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We Can Build You
Louis Rosen and his partners sell people--ingeniously designed, historically authentic simulacra of personages such as Edwin M. Stanton and Abraham Lincoln. The problem is that the only prospective buyer is a rapacious billionaire whose plans for the simulacra could land Louis in jail. Then there's the added complication that someone--or something--like Abraham Lincoln may not want to be sold.Is an electronic Lincoln any less alive than his creators? Is a machine that cares and suffers inferior to the woman Louis loves--a borderline psychopath who does neither? With irresistible momentum, intelligence, and wit, Philip K. Dick creates an arresting techno-thriller that suggests a marriage of Bladerunner and Barbarians at the Gate.From the Trade Paperback edition.
246 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 1972
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About the author
Philip K. Dick
2,006 books22.4k 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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October 23, 2016
I want Wes Anderson to make this into a movie.
I want Wes Anderson to make this into a movie.
I want Wes Anderson to make this into a movie. Starring Paul Giamatti, Oliver Platt, Abigail Breslin, Kevin Spacey and John Cusack.
We Can Build You, first published in 1972 could have been one of Dick’s best novels, but his was an inconsistent genius and that is evident here. I will go way out on a limb here, but this could also be seen as the anti-The Fountainhead, setting Rand’s objectivism on its ear, as if told from Peter Keating’s flawed perspective and tuning into a cryptic, though sympathetic portrayal of the world that had become a lunatic asylum; all of us waiting our turn for the loony bin. But Dick’s illustration is humanistic and impressionistic, contrasting favorably to Rand’s cold idealism. Dick is the approachable eccentric, whereas Rand was the uncompromising zealot. And for that I like this even more.
The building of simulacra, the automation of the realistic, though artificial representation of life, is a recurring motif in Dick’s work, but it is like Bradbury’s Mars, not intended at realism, but as a vehicle to explore something else. The Dickian android is an ongoing allegory, a metaphor on wheels and artificial legs, moving to where Phil himself wants to go and asks the questions he whispers in its ear: what does it mean to be human? Why are we here? what relation do I have to other people? This book famously features an android Abe Lincoln and Dick’s depiction of the fallen president is one of the endearing qualities of this enjoyable work.
Interestingly, there is a Pris in this book who is more similar to the Pris, Darryl Hannah’s character, in Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Bladerunner, than the Pris in Dick’s book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. And while she could be seen (in my certainly unique comparison) as a caricature of Dominique Francon, this Pris shares with We Can Build You the humanistic impressionism that serves as the counter-point to Rand’s strident objectivism.
I want Wes Anderson to make this into a movie.
I want Wes Anderson to make this into a movie. Starring Paul Giamatti, Oliver Platt, Abigail Breslin, Kevin Spacey and John Cusack.
We Can Build You, first published in 1972 could have been one of Dick’s best novels, but his was an inconsistent genius and that is evident here. I will go way out on a limb here, but this could also be seen as the anti-The Fountainhead, setting Rand’s objectivism on its ear, as if told from Peter Keating’s flawed perspective and tuning into a cryptic, though sympathetic portrayal of the world that had become a lunatic asylum; all of us waiting our turn for the loony bin. But Dick’s illustration is humanistic and impressionistic, contrasting favorably to Rand’s cold idealism. Dick is the approachable eccentric, whereas Rand was the uncompromising zealot. And for that I like this even more.
The building of simulacra, the automation of the realistic, though artificial representation of life, is a recurring motif in Dick’s work, but it is like Bradbury’s Mars, not intended at realism, but as a vehicle to explore something else. The Dickian android is an ongoing allegory, a metaphor on wheels and artificial legs, moving to where Phil himself wants to go and asks the questions he whispers in its ear: what does it mean to be human? Why are we here? what relation do I have to other people? This book famously features an android Abe Lincoln and Dick’s depiction of the fallen president is one of the endearing qualities of this enjoyable work.
Interestingly, there is a Pris in this book who is more similar to the Pris, Darryl Hannah’s character, in Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Bladerunner, than the Pris in Dick’s book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. And while she could be seen (in my certainly unique comparison) as a caricature of Dominique Francon, this Pris shares with We Can Build You the humanistic impressionism that serves as the counter-point to Rand’s strident objectivism.
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December 29, 2022
"It was as if Pris, to me, were both life itself - and anti-life, the dead, the cruel, the cutting and rending, and yet also the spirit of existence itself. Movement: she was motion itself. Life in its growing, planning, calculating, harsh, thoughtless actuality. I could not stand having her around me; I could not stand being without her. Without Pris I dwindled away until I became nothing and eventually died like a bug in the backyard, unnoticed and unimportant; around her I was slashed, goaded, cut to pieces, stepped on - yet somehow I lived: in that, I was real."
Sure, there's new wave sf elements in PKD's We Can Build You but above all this is a tale of obsession, of infatuation, of a love so toxic, so overwhelming, it brings on madness.
Below is my We Can Build You highlight reel that hits on two prime PKD themes then quickly shifts focus to, as noted above, what I judge the juiciest part of this captivating novel: the mental breakdown of Phil's first-person narrator, a thirty-three-year-old everyday kind of guy by the name of Louis Rosen.
SIMULACRUM
Fans of American history will take delight Phil includes two simulacrum: Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War for Lincoln during the Civil War, and Abraham Lincoln himself. What's particularly noteworthy: both think and act in a more appealing, more compassionate and much more clearheaded, rational way than the humans. And Phil has Abe Lincoln engage in a lively exchange addressing the question 'What is a man?' - one of the most thought-provoking and philosophic sections of the novel. Phil goes on to feature a third simulacrum (I wouldn't want to say who it is so as to spoil) but what I will say is the inclusion of this simulacrum adds much laugh-out-loud humor to what is already a very funny novel.
READ ESTATE RACKETEER
Phil would go on to write about the land developers' Southern California sprawling nightmare in A Scanner Darkly. In We Can Build You, published in 1972, we have sleazy Sam K. Barrows, a multimillionaire forever on the lookout to stack up even more profit. Sam has the idea to use simulacrum to pose as humans on the moon to entice real humans to buy his property and settle there themselves. When Rosen hears about Barrows, he observes: “The man who polluted the untouched other worlds.” Rosen knows full well the salesmen working for Barrows have been selling his glowingly-described Lunar lots from offices all over the United States.
PRIS
Rosen's business partner Maury invites Rosen to stay over at his house after an exhausting day on the road. Maury explains how daughter Pris is now home since her release from a mental health clinic in Kansas City run by the Federal Government. The Federal Bureau of Mental Health tested Pris back when she was a high schooler and picked up her schizophrenia.
Rosen sees her for the first time as an eighteen-year-old adult. “I saw a little hard, heartshaped face, with a widow's crown, black hair, and due to her odd make-up, eyes outlined in black, a Harlequin effect, and almost purple lipstick: the whole color scheme made her appear unreal and doll-like, lost somewhere back behind the mask which she had created out of her face.” Rosen goes on to describe Pris as looking like a skinny dance of death creation but, for all that, she looked good. “Her eyes burned with a wild, intense flame, which both startled and impressed me.”
Turns out, the Stanton simulacrum was Pris's idea. And, although the electronics genius in Rosen's small-time business built the Stanton, Pris is the one who designed it. This to say, Rosen quickly comprehends Pris possesses a creative mind. And during this very first time in the house with Pris, there's this exchange:
"How's your out-patient psychoanalysis coming," I asked her.
"Fine. How's yours?"
"I don't need it," I said.
"That's where you're wrong. You're very sick, just like me." She smiled up at me. "Face facts."
Pris' artistic talent and self-absorbed craziness combined with her insight into his own mental instability act like a powerful drug for Louis Rosen. A very powerful drug.
The next day Rosen drives back to Boise for the Stanton simulacrum with Pris at the wheel. Pris asks him probing questions: his real reasons for driving with her, why he isn't married, his childhood dreams, his shameful sexual practices. She teases him about his being too uptight and his emotional hangups.
