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Planet For Transients
13 pages
First published January 1, 1953
About the author
Philip K. Dick
1,758 books20.9k followersPhilip K. Dick was born in Chicago in 1928 and lived most of his life in California. In 1952, he began writing professionally and proceeded to write numerous novels and short-story collections. He won the Hugo Award for the best novel in 1962 for The Man in the High Castle and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year in 1974 for Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. Philip K. Dick died on March 2, 1982, in Santa Ana, California, of heart failure following a stroke.
In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. Although Dick spent most of his career as a writer in near-poverty, ten of his stories have been adapted into popular films since his death, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, and The Adjustment Bureau. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the one hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series.
In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. Although Dick spent most of his career as a writer in near-poverty, ten of his stories have been adapted into popular films since his death, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, and The Adjustment Bureau. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the one hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 3, 2019
First published in Fantastic Universe (October-November 1953), “Planet of Transients” is set on earth long after a nuclear war has dramatically altered both the physical atmosphere and the daily lives of the few remaining survivors. It features a hero dressed in a helmet and protective suit, carrying his own supply of individual oxygen. He is one of the few who have managed to survive in an old Pennsylvania mine, deep under earth, and he is looking for any sign of people like himself in the ruins of the city of New York.
At first, although he finds no unaltered human beings, he finds plenty of varieties of mutated humans who have adapted themselves to the surface: the flap-rabbits, the toads, the bugs, the runners, and the worms—to name just a few. Eventually, though, he encounters a few human who have acquired an old rocket and are planning to leave the earth, possibly forever. From them, he acquires a new perspective on what it means to be a “transient” on the earth.
This is an excellent story. Although the surroundings are grim, the tale itself is gentle, understated, and quietly philosophical. In spite of this—perhaps because of it?—it is as radically transformative as any of Dick’s more “mind-blowing” fictions, firmly orienting the reader away from the past and toward whatever future may come.
May 7, 2018
The Good News: Humans Will Not Destroy Their Planet
Planet for Transients is a superb achievement by PKD because although the story itself is simple and straightforward, so is the message it conveys.
I don’t know if a review should rehash old jokes, but this story reminded me of a very short one about two planets meeting each other, and one of them, to open the conversation, asks, “How are you, my friend?”
“Not too good,” replies the other, who does indeed look a bit feverish and off colour. “I’ve got humans.”
“Nothing to worry about”, his friend says in a reassuring tone. “That’ll soon pass off.”
In this story by PKD, we are following Trent, who is a scout of some bunch of humans whose ancestors withdrew into the bowels of the earth when global nuclear war broke out. Now, after three hundred years, their survival machinery is on its last legs, and they are running out of supplies, and that’s why they have sent out some people to look for other groups of human beings that might have survived. Trent finds the surface of the planet lush with vegetation and teeming with life, but ironically, he cannot risk breathing the air because it is still full of nuclear particles, and temperatures are still so high that he could not stand them without his protection suit. Nevertheless, Earth is populated by a variety of other humanoid creatures – in fact, descendants of former human beings who did not make it underground – who have adapted in different ways to the new living conditions and who often bear only distant similarity with humans as we know them. Some of these new humanoid communities are still warlike, others are genially curious about other species and even if they don’t really take to some of their neighbours they state that “[e]verybody has his own way.”
After some adventures, Trent finally manages to establish contact with other human survivors, who are planning to leave Terra for Mars, which is barren but not radioactive and would allow them to live without their oxygen tanks and protections suits. When Trent asks Norris, the spokesman of the other humans, if they could not develop some technology to cool down Earth and reconquer it for humankind, Norris gives him the following short speech:
He also points at his friends, who are bustling about in their protective suits, and says,
While Trent still seems to think along the lines of human egocentrism, which might be seen as one of the reasons why human civilization disappeared in a radioactive hell, Norris has embraced a Miltonian idea of Earth as a place lost to his kind due to their own sins. What humans destroyed was not Earth, which they have changed, however, but their own place in that bountiful and teeming garden. They have become visitors to a place they used to call home, but now, having outlived their time on Earth, or rather: forfeited their place on it, they have to abandon it to their successors, withdrawing onto a less hospitable planet. Norris seems to have learnt his lesson, and he bids his old home farewell without a grudge, seeing that the planet has recovered in its own way and that as to humans, the world outside is all before them, where to choose their place of rest.
Planet for Transients is a superb achievement by PKD because although the story itself is simple and straightforward, so is the message it conveys.
