The Skull (short story)
The Skull (German: The skull ) is a first time in 1952 in the magazine If published science fiction -narrative of writer Philip K. Dick , in which a commissioner of a future government killer using a time machine to the little-known founder of an influential religious kill should; only at the last moment does he notice that he himself is or will be this founder.
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The convicted criminal Conger is promised freedom if he commits murder for the government. He is said to travel 200 years into the past, to a small American town where an unknown person spoke a few sentences to a crowd in the early 1960s, then arrested and died in prison shortly afterwards. This man, just called "The Founder", reappeared to some people after his death; From the few sentences that have come down to us, the First Church, which has now become very widespread and rejects violence and war, developed. The First Church was one of the most important reasons for world peace in this future; government thinkers, however, believe that the Church and its ideals have held back progress.
Conger receives the skull from The Founder; he should murder him shortly before his speech and then clearly identify him using the skull. He also receives a special weapon. He travels back in time in a time machine; he first reached the scene in 1961 and looked for clues about his victim in old newspapers, which he soon found. Everything points to December 2, 1960. In the street, Conger attracts the attention of some passers-by, which amazes him. He travels back to November 1960 to wait for the founder .
When he arrives at the scene and in the evening, he is warned by an acquaintance he has made in the meantime: the police and a mob are on their way to see him because he is believed to be a communist spy - he is supposed to look a little like Karl Marx . But Conger is determined to carry out his assignment. But when he takes another look at the skull he has carried with him, he notices that certain peculiarities of the teeth match his own. He understands what is happening, recognizes the sense and nonsense of existence in the sight of his own bare skull, faces the crowd, and begins his speech with the words Those who take lives will lose their own. Those who kill, want them. But he who gives his own life away will live again! .
interpretation
Philip K. Dick, who was very interested in religious topics, tries to give a technical-futuristic explanation for the resurrection in this story. He also argues that the words and beliefs of the prophets are less important than the interpretation of the believers; Conger does not consider himself a religious person and does not live a godly life. In addition, as in some other works, Dick presents the government as a fundamentally amoral construct, because it operates on purely utilitarian or social Darwinian principles.
A thematically similar time travel novel was later presented by Michael Moorcock under the title Behold the Man . The theme of the time traveler who is supposed to change history through a murder in the past can also be found in the film Terminator .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ German: "Those who take life will lose theirs. Those who kill will die. But whoever gives his own life will live again!"
- ↑ https://philipkdickreview.wordpress.com/2014/04/25/the-skull/