And over the next weeks, after a few more interactions with Pris, we're reading about a man driven by maniacal obsession leading him to a return visit to a psychiatrist and failing the Federal Government's standard psychological test. As mandated by law, Rosen is sent to a Federal Clinic where he receives hallucinogens as a major part of his treatment.
In addition to addressing futuristic technologies and social issues, We Can Build You is a sweet tale tracing the steps of a man overwhelmed by love of a certain kind and consequently suffering psychotic breakdown. And, incidentally, this is one novel where PKD takes a rather positive view of psychiatrists and government institutions - and artificial intelligence.
American author Philip K. Dick, 1928-1982
“I even gave up, for a while, stopping by the window of the room to look out at the lights and deep, illuminated streets. That's a form of dying, that losing contact with the city like that.”
― Philip K. Dick, We Can Build You
September 8, 2016
“Hell,' I said, 'love is an American cult. We take it too seriously; it's practically a national religion.”
― Philip K. Dick, We Can Build You
Is this a PKD novel? Does it contain?
1. Madness? Yes.
2. Paranoia? Yes.
3. Simulacra? Yes.
4. Hallucinations? Yes.
5. Funky inventions? Yes.
6. Metaphysical explorations of what it means to be alive? Hell yes.
7. Loneliness? Yes.
8. Theology? Not so much.
9. A Fascist-type government? Yes, subtle, but yes (see comments below).
10. A Large Omnipresent Industry? Yes.
11. Unreliable narrator? Yes.
12. Life on another planet? Yes.
13. A Murder? Yes.
14. A US President? Yes.
15. Has it been made into a movie? Not that I'm aware of.
This novel scores 12/15 on the PKD meter, and most certainly is a work of PKD.
The aspect of PKD novels that works for me, I've recently decided, is their ability to span an almost base-level of human existence. He grabs the greasy hair, wrinkled clothes-level but links it directly to some metaphysical otherworldliness. He does this not only through his exploration of big themes and ideas, but also through clever beginnings.
I love the idea that the company that starts making simulacra in this novel was a small, Western electronic organ company that is trying to schlep its organs to various people using sleazy sales practices. Because of a changing economy, the management of the company arrives at the idea of constructing a simulacra of both Edwin M. Stanton AND Abraham Lincoln. Genius. Anyway, the simulacrum idea is the catalyst that Dick uses to explore his often examined ideas about what it means to be alive, human and to love. I adore that both Lincoln and Stanton appear both just as alive and probably more rational than most of the humans they are interacting with. I love that Lincoln ends up giving relationship advice to the narrator (who happens to be in love with a woman who today would out spectrum Sheldon Cooper). Anyway, it was good, solid PKD. Not a place to start, but if you find yourself on a PKD tear, not a bad book to drive through.
― Philip K. Dick, We Can Build You
Is this a PKD novel? Does it contain?
1. Madness? Yes.
2. Paranoia? Yes.
3. Simulacra? Yes.
4. Hallucinations? Yes.
5. Funky inventions? Yes.
6. Metaphysical explorations of what it means to be alive? Hell yes.
7. Loneliness? Yes.
8. Theology? Not so much.
9. A Fascist-type government? Yes, subtle, but yes (see comments below).
10. A Large Omnipresent Industry? Yes.
11. Unreliable narrator? Yes.
12. Life on another planet? Yes.
13. A Murder? Yes.
14. A US President? Yes.
15. Has it been made into a movie? Not that I'm aware of.
This novel scores 12/15 on the PKD meter, and most certainly is a work of PKD.
The aspect of PKD novels that works for me, I've recently decided, is their ability to span an almost base-level of human existence. He grabs the greasy hair, wrinkled clothes-level but links it directly to some metaphysical otherworldliness. He does this not only through his exploration of big themes and ideas, but also through clever beginnings.
I love the idea that the company that starts making simulacra in this novel was a small, Western electronic organ company that is trying to schlep its organs to various people using sleazy sales practices. Because of a changing economy, the management of the company arrives at the idea of constructing a simulacra of both Edwin M. Stanton AND Abraham Lincoln. Genius. Anyway, the simulacrum idea is the catalyst that Dick uses to explore his often examined ideas about what it means to be alive, human and to love. I adore that both Lincoln and Stanton appear both just as alive and probably more rational than most of the humans they are interacting with. I love that Lincoln ends up giving relationship advice to the narrator (who happens to be in love with a woman who today would out spectrum Sheldon Cooper). Anyway, it was good, solid PKD. Not a place to start, but if you find yourself on a PKD tear, not a bad book to drive through.
September 4, 2025
My 25th PKD novel. One of his least-talked-about books but an honest-to-God surprise! It's like no other book of his (I've read enough of his work by now to spot when something stands out as a thing wildly apart). More than likely it's his funniest work; unexpectedly accessible, it careens from goofily illogical to decidedly dark (with a dash of sinister thriller) to a psychotic romance that's ultimately... moving.
~ and, at the same time, it all reads more or less like a mainstream novel.
PKD (for those who don't know) didn't set out to be a science fiction writer. He dreamed of publishing straight fiction. But, aside from one such book ('Confessions of a Crap Artist') none of his straight fiction was published until the film 'Blade Runner' made him a buzz-name and publishers then wanted to release *anything* he had written, whether it was sci-fi or not.
The book that first put him on the map, the Hugo Award-winning 'The Man in the High Castle', was essentially straight story mixed with speculative fiction. The same year (1962) he gave the mainstream vibe another twist by writing 'We Can Build You', fusing the everyday with sci-fi. (It wasn't published until 1972.)
The sci-fi element in 'WCBY' rests with the creation of two androids... who, strategically, are designed as replicants of Abraham Lincoln and his Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (each with wonderfully quaint 19th-century speech patterns). The why of that is part of the fun of the read - and it's good for a giggle when Lincoln is referenced in passing in a modern setting:
But Pris also has ambition. And is prone to self-serving betrayal. Where the storyline ultimately goes will be less of a surprise to those who were paying attention when the AI Stanton states early on:
True to Dickian form, this is a work you have to keep up with but, even though one of the main themes is mental illness, you won't be taxed or drained inordinately. Chances are you'll be pulled along speedily by ingenuity and zaniness:
*Update: I then scratched that itch and read Doris Kearns Goodwin's amazing 'Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln'. Wow!:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
~ and, at the same time, it all reads more or less like a mainstream novel.
PKD (for those who don't know) didn't set out to be a science fiction writer. He dreamed of publishing straight fiction. But, aside from one such book ('Confessions of a Crap Artist') none of his straight fiction was published until the film 'Blade Runner' made him a buzz-name and publishers then wanted to release *anything* he had written, whether it was sci-fi or not.
The book that first put him on the map, the Hugo Award-winning 'The Man in the High Castle', was essentially straight story mixed with speculative fiction. The same year (1962) he gave the mainstream vibe another twist by writing 'We Can Build You', fusing the everyday with sci-fi. (It wasn't published until 1972.)
The sci-fi element in 'WCBY' rests with the creation of two androids... who, strategically, are designed as replicants of Abraham Lincoln and his Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (each with wonderfully quaint 19th-century speech patterns). The why of that is part of the fun of the read - and it's good for a giggle when Lincoln is referenced in passing in a modern setting:
"I'm talking to Abraham Lincoln and finding out how to end our relationship."But who designs and builds these androids?: Pris Frauenzimmer, the 18-year-old schizophrenic daughter of our protagonist's business partner. See, Louis Rosen and his partners want to branch out from selling spinets. Pris is tech-savvy, and knows how to branch.
I told the motel manager where I'd be if someone looking like Abraham Lincoln came by looking for me, and then I called a cab and started out.
