"Beyond Lies the Wub" is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

by American writer

Philip K. Dick Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928March 2, 1982), often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer. He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his l ...

. It was his first published genre story, originally appearing in ''

Planet Stories ''Planet Stories'' was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published by Fiction House between 1939 and 1955. It featured interplanetary adventures, both in space and on some other planets, and was initially focused on a young readership. ...

'' in July 1952.Damien Broderick, ''Transrealist Fiction: Writing in the Slipstream of Science'', p. 135. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000. It was first collected in ''

The Preserving Machine ''The Preserving Machine'' is a collection of science fiction stories by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published by Ace Books in 1969 with cover art by Leo and Diane Dillon as part of their Ace Science Fiction Specials series. ...

'' in 1969, and was included in '' The Best of Philip K. Dick'' in 1977. It was the title story for the first volume of the original edition of Dick's collected stories. Translations of "Beyond Lies the Wub" have appeared in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish; and the story has been included in more than a dozen anthologies.

Plot

Peterson, a crew member of a spaceship loading up with food animals on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

, buys an enormous pig-like creature known as a "wub" from a native just before departure. Franco, his captain, is worried about the extra weight but seems more concerned about its taste, as his ship is short of food. However, after takeoff, the crew realizes that the wub is a very intelligent creature, capable of

telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W ...

and maybe even

mind control Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwashin ...

. Peterson and the wub spend time discussing mythological figures and the travels of

Odysseus Odysseus ( ; grc-gre, Ὀδυσσεύς, Ὀδυσεύς, OdysseúsOdyseús, ), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses ( , ; lat, UlyssesUlixes), is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the ''Odyssey''. Odysse ...

. Captain Franco, paranoid after an earlier confrontation with the Wub which left him temporarily

paralyzed Paralysis (also known as plegia) is a loss of motor function in one or more muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory damage. In the United States, roughly 1 in 50 ...

, bursts in and insists on killing and eating the wub. The crew becomes very much opposed to killing the sensitive creature after it makes a plea for understanding, but Franco still makes a meal out of him. At the dinner table, Captain Franco apologises for the "interruption" and resumes the earlier conversation between Peterson and the Wub - which now has apparently taken over the Captain's body.

Reception and analysis

It was Dick's first published genre story, originally appearing in ''

'' in July 1952.

Brian M. Stableford Brian Michael Stableford (born 25 July 1948) is a British academic, critic and science fiction writer who has published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped ...

observed that this story "already encapsulated the whimsical

paranoia Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concer ...

that characterizes almost all his work in the genre".

Richard Bleiler Richard James Bleiler (born 1959) is an American bibliographer of science fiction, fantasy, horror, crime, and adventure fiction. He was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction in 2002 and for the Munsey Award in 2019. He is the ...

likewise concurred that the story was indicative of "the direction that his career was to take".

References in other works

The theme of the Wub was revisited by Dick in his later short story "

Not by Its Cover "Not by Its Cover" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, a "loose sequel" to his first published science fiction short story, "Beyond Lies the Wub". The story continues the former's theme of immortality, although not f ...

" (1968), which has been described as a "loose sequel" to the 1952 story. In '' The Zap Gun'' the image of a "Venusian wub" is used in a maze game as a creature trapped in a maze to which the player becomes telepathically (and empathically) connected.

References

External links

* * ** * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Beyond Lies The Wub Short stories by Philip K. Dick 1952 short stories Works originally published in Planet Stories Fiction about telepathy Extraterrestrial life in popular culture Fiction about body swapping Classical mythology in popular culture