Galactic Pot-Healer

infobox Book |
name = Galactic Pot-Healer
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Cover of first edition (paperback)
author = Philip K. Dick
illustrator =
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country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = Berkley Books
release_date = 1969
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
pages = 144 pp
isbn = NA
preceded_by =
followed_by = "Galactic Pot-Healer" is a science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick, first published in 1969. The novel deals with a number of philosophical and political issues such as repressive societies, fatalism, and the search for meaning in life.

Plot introduction

The story concerns a man who thanklessly fixes pots in a totalitarian future Earth, only to be summoned by a godlike alien known as the Glimmung, who has recruited him as part of a multispecies specialist team sent to "Plowman's Planet" (or Sirius Five) for a mystical quest, which is to raise the sunken cathedral of Heldscalla from a surreal alien ocean.

Plot summary

The novel takes place in a dismal future America, the “Communal North American Citizen's Republic.” Not unlike George Orwell's nightmare vision of society in "Nineteen Eighty-Four", the United States government has become extremely intrusive and repressive, monitoring the actions, speech and even thoughts of its citizens. It is hinted that this may be the result of a Soviet Union victory during either the Cold War of the 20th Century, or a later conventional or limited thermonuclear war.

The protagonist, Joe Fernwright, is a pot-healer, one who can perfectly restore pottery to brand new condition. Joe finds himself constantly depressed and idle at the opening of the novel. He is unemployed and on a war veteran's social security benefit, given that ceramic pottery has been replaced by plastics, and his profession is not in great demand. He longs for purpose and meaning in life.

Joe finds this when he is summoned to "Plowman's Planet"/Sirius Five by a mysterious highly evolved alien, Glimmung, with seemingly godlike powers. Along with other similarly talented but depressed and alienated people and creatures from all over the galaxy they are employed by Glimmung, in a grand endeavor to raise an ancient sunken cathedral from the ocean floor.

Glimmung is also in a struggle with the Kalends, a species gifted with precognition who are constantly writing a book that supposedly foretells the future, one which inevitably is proven right. Glimmung is determined to continue with his struggle, even when the book predicts certain failure. This existential position allows Dick to explore the idea of fatalism. Glimmung is repeatedly compared to Faust, mainly in conversation amongst the protagonists.

At the conclusion of the book, Fernwright and his companions are offered the opportunity to join a gestalt or hive mind that also encompasses the Glimmung. Fernwright and an unnamed octopoid companion alone refuse the offer, only to find that their heightened creative abilities have been lost without the network that the Glimmung-run hive mind provided.

Bibliographic information

"Galactic Pot-Healer" was originally published in 1969 by Berkley Medallion Books. A hardback edition was issued in 1969 by the Science Fiction Book Club (Nelson Doubleday, Inc.). It is currently published in the United States by Vintage Books, ISBN 0-679-75297-8, and in the United Kingdom by Gollancz.