Solar Lottery

"Foxy" <foxy DeleteThis @foxyhole.com> wrote in message news:-LqdnVsDv90uumjcRVnyiw@pipex.net...
> I have recently read Solar Lottery (which is apparently Dick's first
> published novel). What puzzled me was a Hill system. I did not get what
> it is. Frankly speaking all other things are also quite vague (like
> "classification" (what's that?) etc.). I should admit that I could miss
> some points because was reading in a hurry (the book was not mine). Can
> anyone shed some light on it?

The "Hill" system seemed to be just an extension of the biggest
corporations of the time the book was written -- Farben (I.G. Farben,
taken over by the US from Hitler after the war), Westinghouse, etc.
l'Oiseau-Lyre is (or used to be) a small French classical music record
label, so Phil was obviously having his little joke there by making them
a Hill.

The Hills are either what was left of the old global corporate system
after worldwide destruction, or an extension of the consolidation of
all industry into a few giant cartels as we are now seeing.

The classification "system" is totally vague. If one is classified, then one
becomes a "serf" to his "Hill". PKD repeatedly alludes to the resemblance
of this to medieval society, with reciprocal obligations between serf and
master, and each bound to protect the other (at least in theory.) I didn't
get the classification levels, though. It starts out with Benteley being an
8-8, but it's never really clear what that means, or what the levels of
Pellig and the girl on the plane to Batavia mean.

Hell of a good novel for his first published SF. I re-read it yesterday (really) for
the first time in many years and was surprised to see how well it held up.

-- Bill Cleere

"That's where I normally get them, but sometimes you need
something after hours, and you have to pay for it." (Dolores~, aps)