I don’t know if a review should rehash old jokes, but this story reminded me of a very short one about two planets meeting each other, and one of them, to open the conversation, asks, “How are you, my friend?”
“Not too good,” replies the other, who does indeed look a bit feverish and off colour. “I’ve got humans.”
“Nothing to worry about”, his friend says in a reassuring tone. “That’ll soon pass off.”
In this story by PKD, we are following Trent, who is a scout of some bunch of humans whose ancestors withdrew into the bowels of the earth when global nuclear war broke out. Now, after three hundred years, their survival machinery is on its last legs, and they are running out of supplies, and that’s why they have sent out some people to look for other groups of human beings that might have survived. Trent finds the surface of the planet lush with vegetation and teeming with life, but ironically, he cannot risk breathing the air because it is still full of nuclear particles, and temperatures are still so high that he could not stand them without his protection suit. Nevertheless, Earth is populated by a variety of other humanoid creatures – in fact, descendants of former human beings who did not make it underground – who have adapted in different ways to the new living conditions and who often bear only distant similarity with humans as we know them. Some of these new humanoid communities are still warlike, others are genially curious about other species and even if they don’t really take to some of their neighbours they state that “[e]verybody has his own way.”
After some adventures, Trent finally manages to establish contact with other human survivors, who are planning to leave Terra for Mars, which is barren but not radioactive and would allow them to live without their oxygen tanks and protections suits. When Trent asks Norris, the spokesman of the other humans, if they could not develop some technology to cool down Earth and reconquer it for humankind, Norris gives him the following short speech:
”’[…] Earth is alive, teeming with life. Growing wildly — in all directions. We’re one form, an old form. To live here, we’d have to restore the old conditions, the old factors, the balance as it was three hundred and fifty years ago. A colossal job. And if we succeeded, if we managed to cool Earth, none of this would remain.’”
He also points at his friends, who are bustling about in their protective suits, and says,
”’[…] Look at us. Shielded suits and helmets, spacesuits — for exploring. We’re a rocketship stopping at an alien world on which we can’t survive. Stopping for a brief period to load up — and then take off again.’”
While Trent still seems to think along the lines of human egocentrism, which might be seen as one of the reasons why human civilization disappeared in a radioactive hell, Norris has embraced a Miltonian idea of Earth as a place lost to his kind due to their own sins. What humans destroyed was not Earth, which they have changed, however, but their own place in that bountiful and teeming garden. They have become visitors to a place they used to call home, but now, having outlived their time on Earth, or rather: forfeited their place on it, they have to abandon it to their successors, withdrawing onto a less hospitable planet. Norris seems to have learnt his lesson, and he bids his old home farewell without a grudge, seeing that the planet has recovered in its own way and that as to humans, the world outside is all before them, where to choose their place of rest.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 23, 2020
Mesmerizing story about human mutations and our place in the ecosystem. Where do we belong? Can we evolve in such a way that we may need to find another system that provides our needs. Maybe we are not capable of thinking that far ahead and will eventually destroy our system so that other lifeforms, mutations, will take our place. Maybe we'll destroy that very system that keeps everything in balance.
March 1, 2018
Returning to a radioactive earth to find it is no longer ours in any respect.
May 22, 2020
Spoilers.
Humans damaged the earth with their nuclear war, eradicating the entire planet and forcing themselves under ground to grow food underground and only exploring above ground in lead lined space suite and oxygen tanks.
One colony of humans is dying, their machines failing, they have no choice but to send out their members to try find other human colonies.
Since humanity has eradicated the earth, new intelligent life has evolved to fill the niche, much of it descendant from humans. Runner, bugs, toads, and worms are just a few of the names of this new intelligent life that have grown to live comfortably new radioactive world.
Humans aren’t really living here anymore, only visiting it in the same way they’d visit another planet.
Humans damaged the earth with their nuclear war, eradicating the entire planet and forcing themselves under ground to grow food underground and only exploring above ground in lead lined space suite and oxygen tanks.
One colony of humans is dying, their machines failing, they have no choice but to send out their members to try find other human colonies.
Since humanity has eradicated the earth, new intelligent life has evolved to fill the niche, much of it descendant from humans. Runner, bugs, toads, and worms are just a few of the names of this new intelligent life that have grown to live comfortably new radioactive world.
Humans aren’t really living here anymore, only visiting it in the same way they’d visit another planet.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews