Not by Its Cover

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"Not by Its Cover" is a sequel to Philip K. Dick's first science fiction short story, "Beyond Lies the Wub." The story continues the latter's theme of immortality, although not focusing on a living Wub itself, but rather its fur. Wub fur, so the story suggests, continues to live after the "death" of the Wub, and as such is highly prized owing to its postmortem production of a luxurious pelt that has numerous, albeit trivial, human applications. One such application is its use as a book cover by a Mars based publisher who issues a new Latin volume of Lucretius' poem "On the Nature of Things."

Lucretrius's poem represents one of best preserved ancient sources of the materialist philosophy known as Epicureanism. Tradition has it that the philosophy was created by the Greek philosopher Epicurus in the early Hellenistic period. As one of the three philosophical movements that dominated late antiquity (along with Stoicism and Scepticism), Epicureanism espoused an ateleological metaphysical formula of atoms, randomness and determinism, an ethical doctrine promoting hedonism and, most notably for Dicks' story, personal annihilation at death.

Owing to its powerful critique of theism, Epicureanism was heavily repressed by Christianity, both in early Catholicism and Protestantism (c.f., Calvin's "Institutes"). The rediscovery of texts like "On the Nature of Things" during the Renaissance had considerable influence on early modern philosophers such as Gassendi, Hobbes, Locke and Hume. Through these thinkers, and Lucretius himself, Epicurean doctrines permeated into the work of John Dalton and other natural philosophers now recognised as the founders of modern atomistic physics. Many of the contemporary strains of humanism, physicalism and naturalist metaphysics knowingly or unknowingly bear strong resemblances to ancient Epicurean thought.

Dicks' story begins with the book publisher receiving numerous complaints by purchasers of the Wub covered volume of Lucretius. Numerous changes to essential passages in the text have been discovered; those originally advocating personal annihilation now suggest a postmortem eschatological state. Detective work by the publisher and his copyist reveals that non-Wub covered volumes did not experience similar amendments and furthermore that no amendments were made to the proofs sent to the printers. The remainder of the story provides a humorous and philosophically interesting counterpointing of the annihilatory statements in Lucretius' poem and the Wub fur that, somehow, amends it.

[edit] References

1. The Three Stigmata of Phillip K Dick [1]

2. Epicureanism after Epicurus: the Influence of Epicurus on Western Thought[2]