Joseph Adams—Yance Man
Colleen Hacket—his neighbour in N. California, and a minor character.
Leady—robot
Nicholas St. James—President of the Tom Mix ant tank.
Rita—St. James’ wife, minor character
Souza—chief mechanic in the Tom Mix, he needs a pancrease.
Carol Tigh—physician in the ant tank.
Nunes—pol-com, or political commissioner in the Tom Mix. He knows what’s going on. A spy and “manipulator” from the surface.
Talbot Yancey—protector, spir-pol-mil (spiritual-political-military) on the surface. He was (maybe) a western leader during the nuclear war with the USSR. Now he is a plastic robotic puppet (simulacrum) bolted to a desk in a TV studio, and is programmed by Yance-men with speeches.
Verne Lindblom—another Yance-Man, specializes in visuals, special effects, stage props. He makes the artifacts to frame Runcible. Is murdered, as is Hig and a woman [find name] who makes smething else [look up].
Robert Hig—works for Runcible (and Brose) and he will plant the artifacts made by Lindblom at the construction site.
Eisenbludt—runs the studio to manufacture fake news stories.
Stantn Brose—senior Yance-man, chief global oligarch, very old, body is full of artiforgs, he wants to keep the human race down in the ant tanks.
Louis Runcible—developer, builds apartment developments to house the people who find their way out of the ant tanks. He wants to bring the people out of the ant tanks. His housing developments aren’t very nice places.
Webster Foote—of Webster Foote, Ltd., a private police agency.
David Lantano—a Yance-man, time traveler, Native American, wants to assassinate Brose, and bring the people out of the ant tanks.
1 Joseph Adams at his demesne (estate), in N. California on the Pacific Coast
2 Nicholas St. James in the Tom Mix ant tank. Talbot Yancy’s speech.
3 In the Tom Mix, continued., Souza is in deep freeze, in need of an artificial (artiforg) pancreas.
4 Nicholas St. James is forced to go to the surface for an artiforg for Souza.
5 Joseph Adams in New York, talks with Verne Lindblom.
6 Meeting with Stanton Brose, the head Yance-Man. Brose draws Adams and Brose into a plot to frame Luis Runcible. Webster Foote’s technician is monitoring their conversation.
7 Joseph Adams meets, David Lantano, a young Yance-man working at the Megavac 6-V, the device that programs speeches into the Talbot Yancy simulacrum.
8 David Lantano’s finally crafted speech.
9 Joseph Adams goes to the library.
10 Gottlieb Fischer’s 1982 documentaries, versions A & B, which are fabricated alternative histories of WWII and the events leading up to the nuclear war. A, for Wes-Dem (the western democracies), and B for Pac-Peop (the Soviet Union and it’s satellites, evidently from “Warsaw Pac”). In A, FDR was a Soviet agent working for Stalin and sells out the Western democracies; in B, the USSR and Japan are attempting to save civilization, and Hitler works for the US and England, who initially use Hitler in an attempt to destroy the USSR; they only enter Europe after it is evident the USSR is winning, so they rush in to grab up what spoils they can.
11 Nicholas St. James reaches the surface and is captured by the leadies patrolling David Lantano’s demesne, near Cheyenne, Wyoming.
12 Nicholas St. James is about to be killed by the leadies, then is rescued by “Talbot Yancy.”
13 Verne Lindblom, Joseph Adams examining the fake artifacts Lindblom has manufactured to frame Louis Runcible. Brose will use a time machine to send the artifacts to the past, so they are aged when they are dug up at Runcible’s development. He believes Runcible will not tell the authorities about the artifacts, and this will ruin him when he gets caught.
14 Louis Runcible discusses Brose with the agent from the Webster Foote agency
15 Nicholas St. James in Cheyenne, learns what has ben going on. Talbot Yancy is a simulacrum, the ant tanks, the war is over, and the radiation is mostly dissipated.
16 At the location of the excavation of Runcible’s newest housing development, an artifact is discovered, but Robert Hig, Broses agent, is murdered before he can show it to people.
17 Webster Foote, in London, studies the satellite photos showing Nicholas St. James being detained by the Leadies. Foote learns about the Hig murder. He has a precognition hunch (precog) that a Yanceman will be killed. Back in New York, Joseph Adams, alarmed that people are dying/being murdered, tries to call Runcible.
18 Assassination machine enters the home of _____? (later we learn it is Verne Lindblom) and murders him. Surrounded by Leadies outside the house, the assassination machine turns into a TV set. Webster Foote shows up an hour later.
19 Back up a bit. Verne Lindblom has been murdered. Foote will go to Lindblom’s demesne to investigate; a small commando team will go to Adam’s demesne to protect him. Foote figures things out.
20 Foote enters Lindblom’s bedroom, finds the TV set (a model 2004 Eisenwerke Gestalt-macher).
21 Foot’s forensic investigation of Lindblom’s bedroom, discovers the fake clues left by the model 2004 Eisenwerke Gestalt-macher. He goes to Moscow to run the data, which implicates Stanton Brose as the murderer.
22 Nicholas St. James in Cheyenne, talks to David Lantano. Lantano’s strange appearance—“oscillations.” Lantano invites St. James to live at his demesne.
23 Webster Foote examines Cheyenne satellite photos. The TV—assassination machine—is very advanced. In the satellite photos, David Lantano (when he is in the “older” point in the oscillation) looks like Talbot Yancey. Who is (or was) Talbot Yancey? Who is David Lantano?
24 Nicholas St. James at David Lantano’s Demesne. Discussion: every world leader who has ever lived has had some fictional aspect. Notwithstanding his virtues, Lantano is a cynical Yance-man when it come to the utility or the usefulness of “truth”—this theme is examined in subsequent chapters—and a the end of the book, where Dick, like St. James, are opposed to cynicism and believe in the importance of the truth. Joseph Adams joins them. Discussion continues: Lantano observes fakery and murder naturally follow in a society built on lies. Then Foote enters. Lantano informs St. James that he will help him find an artificial pancreas.
25 Foote, Adams, Lantano, discussion continued. They decide to kill Brose. Lantano is a time traveller.
26 Foote, Adams, Lantano, discussion continued; further plans. They decide they have no choice but to kill Brose, then slowly bring the people out of the ant tanks.
27 Adams chickens out, joins St. James and goes down in the ant tank. He will leave Foote and Lantano to figure out how to kill Brose (Adams was going to use his office to set Brose up). In the ant tank, Souza gets the pancreas. A TV transmission from Yancey (evidently written by Lantano) indicates they (Lantano and Foote) were successful in killing Brose. Now Adams wants to go back to the surface to resume his roll as a Yance-man and write propaganda to facilitate moving the people out of the ant tank, and he anticipates further lying to control the population. St. James tells him they wull not let him return to the surface to do so. The lying must stop. [Prof. Kaplan’s remark here: this would be a good novel to show to journalists and journalism students.]
Papers Due: brief presentations
Meadley, “Meeting Dr. Malthusian”
Jackson, “Everything Changes”
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