Published and marketed along with his SF canon, but written during the period of his mainstream efforts and less "far out there" than many of his works.

Imagine if you will a man, an ordinary man who enjoys solving the daily newspaper puzzle. But while this man’s attention is focused on this one task, the puzzle of his life remains unsolved. This man presently resides in the The Twilight Zone…

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Armed with this information, Hamlet now sees the world in a whole different light. To him, the current state of affairs in the kingdom of Denmark has become “out of joint”, in much the same way as a dislocated shoulder. The title of the book is a reference to Shakespeare’s Hamlet : "The time is out of joint; O cursed spite!/That ever I was born to set it right!" [I.V.211-2]). In una qualunque cittadina, di una qualunque provincia americana, Ragle Gumm vive con la sorella Margot, il cognato Victor ed il nipotino Sammy. The Truman Show, a 1998 American comedy-drama film that chronicles the life of a man who discovers he is living in a constructed reality soap opera, televised 24/7. Ragle Gumm has a unique job: every day he wins a newspaper contest. And when he isn t consulting his charts and tables, he enjoys his life in a small town in 1959. At least, that s what he thinks. But then strange things start happening. He finds a phone book where all the numbers have been disconnected, and a magazine article about a famous starlet he s never heard of named Marilyn Monroe. Plus, everyday objects are beginning to disappear and are replaced by strips of paper with words written on them like "bowl of flowers" and "soft drink stand." When Ragle skips town to try to find the cause of these bizarre occurrences, his discovery could make him question everything he has ever known.

It’s clear to us that you believe what you say. But don’t you see what you’re doing? Because you believe everyone’s against you, you force everyone to be against you.” Genius. Visionary. The master of science fiction. Did this man have a crystal ball? Could he see into the future? Ragle begins to realize that his world is somehow artificial. He is beginning to uncover some curious items, hear some odd radio transmissions.Iniziato come semplice gioco è ormai diventata un'occupazione a tempo pieno che frutta denaro ed anche fama essendo oramai un affermato vincitore seriale.

Marvelous, terrifying fun, especially if you ve ever suspected that the world is an unreal construct built solely to keep you from knowing who you really are. Which it is, of course." Rolling Stone In act one, scene five, Hamlet speaks to this father's ghost, which tells him that Claudius murdered him in the orchard by pouring poison into his ear. The Ghost then instructs Hamlet to avenge his death by murdering Claudius while sparing the queen. When the Ghost leaves, Hamlet meets up with Horatio and Marcellus but does not reveal the details of his conversation with the Ghost. After Hamlet makes his friends swear that they will keep the events a secret and informs them that he will be acting strangely in the upcoming days, Hamlet comments, What I most enjoyed in the book was the philosophical speculation about the nature of reality and the meaning of words. When Ragle initiates a conversation with his brother-in-law about philosophy, he cites George Berkeley ~ the Idealist philosopher who proposed that nothing actually exists except as ideas in the mind of God. “ How do we know that piano exists?” says Ragle and Vic replies “ I’m sorry, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s just a bunch of words” (49). What I was trying to do in that book was account for the diversity of worlds that people live in. I had not read Heraclitus then, I didn’t know his concept of idios kosmos, the private world, versus koinos kosmos, which we all share. I didn’t know that the pre-Socratics had begun to discern these things. There’s a scene in the book where the protagonist goes into the bathroom, reaches in the dark for a pull-cord, and suddenly realizes there is no cord, there’s a switch on the wall, and he can’t remember when he ever had a bathroom when there was a cord hanging down. Now, that actually happened to me, and it was what caused me to write the book. It reminded me of the idea that Van Vogt had dealt with, of artificial memory, as occurs in THE WORLD OF NULL-A where a person has false memories implanted. A lot of what I wrote, which looks like the result of taking acid, is really the result of taking Van Vogt seriously! I believed Van Vogt, I mean, he wrote it, you know, he was an authority figure. He said, people can be other than whom they remember themselves to be, and I found this fascinating. You have a massive suspension of belief on my part."

The book itself seems to be divided into three different fragments. The first part is a creeping horror of existence - what if something is wrong around you? Something small, unimportant, but still unexplainable. The deeper you look, the more things just seem wrong. Can you really believe the people around you? Even your neighbour? All this escalation of philosophical intensity leads to big expectations, but when the truth comes out, it’s anticlimactic. It’s a good enough idea in and of itself, but it only barely ties in with the philosophical speculation that precedes it. The slips of paper, for example, make little sense other than to heighten the mystery. They suggest something metaphysical that just isn’t there. Also, a practical matter ~ wouldn’t it have been easier to just build a soft-drink stand than to brainwash people into seeing one? Ma questa è un'epoca su cui aleggia lo spauracchio fobico della bomba H e la certezza di un’imminente invasione russa. They", a 1941 story by Robert A. Heinlein about a man surrounded by persons whose job is to convince him that he is insane rather than one of the few genuine people in his world. This was published in 1959, one of his earlier novels and an observant reader of PKD will notice a more subtle approach than some of his later, Kafkaesque absurd and over the top science fiction vehicles. But even this early some ubiquitous themes emerge such as latent conspiracy theories, paranoia, mirror image delusions of grandeur and references to mental illness and self destruction. Also present are familiar classical, biblical and psychological references.

While the rest of the world toils at their jobs, Ragle Gumm stays at home, his sole source of income a daily newspaper contest called "Where will the little green man appear next?" When odd things start happening, Ragle thinks he may be having a nervous breakdown. Is he or is it something much more sinister?Un'idilliaca cittadina americana degli anni '50, dove vive la sua strana vita Ragle Gumm. Non sposato, sta in casa della sorella, di suo marito e del loro figlio. Al contrario del cognato Vic, commesso del supermercato, lui non lavora: si guadagna da vivere rispondendo al popolare quiz "trova l'omino verde" sul giornale, quiz del quale è il campione indiscusso da quando è cominciato. Ragle si sente turbato, disturbato e a ciò contribuiscono piccoli episodi insoliti che mettono in dubbio che tutto si svolga secondo natura.