But Pris also has ambition. And is prone to self-serving betrayal. Where the storyline ultimately goes will be less of a surprise to those who were paying attention when the AI Stanton states early on:
"You too, Mr. Rosen, have marked that shadow, that special coldness which emanates from Miss Frauenzimmer. And I see that it has troubled your soul, as well as mine. How she will deal with this in the future I do not know, but deal with it she must. For her Creator meant for her to come to terms with herself, and at present it is not in her to view with tolerance this part, this cold, impatient, abundantly reasonable--but alas--calculating side of her character."Louis' involvement with Pris will become a bizarre spin on both Nabokov's 'Lolita' and Terry Southern's 'Candy' (each, significantly, published shortly before 'WCBY'). It will progress from one of the funniest sex scenes (without sex) ever:
"Do you know what I'd like?" Her face lit up. "I want you to drive out somewhere and come back with some kosher corned beef and Jewish bread and ale and some halvah for dessert."~ to a blissful yet angst-dripping mash-up reminiscent (visually and otherwise) of Kaufman / Gondry's 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'.
True to Dickian form, this is a work you have to keep up with but, even though one of the main themes is mental illness, you won't be taxed or drained inordinately. Chances are you'll be pulled along speedily by ingenuity and zaniness:
"Have you ever had any kangaroo tail soup?" Maury said.I don't know about desiring kangaroo tail soup. But I now have an itch to read a Lincoln biography.*
We all looked at him, including the simulacrum.
*Update: I then scratched that itch and read Doris Kearns Goodwin's amazing 'Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln'. Wow!:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
July 31, 2019
Yet another classic PKD. :) A lot of great humor in this one, too. Lincoln and Edward Stanton, brought back to life and running a corporation that sells simulacra, android re-creations of real people? Well, that's hardly everything in this novel.
Most of it knocks the ball out of the park about relationships, madness, and a misdiagnosis. I really think it's not Schizophrenia he's talking about, but Autism. Or in the spectrum. And that's all kinds of cool, too, when it comes to modern novels. But of course, PKD has always jumped feet-first in that particular pool.
Interestingly enough, this novel deals with the pre-Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep time, with Simulacra JUST getting on the market, getting that push to take on and prepare colonies off Earth, and EVEN Mood Organs. :) So much of that is hilarious and/or disturbing when you think about how things go later on.
This is definitely one of the livelier and light PKD novels out there, focusing more on doomed relationships and fantasies than most. Kinda fitting, considering the theme. Are we just machines? Are we slaves to our passions, or are we making new slaves for our passions? Even funnier when you consider that LINCOLN himself has become a slave of sorts. :)
Most of it knocks the ball out of the park about relationships, madness, and a misdiagnosis. I really think it's not Schizophrenia he's talking about, but Autism. Or in the spectrum. And that's all kinds of cool, too, when it comes to modern novels. But of course, PKD has always jumped feet-first in that particular pool.
Interestingly enough, this novel deals with the pre-Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep time, with Simulacra JUST getting on the market, getting that push to take on and prepare colonies off Earth, and EVEN Mood Organs. :) So much of that is hilarious and/or disturbing when you think about how things go later on.
This is definitely one of the livelier and light PKD novels out there, focusing more on doomed relationships and fantasies than most. Kinda fitting, considering the theme. Are we just machines? Are we slaves to our passions, or are we making new slaves for our passions? Even funnier when you consider that LINCOLN himself has become a slave of sorts. :)
May 21, 2020
DAW Collectors # 14
Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982)
Cover Artist: John Schoenherr
Written in 1962 as "The First in Our Family", it remained unpublished until appearing in serial form as "A. Lincoln, Simulacrum" in the November 1969 and January 1970 issues of "Amazing Stories" magazine, re-titled by editor Ted White. The novel was issued as a mass market paperback original by DAW Books in 1972, its final title provided by publisher Donald A. Wollheim. Its first hardcover edition was published in Italy in 1976, and Vintage issued a trade paperback in 1994.
"We Can Build You" takes place in the distant future of the 1980's. Dick seldom bothered setting stories far enough into the future that any of the scientific marvels he works into his plots might be even vaguely possible.) Louis Rosen works for Maury Rock in a shady sales business. They run ads in small-town newspapers announcing the local repossession of a piano or electronic organ, and they are ready to make a deal if it saves shipping. They do pretty well, having survived one Better Business Bureau investigation, but business is drying up. Maury and his engineer have decided instead to go into the simulacra business, creating human simulacra so lifelike they easily pass as the real McCoy, or in this case the real Edwin M. Stanton, Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State. They have Lincoln himself in the works.
One quarter of the American population is schizophrenic and spends time in government-run facilities. A small number of citizens are radiation mutants -- Louis's younger brother has his face upside down on his head. Thomas C. Barrow is an entrepreneur who needs to unload some lunar real estate. Pris is a beautiful, recovering schizophrenic and Maury's daughter. Louis's love of Pris is driving him insane.
Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982)
Cover Artist: John Schoenherr
Written in 1962 as "The First in Our Family", it remained unpublished until appearing in serial form as "A. Lincoln, Simulacrum" in the November 1969 and January 1970 issues of "Amazing Stories" magazine, re-titled by editor Ted White. The novel was issued as a mass market paperback original by DAW Books in 1972, its final title provided by publisher Donald A. Wollheim. Its first hardcover edition was published in Italy in 1976, and Vintage issued a trade paperback in 1994.
"We Can Build You" takes place in the distant future of the 1980's. Dick seldom bothered setting stories far enough into the future that any of the scientific marvels he works into his plots might be even vaguely possible.) Louis Rosen works for Maury Rock in a shady sales business. They run ads in small-town newspapers announcing the local repossession of a piano or electronic organ, and they are ready to make a deal if it saves shipping. They do pretty well, having survived one Better Business Bureau investigation, but business is drying up. Maury and his engineer have decided instead to go into the simulacra business, creating human simulacra so lifelike they easily pass as the real McCoy, or in this case the real Edwin M. Stanton, Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State. They have Lincoln himself in the works.
One quarter of the American population is schizophrenic and spends time in government-run facilities. A small number of citizens are radiation mutants -- Louis's younger brother has his face upside down on his head. Thomas C. Barrow is an entrepreneur who needs to unload some lunar real estate. Pris is a beautiful, recovering schizophrenic and Maury's daughter. Louis's love of Pris is driving him insane.
October 26, 2019
Is this the unsung prequel to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The story about a company who begins to manufacture artificial humans after losing market share to a company who manufactures "mood organs" was actually written prior to DADoES, although published later, and it touches a lot of familiar notes for fans of PKD's most popular novel, including the infancy of offworld living as well as mutations caused by radioactive fallout. Dick explores his favorite philosophical theme, the definition of life, and he also explores sanity as a relative concept. The plot is uneven and at times lapses into moroseness when his absurdist humor would have been a breath of fresh air but it is still an underappreciated gem in PKD's oeuvre.
November 1, 2011
We Can Build You, as a novel, is perhaps as schizophrenic as its characters are. It begins by introducing the narrator, Louis Rosen, co-owner of a not entirely legitimate distributor of organ and spinet pianos with Maury Rock aka Frauenzimmer. Maury's daughter, eighteen-year old Pris has recently been let out of a mental hospital on an out-patient basis: in this world radiation has not only caused physical deformities but mental ones and a large segment of the population functions (or doesn't, as the case may be) with one or both conditions. Pris has 'phrenia (the short form PKD uses to imply how common the disorder really is) and she is also a brilliantly creative mind. She comes up with a new idea for their business, since organs aren't selling so well anymore. She suggests they sell civil war simulacra and they begin with Edward M. Stanton, Abraham Lincoln's war secretary, before recreating Lincoln himself. So that's the beginning: Louis is as normal as they come, his brother Chip, on the other hand, has an upside-down face. Chip and their scholarly father run the organ factory that is failing to sell organs and they are convinced to begin the manufacture of simulacra instead. Pris has the idea of interesting the rich entrepreneur Sam K. Barrows in their product, and you expect that the book will all be about what nefarious purposes he plans for the simulacra.
