- Orpheus with Clay Feet
-
Orpheus with Clay Feet is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick originally published in 1964 in Escapade magazine. The story has a self referential time travel theme, and was published under the pen name "Jack Dowland".
Synopsis
The main character is Jesse Slade, a bored man living in 2040 who visits a time travel tourism agency for a vacation. The agency offers him a trip to the past where he can act as the muse for a famous artist of his choice. Slade chooses to inspire his favorite science fiction author of the 1960s, Jack Dowland, who is said to be universally acclaimed as the greatest of the three master science fiction authors of his time, the others being Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein.
Slade travels to Purpleblossom, Nevada, in 1956, where he is to inspire the writing of Dowland's masterpiece, The Father on the Wall. On his arrival, he has difficulty communicating, and is so unable to impress Dowland that he desperately discloses his identity as a time traveller. Dowland is so irritated at this that he becomes cynical about science fiction altogether, and never becomes the master that he might have been.
Self reference
The story makes several references to itself and its author. Dowland's masterpiece, The Father on the Wall, has a title very similar to Dick's masterpiece, The Man in the High Castle. Jack Dowland, the fictional author featured in the story, was the pen name used by Dick when the story itself was published. In the story, Dowland takes Slade's tale about time travelling muses and publishes it as a science fiction short story called Orpheus with Clay Feet under the pen name "Philip K. Dick". After Slade's return to the future, Slade and the time travel agent read Dowland's published story. The agent (who calls it a "wretched story") decides what to do with Slade after he reads about his own actions in the published story, saying "that's how he resolved it in the end".
Works of Philip K. Dick Short story collections 1950sA Handful of Darkness (1955) · The Variable Man (1956)1960sThe Preserving Machine (1969)1970sThe Book of Philip K. Dick (1973) · The Best of Philip K. Dick (1977)1980sThe Golden Man (1980) · Robots, Androids, and Mechanical Oddities (1984) · I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon (1985) · The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick (1987) · Beyond Lies the Wub (1988) · The Dark Haired Girl (1989) · The Father-Thing (1989) · Second Variety (1989)1990sThe Days of Perky Pat (1990) · The Little Black Box (1990) · The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford (1990) · We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (1990) · The Minority Report (1991) · Second Variety (1991) · The Eye of the Sibyl (1992) · The Philip K. Dick Reader (1997)2000sMinority Report (2002) · Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick (2002) · Paycheck (2004) · Vintage PKD (2006)Short stories 1950s"Beyond Lies the Wub" (1952) · "The Gun" (1952) · "The Skull" (1952) · "The Little Movement" (1952) · "The Defenders" (1953) · "Mr. Spaceship" (1953) · "Piper in the Woods" (1953) · "Roog" (1953) · "The Infinities" (1953) · "Second Variety" (1953) · "The World She Wanted" (1953) · "Colony" (1953) · "The Cookie Lady" (1953) · "Impostor" (1953) · "Martians Come in Clouds" (1953) · "Paycheck" (1953) · "The Preserving Machine" (1953) · "The Cosmic Poachers" (1953) · "Expendable" (1953) · "The Indefatigable Frog" (1953) · "The Commuter" (1953) · "Out in the Garden" (1953) · "The Great C" (1953) · "The King of the Elves" (1953) · "The Trouble with Bubbles" (1953) · "The Variable Man" (1953) · "The Impossible Planet" (1953) · "Planet for Transients" (1953) · "Some Kinds of Life" (1953) · "The Builder" (1953) · "The Hanging Stranger" (1953) · "Project: Earth" (1953) · "The Eyes Have It" (1953) · "Tony and the Beetles" (1953) · "Prize Ship" (1954) · "Beyond the Door" (1954) · "The Crystal Crypt" (1954) · "A Present for Pat" (1954) · "The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford" (1954) · "The Golden Man" (1954) · "James P. Crow" (1954) · "Prominent Author" (1954) · "Small Town" (1954) · "Survey Team" (1954) · "Sales Pitch" (1954) · "Time Pawn" (1954) · "Breakfast at Twilight" (1954) · "The Crawlers" (1954) · "Of Withered Apples" (1954) · "Exhibit Piece" (1954) · "Adjustment Team" (1954) · "Shell Game" (1954) · "Meddler" (1954) · "Souvenir" (1954) · "A World of Talent" (1954) · "The Last of the Masters" (1954) · "Progeny" (1954) · "Upon the Dull Earth" (1954) · "The Father-thing" (1954) · "Strange Eden" (1954) · "Jon's World" (1954) · "The Turning Wheel" (1954) · "Foster, You're Dead!" (1955) · "Human Is" (1955) · "War Veteran" (1955) · "Captive Market" (1955) · "Nanny" (1955) · "The Hood Maker" (1955) · "The Chromium Fence" (1955) · "Service Call" (1955) · "A Surface Raid" (1955) · "The Mold of Yancy" (1955) · "Autofac" (1955) · "Psi-man Heal My Child!" (1955) · "The Minority Report" (1956) · "To Serve the Master" (1956) · "Pay for the Printer" (1956) · "A Glass of Darkness" (1956) · "The Unreconstructed M" (1957) · "Misadjustment" (1957) · "Null-O" (1958) · "Explorers We" (1959) · "Recall Mechanism" (1959) · "Fair Game" (1959) · "War Game" (1959)1960s"All We Marsmen" (1963) · "Stand-by" (1963) · "What'll We Do with Ragland Park?" (1963) · "The Days of Perky Pat" (1963) · "If There Were No Benny Cemoli" (1963) · "Waterspider" (1964) · "Novelty Act" (1964) · "Oh, to Be a Blobel!" (1964) · "The War with the Fnools" (1964) · "What the Dead Men Say" (1964) · "Orpheus with Clay Feet" (1964) · "Cantata 140" (1964) · "A Game of Unchance" (1964) · "The Little Black Box" (1964) · "Precious Artifact" (1964) · "The Unteleported Man" (1964) · "Retreat Syndrome" (1965) · "Project Plowshare" (1965) · "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (1966) · "Holy Quarrel" (1966) · "Your Appointment Will Be Yesterday" (1966) · "Return Match" (1967) · "Faith of Our Fathers" (1967) · "Not by Its Cover" (1968) · "The Story to End All Stories" (1968) · "The Electric Ant" (1969) · "A. Lincoln, Simulacrum" (1969)1970s"The Pre-persons" (1974) · "A Little Something for Us Tempunauts" (1974) · "The Exit Door Leads In" (1979)1980s"Chains of Air, Web of Aethyr" (1980) · "Rautavaara's Case" (1980) · "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon" (1980) · "The Alien Mind" (1981) · "Strange Memories of Death" (1984) · "Cadbury, the Beaver Who Lacked" (1987) · "The Day Mr. Computer Fell Out of Its Tree" (1987) · "The Eye of the Sibyl" (1987) · "Stability" (1987) · "Goodbye, Vincent" (1988)Film and television adaptations 1980sBlade Runner (1982)1990sTotal Recall (1990) · Confessions d'un Barjo (1992) · Screamers (1995) · Total Recall 2070 (1999 TV series)2000sImpostor (2002) · Minority Report (2002) · Paycheck (2003) · A Scanner Darkly (2006) · Next (2007) · Screamers: The Hunting (2009)2010sRadio Free Albemuth (2011) · The Adjustment Bureau (2011) · Total Recall (2012) · King of the Elves (2013)Categories:- Short stories by Philip K. Dick
- 1964 short stories
- Works originally published in American magazines
- Works originally published in men's magazines
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
