Forest Mahoney
Tuesday, October 21st 2014
ENG 4U1
Mr. Webb
A Cautionary Tale
When Philip K. Dick wrote Second Variety, his home country, the United States, was in the middle of a cold war with the Soviet Union. The mantra ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ almost perfectly describes the relationship of the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. during the Second World War. Both nations had faced a common enemy in Nazi Germany and were allied for that reason, and that reason only. This is important to note as it explains their actions following the war. 1945 saw an arms race begin; Russia had witnessed the capabilities of the nuclear bomb when the U.S. attacked Nagasaki and Hiroshima, so they grew worried and began amassing WMDs of their own (“What was the Cold War?”). Eventually, a policy known as Mutually Assured Destruction (acronym MAD) came into place, essentially guaranteeing the obliteration of both countries should one choose to attack the other (“Mutually Assured Destruction”). The two countries bombarded their citizens with propaganda; Americans were taught to mistrust everyone they came in …show more content…
Dick’s attitude towards policies such as MAD, and international dispute are not only shown in Second Variety, but also in his other works. “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, written in 1968, uses several allusions to the Cold War, all of them voicing Dick’s concern with the then current state of affairs (“Cold War Allusions”). The book recapitulates several of the key concepts found in Second Variety. It is set in the near future, and focuses on the differentiation of humans and androids and as with Second Variety, a world war ending event has taken place, leaving a bleak, radiation poisoned landscape in its wake. It is critical to understand that several of Philip K. Dick’s works share the same setting as the short story in question, given that they show Second Variety’s true purpose was to act as a commentary on the sociopolitical convictions of they
Tuesday, October 21st 2014
ENG 4U1
Mr. Webb
A Cautionary Tale
When Philip K. Dick wrote Second Variety, his home country, the United States, was in the middle of a cold war with the Soviet Union. The mantra ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ almost perfectly describes the relationship of the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. during the Second World War. Both nations had faced a common enemy in Nazi Germany and were allied for that reason, and that reason only. This is important to note as it explains their actions following the war. 1945 saw an arms race begin; Russia had witnessed the capabilities of the nuclear bomb when the U.S. attacked Nagasaki and Hiroshima, so they grew worried and began amassing WMDs of their own (“What was the Cold War?”). Eventually, a policy known as Mutually Assured Destruction (acronym MAD) came into place, essentially guaranteeing the obliteration of both countries should one choose to attack the other (“Mutually Assured Destruction”). The two countries bombarded their citizens with propaganda; Americans were taught to mistrust everyone they came in …show more content…
Dick’s attitude towards policies such as MAD, and international dispute are not only shown in Second Variety, but also in his other works. “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, written in 1968, uses several allusions to the Cold War, all of them voicing Dick’s concern with the then current state of affairs (“Cold War Allusions”). The book recapitulates several of the key concepts found in Second Variety. It is set in the near future, and focuses on the differentiation of humans and androids and as with Second Variety, a world war ending event has taken place, leaving a bleak, radiation poisoned landscape in its wake. It is critical to understand that several of Philip K. Dick’s works share the same setting as the short story in question, given that they show Second Variety’s true purpose was to act as a commentary on the sociopolitical convictions of they