But that's not what the book ends up really being about. Some might say that it becomes a love story, and I supposed that's partly true, but I think what the book really ends up doing, is showing that normal isn't necessarily normal, and how precarious sanity can really be. I have to admit I wasn't sure what was happening when the novel seemed to veer off course, but then I realized it was making me feel as crazy as the people in the book were: that's the power of PKD's writing at work. Luckily this time I manage to cling to the edge without toppling over.
4.5 stars for some of his best dialogue, and messing with my head. again. and for reminding me how powerful a mood stimulator classical music can be.
But that's not what the book ends up really being about. Some might say that it becomes a love story, and I supposed that's partly true, but I think what the book really ends up doing, is showing that normal isn't necessarily normal, and how precarious sanity can really be. I have to admit I wasn't sure what was happening when the novel seemed to veer off course, but then I realized it was making me feel as crazy as the people in the book were: that's the power of PKD's writing at work. Luckily this time I manage to cling to the edge without toppling over.
4.5 stars for some of his best dialogue, and messing with my head. again. and for reminding me how powerful a mood stimulator classical music can be.
February 14, 2011
So much for me becoming a Philip K Dick fan. To try to capture the story line would be next to impossible, as the book lacks helpful elements such as a beginning, middle and end. At times, it is about the extent to which androids are more or less alive than humans. At other times, it is an irrational love story. Finally, it becomes the story of a person's decent into apparent madness. But there are too many problems with this thing to keep track of. First, the book might work better as a Kurt Vonnegut-esque absurdist novel, but Dick approaches this more like traditional science fiction. Trouble is, the "science" is, in fact, absurd. The androids are less replicants than resurrections of Stanton and Lincoln, with no explanation of their inherited memories, emotions, or mental illness. Second, the main character's obsession with his partner's daughter is inexplicable. Third, his bizarre behavior when he travels to Seattle to try to get her back is ridiculous and boring. Fourth...oh, just never mind. There are about a million copies of this thing at Half Price Books, and they all need to stay right where they are.
March 31, 2016
As with all other Philip K Dick novels, this is set in a dystopian America in the future. Louis Rosen (from whose POV the book is in) and his associate Maury Rock manufacture electric organs and spinets. Rock comes up with am idea - To mass produce simulacra (lifelike androids designed to closely simulate individuals) for Civil War reenactments. Add to this mix several characters whose strong personalities clash, trapping Rosen and derailing his company's plans.
With this, the story dissolves into a surreal frenzy, and Rosen's own sanity gradually deteriorates. As you read on though, it feels that the book's focus starts wavering, and it ends up somewhere else. You can't shake the feeling that if the book had gone with a more satisfying, concrete ending to the story arc that it began with, it would've been much better.
Themes of what it means to be human, what separates humans from machines, and what constitutes reality and how it relates to consciousness dominate Rosen's inner monologues, along with musings on the nature and depth of humanism.
In characteristic Philip K Dick style, the characters are well developed and fleshed out. Dialog is in very colloquial yet descriptive American English with an almost pulp-esque, noir feel, and feels seamlessly realistic and endearing as a result - Which helps you relate to the characters more. Psychosis and AI are used to bring attention to the very nature of reality and consciousness, and they're examined in more depth as the story progresses.
If you've read a lot of Philip K Dick, you might find some elements of this book formulaic in relation to his other books, but despite the shared tropes, it still manages to have its own character.
With this, the story dissolves into a surreal frenzy, and Rosen's own sanity gradually deteriorates. As you read on though, it feels that the book's focus starts wavering, and it ends up somewhere else. You can't shake the feeling that if the book had gone with a more satisfying, concrete ending to the story arc that it began with, it would've been much better.
Themes of what it means to be human, what separates humans from machines, and what constitutes reality and how it relates to consciousness dominate Rosen's inner monologues, along with musings on the nature and depth of humanism.
In characteristic Philip K Dick style, the characters are well developed and fleshed out. Dialog is in very colloquial yet descriptive American English with an almost pulp-esque, noir feel, and feels seamlessly realistic and endearing as a result - Which helps you relate to the characters more. Psychosis and AI are used to bring attention to the very nature of reality and consciousness, and they're examined in more depth as the story progresses.
If you've read a lot of Philip K Dick, you might find some elements of this book formulaic in relation to his other books, but despite the shared tropes, it still manages to have its own character.
July 27, 2015
This Philip K. Dick novel is like two different novels cobbled together. Except, it works. Partly because the "heroine" of We Can Build You -- Pris Frauenzimmer -- is probably the most repulsively attractive heroine I have ever seen in a Dick novel. It is Pris who holds the two parts together, first by her building an artificial Abraham Lincolm and Edwin Stanton who are actually characters in their own right; and secondly, by her father's partner's (Louis Rosen) obsession with the raven-haired eighteen-year-old.
At first, it appears that Lincoln and Stanton are the real subject of We Can Build You, until Rosen begins obsessing about her.
Pris is a recovered schizophrenic certified cured by the Federal Bureau of Mental Health (FBMH), a nationwide bureaucracy that has legal powers to put people who are mentally ill into recovery programs. Ultimately, Rosen finds himself in the FBMH's clutches, where he meets Pris, who has returned.
It seems as if Dick himself was obsessing over the character of Pris, and that perhaps there was a real person in his life who had filled a similar role.
At first, it appears that Lincoln and Stanton are the real subject of We Can Build You, until Rosen begins obsessing about her.
Pris is a recovered schizophrenic certified cured by the Federal Bureau of Mental Health (FBMH), a nationwide bureaucracy that has legal powers to put people who are mentally ill into recovery programs. Ultimately, Rosen finds himself in the FBMH's clutches, where he meets Pris, who has returned.
It seems as if Dick himself was obsessing over the character of Pris, and that perhaps there was a real person in his life who had filled a similar role.
September 20, 2015
We Can Build You, by Philip K. Dick (who I usually love) has left me feeling betrayed. It's a sham; a bald-faced lie. The cover and descriptions whisper sweet tales of android presidents and moon settlements and questions about the nature of autonomy and humanity. If you build a perfect replica of a man, is it a man?
Sadly, we'll never know, because the vast majority of this book is really about an old man becoming obsessed with the 18-year-old daughter of his business partner. It's about him refusing to see the myriad reasons why a young mentally ill woman is not the appropriate object of affection for a man who is at least old enough to be her father.
The plot creeps along in fits and starts, and the most interesting aspects of the book--namely, the androids Lincoln and Stanton--repeatedly get sidelined by Dick's focus on mental illness and on Louis "falling in love" with Pris. The whole "romance" plot is particularly egregious given that there's literally nothing about her character or her interactions with Louis that would explain or justify the kind of interest he takes in her.
A confusing mess of a story that feels like it's trying too hard to make Big Social Commentary, but focuses on dull unlikable characters. A rare miss for PKD.
Sadly, we'll never know, because the vast majority of this book is really about an old man becoming obsessed with the 18-year-old daughter of his business partner. It's about him refusing to see the myriad reasons why a young mentally ill woman is not the appropriate object of affection for a man who is at least old enough to be her father.
The plot creeps along in fits and starts, and the most interesting aspects of the book--namely, the androids Lincoln and Stanton--repeatedly get sidelined by Dick's focus on mental illness and on Louis "falling in love" with Pris. The whole "romance" plot is particularly egregious given that there's literally nothing about her character or her interactions with Louis that would explain or justify the kind of interest he takes in her.
A confusing mess of a story that feels like it's trying too hard to make Big Social Commentary, but focuses on dull unlikable characters. A rare miss for PKD.
