The Eyes Have It

Philip K. Dick’s characters are, by and large, readers, and a book is one of the central symbols in “The Eyes Have It.” As a symbol, a book represents technology. Until the digital era, books were some of the most advanced and dependable technologies for conveying information. Yet the context of the book within this story complicates a straightforward interpretation of its role. The book is a discarded paperback novel, not a weighty philosophical tome elucidating esoteric ideas. It is almost certainly a “pulp fiction” book, the kind that Dick himself consumed regularly.

The physical descriptions of the characters that the narrator/the reader selects are not unique in their use of language; they are, rather, trite, filled with an everyday vernacular that is easily understood. He misreads the book, however, treating a novel not as a literary work but as a literal reflection of reality. The character finds extraordinary knowledge within such a mundane book. Nevertheless, the narrator/the reader is incapable of handling this revelation, and he closes the book and tosses it aside in a literal and figurative rejection of the “ideas” contained therein.