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"It's hard to tell stories about critters that are not human. John W. Campbell tried it, in "Twilight," and everybody says it's a wonderful story, and nobody ever reads it twice."
- Jerry Pournelle
 |
| Book of the Kalends | ||
| The ever-changing book without a title; the documented history of a world. |
When Joe Fernwright arrives at the spaceport at Plowman's Planet (Sirius 5), a spiddle ("a careful, brown, large creature resembling a rat") approached him, carrying an armload of books.
| The spiddle touched a tiny tape recorder mounted on its belt; the tape began to speak for the spiddle. "Fully documented history of a fascinating world," it said, in English, and then evidently repeated this in a variety of other tongues...
"Buy it," Mali said. "You know this book? What book is it?" "There is only one book. In this world." "Don't people get tired of reading it?" "It changes," Mali said. "It is written ... by a group of creatures or entities... that records everything that happens on Plowman's Planet. Everything. Great and small." "Then it's a newspaper." Mali halted; she turned to face him, her eyes burning with exasperation. "It is recorded first," she said. "The Kalends spin the story; they enter it into the ever-changing book without a title and it comes about, finally." |
| From Galactic Pot-Healer,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Berkley Publishing in 1969 Additional resources -
|
The book of the Kalends is a great illustration of a central tenet of PKD's world; that the news is created or manifested in a way that is not clear, and that it both reflects what has happened and what may yet happen. Compare the ever-changing book without a title with homeostatic newspapers.
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