Read
January 10, 2016Dick is really good at writing books that have nothing to do with their premise
September 4, 2025
Aside from reading Ubik and having watched Bladerunner God knows how many times, my exposure to Philp K. Dick’s work has been limited. This 1962 story, published as a book in 1972, is set in the then futuristic 1980s, and imagines a society not much different than we see in Bladerunner, where androids or simulacrums exist and are increasingly becoming incorporated into human society. Narrated in first-person by Louis Rosen, whose business partner proposes building Civil War-era androids first to reenact Civil War battles, and later to possibly serve as babysitters (which made me laugh), he may or may not be having a nervous breakdown, which may or may not be because of his unrequited love for his partner’s 18-year-old daughter Pris. And a schizophrenic Abraham Lincoln simulacrum may or may not be helping him with his problems. Satirical and sarcastic at times, especially early in the story, the relatable but increasingly unreliable narrator can be quite funny, though his ostensibly eroding mental health forces him into seriousness, especially as the story reaches its dramatic climax. Though it has its moments, I wasn’t that impressed by this book, which at times reminded me of Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut, or those cloying android fantasies by Kazuo Ishiguro. In its original serialized form, his editor wrote and published a closing chapter that did not make it into the book version, which may have added some different context to the story. That seems understandable, as the ending here felt abrupt and unsatisfying, but I don’t know if it would have been an improvement. It ultimately struck me as a fairly standard tale of unrequited love, incorporating both Jungian and Freudian philosophies that were just then starting to creep into the mainstream. To that end, it kind of equates an individual’s sensation of being in love with a psychosis, which I must admit I can relate to – I’m sure many readers can – and that may have been Dick’s intended message.
September 12, 2016
I'm a big PKD fan, and have enjoyed all of his books...up until now.
Frankly, this book is a mess. It started out pretty well as a potentially interesting tale of man-made simulacrums modeled after Edward Stanton and Abraham Lincoln (as the back cover of the book informs you).
Then all of the sudden the book takes a nonsensical turn, and suddenly the middle aged main character becomes obsessed with his business partner's 18 year old schizophrenic daughter. His self professed "love" for her is inexplicable because she is an awful, cold bitch who only makes him miserable by constantly insulting his character and everything about his life.
At this point everything I liked about the story fell apart. He didn't even do a good job portraying this obsession, it comes off as stale and insincere.
From there the entire plot changes again into a commentary on mental health and how everyone in this world seems to be some sort of "phrenic", as they are referred to. This is vaguely alluded to throughout the story but not enough to have the whole ending rely on this.
The characters themselves are flat and unlikeable, the dialogue isn't much better.
I almost gave up on this one and after finishing, I wish I did. The ending is lackluster and reveals how pointless the entire first half (the better part) actually was. Do yourself a favour and skip this one.
Frankly, this book is a mess. It started out pretty well as a potentially interesting tale of man-made simulacrums modeled after Edward Stanton and Abraham Lincoln (as the back cover of the book informs you).
Then all of the sudden the book takes a nonsensical turn, and suddenly the middle aged main character becomes obsessed with his business partner's 18 year old schizophrenic daughter. His self professed "love" for her is inexplicable because she is an awful, cold bitch who only makes him miserable by constantly insulting his character and everything about his life.
At this point everything I liked about the story fell apart. He didn't even do a good job portraying this obsession, it comes off as stale and insincere.
From there the entire plot changes again into a commentary on mental health and how everyone in this world seems to be some sort of "phrenic", as they are referred to. This is vaguely alluded to throughout the story but not enough to have the whole ending rely on this.
The characters themselves are flat and unlikeable, the dialogue isn't much better.
I almost gave up on this one and after finishing, I wish I did. The ending is lackluster and reveals how pointless the entire first half (the better part) actually was. Do yourself a favour and skip this one.
April 22, 2017
türkçe'de yapılmış en iyi pkd çevirilerinden biri
January 6, 2025
Here's a strange book even by Philip K. Dick standards. If you have your PKD checklist handy, it does hit many of the usual themes and obsessions: schizophrenia, robots that are so lifelike they are indistinguishable from humans, concerns about running a business (I swear no one talks about this but it's one of his main things), vaguely totalitarian government agencies, etc.
It's another of the many of his books that was not published right away but only later in his career as he picked up a little more steam. I've read the bulk of the books of his in this category and on the whole I must admit that they are not my favorites. This one pretty much fits in the pattern though there is certainly more sci-fi elements that many of the other stories, which are "straight" fiction.
The real crux of We Can Build You is a star-crossed relationship between our main character and the daughter of his business partner, who is mentally ill and recently released from an institution. The best parts of the story involve the interplay between these two, both of whom are in need of serious help and whose relationship is definitely not healthy but is very intense. Another frequent PKD authorial tick is present with the story's narrator being unwell and much of his interpretation of events being open to scrutiny.
The book does have a wonderful passage where the woman character in question compares the oppressive feeling from her schizophrenia to this (page 67):
"So the yellowjackets are all down below in their nest asleep. Then you show up at their hole and you pour the bucket of sand over it, so the sand forms a mound. Now listen. You think the sand suffocates them. But it's not quite like that. Here's what happens. The next morning the yellowjackets wake up and find their entrance blocked with sand, so they start burrowing up into the sand to clear it away. They have no place to carry it except to other parts of their nest. So they start a bucket brigade; they carry the sand grain by grain to the back of their nest, but as they take sand from the entrance more falls in its place.
What they do is they gradually fill their own nest with sand. They do it themselves. The harder they work to clear their entrance the faster it happens, and they suffocate...When I heard about this, Louis, I said to myself, I wish I was dead. I don't wan to live in a world where such things can be."
What a passage. Some of the book is like this.
A great deal of the other parts of the book revolve around the organ sales business and the attempt of the company to shift their market position to focus instead on sales of robots that so successfully imitate humans as to be impossible to tell apart. The idea - and I must say that if you were capable of building such advanced robots, this is not the idea that would first spring to mind for most of us - is the build two robots, one of simulacra of Abraham Lincoln, and another of Edwin Stanton, his Secretary of War, and use them as tourist draws I guess in some exhibit to be designed. So we get these two historical figures dropped into the milieu as well, offering their own commentary and just generally being uncanny presences. (Page 152: "'Listen, Maury,' I said suddenly. "How about Civil War mechanical babysitters?" or Page 180: "I'm talking to Abraham Lincoln and finding out how to end our relationship forever.")
It's a pretty familiar PKD stew, but just a lot of the elements felt undercooked. I think for most readers this is going to be one to wait until you're read all the more well known stuff and if you're really needing a PKD fix you can go back and find this.
It's another of the many of his books that was not published right away but only later in his career as he picked up a little more steam. I've read the bulk of the books of his in this category and on the whole I must admit that they are not my favorites. This one pretty much fits in the pattern though there is certainly more sci-fi elements that many of the other stories, which are "straight" fiction.
The real crux of We Can Build You is a star-crossed relationship between our main character and the daughter of his business partner, who is mentally ill and recently released from an institution. The best parts of the story involve the interplay between these two, both of whom are in need of serious help and whose relationship is definitely not healthy but is very intense. Another frequent PKD authorial tick is present with the story's narrator being unwell and much of his interpretation of events being open to scrutiny.
The book does have a wonderful passage where the woman character in question compares the oppressive feeling from her schizophrenia to this (page 67):
"So the yellowjackets are all down below in their nest asleep. Then you show up at their hole and you pour the bucket of sand over it, so the sand forms a mound. Now listen. You think the sand suffocates them. But it's not quite like that. Here's what happens. The next morning the yellowjackets wake up and find their entrance blocked with sand, so they start burrowing up into the sand to clear it away. They have no place to carry it except to other parts of their nest. So they start a bucket brigade; they carry the sand grain by grain to the back of their nest, but as they take sand from the entrance more falls in its place.
What they do is they gradually fill their own nest with sand. They do it themselves. The harder they work to clear their entrance the faster it happens, and they suffocate...When I heard about this, Louis, I said to myself, I wish I was dead. I don't wan to live in a world where such things can be."
What a passage. Some of the book is like this.
