben. Entfernung überflüssiger Verwaltungsgebäude, stattdessen die Einrichtung eines Theaters und eines Krankenhauses. Die größten Villen der Stadt wurden eingeebnet, die Grundstücke in Parks und Erholungsgebiete für die Allgemeinheit umgewandelt, den Besitzern wurden angemessene Wohnungen in den Apartmenthäusern am Stadtrand zugewiesen. Das reiche Viertel ist gemäßigt, das arme angehoben worden, eine Stadt in der es sich leben lässt.“
Die Kurzgeschichte Small Town - Kleine Stadt erschien 1954 und ist unglaublich aktuell. Vernon führt im Kleinen durch, was die Politiker heute im Großen durchführen sollten. Dieses BR Hörspiel aus dem Jahr 2000 ist nur 19 Minuten lang und dennoch birgt es so viel geballte Sozialkritik. Ein minimalistisches Kurzhörspiel mit nur drei Sprechern, guten Soundeffekten und sozialkritischer Geschichte, die ob ihrer Wendung und ihres Endes zwar sehr vorhersehbar ist, dennoch durch brandaktuelle Aspekte ausfällt.
Vernon: Michael Tregor
Madge: Regine Leonhardt
Frank: Stefan Hunstein
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=...
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September 10, 2019If you enjoyed 'The Twilight Zone' then this short story is right up your street. Eerie, entertaining and full of atmosphere, it tells the tale of a man who gets revenge on those he believes have wronged him in a particularly effective way.
What is that person you wronged today doing now? 'Small Town' might give you an answer. Or be a warning to you to be nicer.
What is that person you wronged today doing now? 'Small Town' might give you an answer. Or be a warning to you to be nicer.
May 26, 2016
This one was more strange then the others, which is really saying something when speaking of Philip K. Dick stories. I enjoyed the end, but I was really hoping that we got just a bit more in the end.
April 13, 2018
If I had to give PKD some 2-star reviews, rather than my normal 4 or 5, this short story would be one on them. It felt lengthy, not too much of a twist, though it would be interesting to see if this story inspired the town replica of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews