Philip K. Dick

Clans of the Alphane Moon deals with one of Philip K. Dick's favorite themes: mental illness and what that actually means. The Alphane moon may be full of people with clinical disorders, but are the "normal" people who are supposed to cure them really any saner?

Clans of the Alphane Moon

Wynter

A great premise that would have been even more impactful if I didn't read the blurb first. The way PKD invisioned a society of the Alphane moon and its subclasses was really creative. I almost wish we, as readers, spent more time on this moon, rather than Terra, where a majority of the story takes place. 

What some people might find problematic are some mysogenistic descriptions and rather outdated explanations of mental illness, but there are also a few instances where the author flips these notions upside down. I mean, there is a scene where a potential rapist is quite savagely violated himself, in a scene that is both darkly humorous and grotesque. Other questionable moments include a comment on the size and shape of boobs on every female character as she enters the scene. What is this society, where the pinnacle of sexism is surgical nipple dilation? That's downright hilarious. Who can possibly take this serious enough to get offended? Not me.

The finale is when things became a bit shaky for me. I couldn't quite get on board with the logic behind the trail of events or the characters' motivations. It kind of sucks when an author resorts to letting all of the revelations be explained by an all-knowing character, rather than gradually allowing the reader to learn them through action. It sort of creates a sense of rashly tying all the loose ends because the said author got bored. I am yet to see if that's something PKD does out of habit, but I am not letting an underperforming ending ruin my overall enjoyment of this novel.

When the Alphane moon becomes an insane asylum, its inmates, left alone, form clans based on their respective psychoses, but when Earth psychologist Mary Rittersdorf attempts to rehospitalize these lunatics, they retaliate against her invasion of their privacy. Reprint.

Clans of the Alphane Moon

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