A great deal of the other parts of the book revolve around the organ sales business and the attempt of the company to shift their market position to focus instead on sales of robots that so successfully imitate humans as to be impossible to tell apart. The idea - and I must say that if you were capable of building such advanced robots, this is not the idea that would first spring to mind for most of us - is the build two robots, one of simulacra of Abraham Lincoln, and another of Edwin Stanton, his Secretary of War, and use them as tourist draws I guess in some exhibit to be designed. So we get these two historical figures dropped into the milieu as well, offering their own commentary and just generally being uncanny presences. (Page 152: "'Listen, Maury,' I said suddenly. "How about Civil War mechanical babysitters?" or Page 180: "I'm talking to Abraham Lincoln and finding out how to end our relationship forever.")
It's a pretty familiar PKD stew, but just a lot of the elements felt undercooked. I think for most readers this is going to be one to wait until you're read all the more well known stuff and if you're really needing a PKD fix you can go back and find this.
April 16, 2022
Philip K. Dick is among my favorite authors. His prose isn't anything special, his characters are often not fully lined, and his plots can be convoluted. But his ideas! PKD was a Big Idea writer, and the ideas he usually played with were "what is real?" and "how can I know I'm human?" Every time I crack open another one of his books I am ready to dive back into the psychological madness of those ideas and his questioning of basic reality.
That's what I was prepared to find in this book. And somewhere in this mess PDK was addressing the questions of identity and what makes us human. Unfortunately, he was so careless with the details of his plot that he destroyed my ability to suspend disbelief. The story was so cheesy, so unbelievable that any internal logic collapsed, and I had to abandon it at the halfway point.
What caused this? First the cheesy idea that the protagonist, able to make human-passing simulacrums would choose to use this incredible technology as a kind of Disney-esque recreation of the Civil War as entertainment. Secondly, in a world that is presented as having technology not far in advance of the 1960s they are somehow able to produce simulacrums that not only pass as human, but somehow contain all the personality traits and memories of historical figures. And it's not even a super secret government lab that's producing them. Nope. Its a small time electric organ manufacture that is producing this unimaginable wonder of technology. Finally, the romantic relationship between the narrator, Louis, and the mentally disturbed, much younger Pris, is never for one moment believable. Considering that this relationship is a major pillar of the story, this is more than a minor detail.
So there you have it. A favorite author managed to write a book that was so unbelievable that I couldn't get more than halfway through it, and had to give it one star. This was a disappointing reading experience, but when balanced against all the amazing PKD books that I've read, and all the great ones still left to read, I can get over it.
That's what I was prepared to find in this book. And somewhere in this mess PDK was addressing the questions of identity and what makes us human. Unfortunately, he was so careless with the details of his plot that he destroyed my ability to suspend disbelief. The story was so cheesy, so unbelievable that any internal logic collapsed, and I had to abandon it at the halfway point.
What caused this? First the cheesy idea that the protagonist, able to make human-passing simulacrums would choose to use this incredible technology as a kind of Disney-esque recreation of the Civil War as entertainment. Secondly, in a world that is presented as having technology not far in advance of the 1960s they are somehow able to produce simulacrums that not only pass as human, but somehow contain all the personality traits and memories of historical figures. And it's not even a super secret government lab that's producing them. Nope. Its a small time electric organ manufacture that is producing this unimaginable wonder of technology. Finally, the romantic relationship between the narrator, Louis, and the mentally disturbed, much younger Pris, is never for one moment believable. Considering that this relationship is a major pillar of the story, this is more than a minor detail.
So there you have it. A favorite author managed to write a book that was so unbelievable that I couldn't get more than halfway through it, and had to give it one star. This was a disappointing reading experience, but when balanced against all the amazing PKD books that I've read, and all the great ones still left to read, I can get over it.
January 2, 2013
PKD did a good job weaving the schizophrenic elements into this book. He has a great ability to write a believable and readable narrative shaped by mental illness.
My issues with this book have nothing to do with his abilities because despite a lack of interest, I was objectively still impressed by the way he writes.
My issues with this book is that it was boring, nothing happened, it didn't go anywhere. None of the characters did anything of worth or if they did, I didn't care. It wasn't a page turner. It lacked a whole lot of everything.
That said, the idea was good. I wish I liked it more.
NOTABLE LINES;
'As I watched the Lincoln come by degrees to a relationship with what it saw, I understood something; the basis of life is not a greed to exist, not a desire of any kind. It's fear, the fear which i saw here. And not even fear; much worse. Absolute dread. Paralyzing dread so great as to produce apathy. Yet the Lincoln stirred, rose out of this. Why? Because it had to. Movement, action, were implied by the extensiveness of the dread. That state, by it's own nature, could not be endured.
All the activity of life was an effort to relieve this one state'
&
'Without Pris I dwindled away until I became nothing and eventually died like a bug in the backyard, unnoticed and unimportant; around her i was slashed, goaded, cut to pieces, stepped on -- yet somehow I lived; In that, I was real.'
My issues with this book have nothing to do with his abilities because despite a lack of interest, I was objectively still impressed by the way he writes.
My issues with this book is that it was boring, nothing happened, it didn't go anywhere. None of the characters did anything of worth or if they did, I didn't care. It wasn't a page turner. It lacked a whole lot of everything.
That said, the idea was good. I wish I liked it more.
NOTABLE LINES;
'As I watched the Lincoln come by degrees to a relationship with what it saw, I understood something; the basis of life is not a greed to exist, not a desire of any kind. It's fear, the fear which i saw here. And not even fear; much worse. Absolute dread. Paralyzing dread so great as to produce apathy. Yet the Lincoln stirred, rose out of this. Why? Because it had to. Movement, action, were implied by the extensiveness of the dread. That state, by it's own nature, could not be endured.
All the activity of life was an effort to relieve this one state'
&
'Without Pris I dwindled away until I became nothing and eventually died like a bug in the backyard, unnoticed and unimportant; around her i was slashed, goaded, cut to pieces, stepped on -- yet somehow I lived; In that, I was real.'
February 11, 2019
about a year ago, after reading LET FLOW MY TEARS, THE POLICEMAN SAID, and re-reading DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? i posted a query on another social media site asking for recommendations of people's favorite titles from PKD.
i received a lot of great responses, and as a result i went on to read 14 of his novels. after that, i took a break for maybe six months, and then, just recently, i was in a book shop and picked this up and it just felt right, so i grabbed it.
what i want to get at is that i don't know why people don't talk about this book! of all the recommendations i received last year i don't think anyone mentioned this one - and it's SO GOOD. it's pretty late in his career, maybe just before or just after his breakdown, which produced the VALIS trilogy, a series of works that reflected his obsession with drug use, psychological states and spirituality (three common themes in his oeuvre).
WCBY seems the perfect blend of this inquiry and a plot-driven narrative that, in typical PKD style, keeps morphing what you think the main idea of the book might be ... it seems difficult to pull this off, without giving the sense of being tricked, but he sports that process here to great effect.
read this book - if you're PKD fan and haven't discovered it, wait no longer. if you're new to this prolific writer who, over the course of over 40 novels and over 100 short stories, has his ups and downs, consider this a very good place to start.
i received a lot of great responses, and as a result i went on to read 14 of his novels. after that, i took a break for maybe six months, and then, just recently, i was in a book shop and picked this up and it just felt right, so i grabbed it.
what i want to get at is that i don't know why people don't talk about this book! of all the recommendations i received last year i don't think anyone mentioned this one - and it's SO GOOD. it's pretty late in his career, maybe just before or just after his breakdown, which produced the VALIS trilogy, a series of works that reflected his obsession with drug use, psychological states and spirituality (three common themes in his oeuvre).
WCBY seems the perfect blend of this inquiry and a plot-driven narrative that, in typical PKD style, keeps morphing what you think the main idea of the book might be ... it seems difficult to pull this off, without giving the sense of being tricked, but he sports that process here to great effect.
read this book - if you're PKD fan and haven't discovered it, wait no longer. if you're new to this prolific writer who, over the course of over 40 novels and over 100 short stories, has his ups and downs, consider this a very good place to start.
December 18, 2015
A schizophrenic book about schizophrenia. In one part its quite a straight forward an interesting scifi about robots and artificial intelligence, with a little bit of business negotiations and dodgy retail practices, then it morphs into a book about a descent into madness brought about by the rest of the book. One character , Pris is known to have mental issues from the start but it is the descent if Louis that makes up the last section.
The book is a strange one but the weird mix still works.
The book is a strange one but the weird mix still works.
February 1, 2019
El libro en sí me ha gustado mucho, rayadas filosóficas varias incluidas, muy en el ambiente de Blade Runner, María likes that.
El final es lo que me ha quedado un poco fría, me ha resultado como si terminara en medio de algo, así de golpe.
El final es lo que me ha quedado un poco fría, me ha resultado como si terminara en medio de algo, así de golpe.
February 1, 2020
Me dejo mal este libro... pudo haber sido la mejor historia de Philip K Dick, pero termino siendo una más. Aunque tiene partes buenas, dejá muchas sin concluir. Da un giro que no parece ser parte de la historia, pero bueno... mis respetos para Philip k Dick.
October 12, 2018
Philip es a mi gusto, un escritor bastante bueno, las dos. Novelas que he leído de él no me han defraudado. Sin duda alguna, lo seguiré leyendo.
August 17, 2011
Although Philip K. Dick's 28th sci-fi novel, "We Can Build You," was first published in book form as a 95-cent DAW paperback in July 1972, it had actually been written a good decade before, and first saw the light of day under the title "A. Lincoln, Simulacrum" in the November '69 and January '70 issues of "Amazing Stories." As revealed by Dick biographer Lawrence Sutin, the book was in part inspired by the centennial of the Civil War and by a simulation of Abraham Lincoln that Phil had recently seen in Disneyland. In the novel, we meet a pair of businessmen in Ontario, Oregon--Maury Frauenzimmer and (our narrator) Louis Rosen--who sell pianos and electric organs and who are about to branch out into a new line of endeavor: mechanical "simulacra" (think: robots) of various Civil War figures. When their Lincoln and Edwin M. Stanton creations come to the attention of Trump-like real estate developer Sam K. Barrows, a plot is hatched to start sending simulacra to the newly developed moon, as a lure for future settlers. But things get a tad complicated, when Louis falls for the dubious charms of Maury's mentally unstable daughter, Pris, and the mechanical creations start evincing more sanity and compassion than their creators....
To my great surprise, "We Can Build You" turns out to be a very sweet, sad, insightful and amusing Dick book; quite lovely, really. It is a comparative rarity in the Dick canon in that it is told in the first person, although Louis becomes an increasingly problematic source of information as the novel proceeds. The book FEELS different from many of Dick's others, perhaps for that reason, although many of the author's pet tropes--cigars, German words, classical music, drugs, the slippery nature of "reality," Cheyenne, Wyoming (of all places!), insanity, divorce and suicide--are again trotted out. The book has loads of excellent, naturalistic dialogue, and the relationship between the two Jewish partners is a touching one. The story, in truth, almost feels as if it could have been written by, oh, Robert Heinlein, with its near future (1982) setting and simply written style; almost, but not quite. The book grows increasingly strange and unsettling toward its conclusion (Phil Dickian, I believe the expression is), as the thrust of the plot veers away from the sci-fi elements and decidedly toward the realm of the mentally disturbed; "I, Robot" meets "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Phil's novel has some typically wonderful imaginative touches, such as Louis' mutant brother with his upside-down face, the U.S. president having been married 41 times (36 more than Phil would attain to!), and the intravenous birth-control injections. Pris, grating and obnoxious as she is, yet remains a marvelously complex character; Sutin calls her Dick's "most intense exploration of his 'dark-haired girl' obsession." An 18-year-old ex-schizophrenic, she is certainly an unusual object of adoration for the 33-year-old Rosen; still, they do make for a dynamic, feisty couple. And the discussion that the mechanical Lincoln has with Barrows, regarding what makes a man a man and a machine a machine...well, one might have to wait another 15 years, till the second-season "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "The Measure of a Man," to hear a more compelling argument regarding the rights of a mechanical construct.
"We Can Build You," likable as it is, is hardly a perfect Dick novel. Several plot threads just peter out, and even the central story line involving the simulacra is left hanging in midair. Phil makes a few slips in his book, too (Lincoln was 31 in 1840, not 29; Attis was a Phrygian god, not a goddess), although he seems to have taken especial care with his general prose here; it is more mature and well crafted than in many earlier books. In all, kind of a special addition to the Dick canon, and one that I actually found pretty moving. Way to go, Phil!
To my great surprise, "We Can Build You" turns out to be a very sweet, sad, insightful and amusing Dick book; quite lovely, really. It is a comparative rarity in the Dick canon in that it is told in the first person, although Louis becomes an increasingly problematic source of information as the novel proceeds. The book FEELS different from many of Dick's others, perhaps for that reason, although many of the author's pet tropes--cigars, German words, classical music, drugs, the slippery nature of "reality," Cheyenne, Wyoming (of all places!), insanity, divorce and suicide--are again trotted out. The book has loads of excellent, naturalistic dialogue, and the relationship between the two Jewish partners is a touching one. The story, in truth, almost feels as if it could have been written by, oh, Robert Heinlein, with its near future (1982) setting and simply written style; almost, but not quite. The book grows increasingly strange and unsettling toward its conclusion (Phil Dickian, I believe the expression is), as the thrust of the plot veers away from the sci-fi elements and decidedly toward the realm of the mentally disturbed; "I, Robot" meets "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Phil's novel has some typically wonderful imaginative touches, such as Louis' mutant brother with his upside-down face, the U.S. president having been married 41 times (36 more than Phil would attain to!), and the intravenous birth-control injections. Pris, grating and obnoxious as she is, yet remains a marvelously complex character; Sutin calls her Dick's "most intense exploration of his 'dark-haired girl' obsession." An 18-year-old ex-schizophrenic, she is certainly an unusual object of adoration for the 33-year-old Rosen; still, they do make for a dynamic, feisty couple. And the discussion that the mechanical Lincoln has with Barrows, regarding what makes a man a man and a machine a machine...well, one might have to wait another 15 years, till the second-season "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "The Measure of a Man," to hear a more compelling argument regarding the rights of a mechanical construct.
"We Can Build You," likable as it is, is hardly a perfect Dick novel. Several plot threads just peter out, and even the central story line involving the simulacra is left hanging in midair. Phil makes a few slips in his book, too (Lincoln was 31 in 1840, not 29; Attis was a Phrygian god, not a goddess), although he seems to have taken especial care with his general prose here; it is more mature and well crafted than in many earlier books. In all, kind of a special addition to the Dick canon, and one that I actually found pretty moving. Way to go, Phil!
January 28, 2013
Audiobook from Brilliance Audio
Narrated by Dan John Miller
Length: 8 hours, 22 minutes
Published in 1972, Dick uses the premise of a "future" (the book takes place in Dick's imagined 1982) where programming is advanced enough to allow programming the appearance of sentience into androids to provide a treatise on mental health and mental healthcare.
In short, Louie Rosen and his partner Maury run a business making and selling electronic organs. One day, however, Maury decides to make an android of Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War. When he reveals it to Louie, he also reveals that his schizophrenic daughter, Priss, played a large role in developing the personality for it. The Stanton simulacrum is quite successful, and they make another, this time of Abraham Lincoln. They get the idea to pitch it to an investor, Barrows, to capitulate on Americans' love for the Civil War (which at the time it was written, was nearing its centennial). Unfortunately, as Barrows and the crew spend more time with the Lincoln, they find that it is moody and seems manic. While this may be historically accurate, it could also be a projection of Priss's beliefs about Lincoln into the programming. Where the Stanton android is personable, logical, and "normal," the Lincoln is anything but. Eventually, Barrows decides to pass on the investment and instead make his own (which he will use as first settlers for a moon colony--an idea I would have preferred to read about). Priss ends up infatuated with Barrows and follows him back to Seattle. Louie, while talking to the Lincoln, seems to have also developed mental instability and runs to Seattle to bring Priss back. She shoots him down and he ends up committed. The story ends when Louie "gets over" his issues and is discharged to go about his normal life.
This was a book about ideas. Dick obviously had feelings about the state (and stigma) of mental health issues in the 60's, both with regards to diagnosis and treatment. He almost seems to imply that we're all mentally unstable/have our moments of instability...but he takes it to another level as to suggest that the state-run facilities do nothing to help people. Rather, the state-run facilities can actually make people worse.
In the end, this was a book of a lot of thoughts, not a lot of actions. There was a lot more dialogue an "thinking" than there was stuff actually happening; it was quite cerebral. This isn't the kind of book I'm normally into...and in fact, as the book wore on, I found it hard to want to listen and hard to keep focused. I liked the idea of sentient androids, of "souls" built from research into real people...but it's not for me. And probably not for everybody. But if you like "ideas" books, then it may be for you.
The narration itself was...interesting. Miller's voice is somewhat flat, which can be good in an audiobook like this; he certainly didn't try to project too much character into most of the voices. However, he did use different tones for female voices as compared to male voices. In that respect, it was somewhat grating; his female voice was almost pandering and was somewhat creepy. It made some "sexual" scenes between Priss and Louie extra-creepy. That said, it also helped to make me really believe that Priss was mentally ill...
It's hard to believe, but this is the first PKD I've ever read. I've also never watched Bladerunner in its entirety. I don't know if the rest of his stories are like this, so cerebral. If they are, I may skip them. I was lured in by the robots...and kind of turned off by everything else.
Narrated by Dan John Miller
Length: 8 hours, 22 minutes
Published in 1972, Dick uses the premise of a "future" (the book takes place in Dick's imagined 1982) where programming is advanced enough to allow programming the appearance of sentience into androids to provide a treatise on mental health and mental healthcare.
In short, Louie Rosen and his partner Maury run a business making and selling electronic organs. One day, however, Maury decides to make an android of Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War. When he reveals it to Louie, he also reveals that his schizophrenic daughter, Priss, played a large role in developing the personality for it. The Stanton simulacrum is quite successful, and they make another, this time of Abraham Lincoln. They get the idea to pitch it to an investor, Barrows, to capitulate on Americans' love for the Civil War (which at the time it was written, was nearing its centennial). Unfortunately, as Barrows and the crew spend more time with the Lincoln, they find that it is moody and seems manic. While this may be historically accurate, it could also be a projection of Priss's beliefs about Lincoln into the programming. Where the Stanton android is personable, logical, and "normal," the Lincoln is anything but. Eventually, Barrows decides to pass on the investment and instead make his own (which he will use as first settlers for a moon colony--an idea I would have preferred to read about). Priss ends up infatuated with Barrows and follows him back to Seattle. Louie, while talking to the Lincoln, seems to have also developed mental instability and runs to Seattle to bring Priss back. She shoots him down and he ends up committed. The story ends when Louie "gets over" his issues and is discharged to go about his normal life.
This was a book about ideas. Dick obviously had feelings about the state (and stigma) of mental health issues in the 60's, both with regards to diagnosis and treatment. He almost seems to imply that we're all mentally unstable/have our moments of instability...but he takes it to another level as to suggest that the state-run facilities do nothing to help people. Rather, the state-run facilities can actually make people worse.
In the end, this was a book of a lot of thoughts, not a lot of actions. There was a lot more dialogue an "thinking" than there was stuff actually happening; it was quite cerebral. This isn't the kind of book I'm normally into...and in fact, as the book wore on, I found it hard to want to listen and hard to keep focused. I liked the idea of sentient androids, of "souls" built from research into real people...but it's not for me. And probably not for everybody. But if you like "ideas" books, then it may be for you.
The narration itself was...interesting. Miller's voice is somewhat flat, which can be good in an audiobook like this; he certainly didn't try to project too much character into most of the voices. However, he did use different tones for female voices as compared to male voices. In that respect, it was somewhat grating; his female voice was almost pandering and was somewhat creepy. It made some "sexual" scenes between Priss and Louie extra-creepy. That said, it also helped to make me really believe that Priss was mentally ill...
It's hard to believe, but this is the first PKD I've ever read. I've also never watched Bladerunner in its entirety. I don't know if the rest of his stories are like this, so cerebral. If they are, I may skip them. I was lured in by the robots...and kind of turned off by everything else.
October 5, 2025
was expecting commentary on humanity and machines, got a weird story about an old man obsessed with a barely legal girl instead
November 9, 2025
This book isn't quite what it seems. Ostensibly the humourous tale of a small company producing very lifelike copies of famous personages (or at least, a couple of them) it does get some fun out of the very human behaviour of the said simulacra. This fits with Dick's preoccupations with authenticity, where often the inauthentic (in this case the "robots") are sometimes more human than the people creating them.
However the above is really a sideshow to the main thrust of the story which is the main character's (Louis Rosen) obsession with a young woman. She has mental health issues and this pushes Rosen into all sorts of odd behaviour.
I'm not sure this really quite hangs together and I think it's significant that although written in 1963 this novel didn't get published until almost 10 years later.
However the above is really a sideshow to the main thrust of the story which is the main character's (Louis Rosen) obsession with a young woman. She has mental health issues and this pushes Rosen into all sorts of odd behaviour.
I'm not sure this really quite hangs together and I think it's significant that although written in 1963 this novel didn't get published until almost 10 years later.
February 20, 2022
Lo que me costó terminar éste. No le veía mucho sentido y en realidad, no lo tenía.
Empieza hablando de una cosa, de la fabricación, de cómo la fábrica Rosen debía modernizarse y aparece ese capitalista que podría convertirse en su socio, bla bla. Entonces pega un giro hacia el terreno romántico, sí, concentrémonos en eso y hablemos poco de las fabricaciones o esos personajes históricos con los que ha llamado la atención... termina más que filosofando, divagando sobre salud mental y el (mal) romance.
No tiene ni pies ni cabeza, si eso les parece una genialidad, pues fantástico; si eso, como a mí, les molesta, no pierdan su tiempo. Porque los que lo terminaron dicen que es una maravilla y aunque todos saben que Dick hacía cosas fuera de lo común, una cosa es eso y otra perder totalmente el rumbo de la obra en aras de vaya uno a saber qué quiso inventar.
Empieza hablando de una cosa, de la fabricación, de cómo la fábrica Rosen debía modernizarse y aparece ese capitalista que podría convertirse en su socio, bla bla. Entonces pega un giro hacia el terreno romántico, sí, concentrémonos en eso y hablemos poco de las fabricaciones o esos personajes históricos con los que ha llamado la atención... termina más que filosofando, divagando sobre salud mental y el (mal) romance.
No tiene ni pies ni cabeza, si eso les parece una genialidad, pues fantástico; si eso, como a mí, les molesta, no pierdan su tiempo. Porque los que lo terminaron dicen que es una maravilla y aunque todos saben que Dick hacía cosas fuera de lo común, una cosa es eso y otra perder totalmente el rumbo de la obra en aras de vaya uno a saber qué quiso inventar.
September 20, 2012
This book seemed more cohesive than many other Dick books. I have often felt like he goes off on tangents of possibility and explores new ideas without fully investigating his initial premise. This book was different than that. His brilliance as a writer is often overshadowed by his amazing philosophical imagination, but there were some moments during this book where I thought to myself
"Wow!"
Dick's "heroes" are often regular guys and/or losers, and maybe I related a little too well with this hero
who was maybe losing his mind.
"Wow!"
Dick's "heroes" are often regular guys and/or losers, and maybe I related a little too well with this hero
who was maybe losing his mind.
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