"Faith of Our Fathers" 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 uni ...
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, first published in the anthology ''
Dangerous Visions
''Dangerous Visions'' is a science fiction short story anthology edited by American writer Harlan Ellison and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. It was published in 1967.
A path-breaking collection, ''Dangerous Visions'' helped define the Ne ...
'' (1967).
Plot summary
Tung Chien is a Vietnamese bureaucrat in a world that has been conquered by Chinese-style atheist communism, where the population is kept docile with hallucinogenic drugs. When a street vendor gives Tung an illegal anti-hallucinogen, he discovers that the Party leader has a horrible secret.
Reception
Algis Budrys
Algirdas Jonas "Algis" Budrys (January 9, 1931 – June 9, 2008) was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He was also known under the pen names Frank Mason, Alger Rome (in collaboration with Jerome Bixby), John ...
said that "the first three-quarters of (the) story appear to be very good", and that although "Dick knows his hallucinogens very well", in "Faith of Our Fathers" "he makes sense only to himself".
"Faith of Our Fathers" was nominated for the 1968
Hugo Award for Best Novelette
The Hugo Award for Best Novelette is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novelette award is available for works of fiction of ...
.
[1968 Hugo Awards]
, at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved October 14, 2016
Dick later said about this story:
and
See also
* ''
A Maze of Death
''A Maze of Death'' is a 1970 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. Like many of Dick's novels, it portrays what appears to be a drab and harsh off-world human colony and explores the difference between reality and perception. ...
''
Notes
External links
The Fictional Pharmaceuticals of Philip K. Dick an essay which touches on the story
*
{{Philip K. Dick
1967 short stories
Short stories by Philip K. Dick
Dystopian literature
Fantasy short stories
Dangerous Visions short stories
Works about totalitarianism
Propaganda in fiction
Short stories about drugs
Religion in science fiction
Mass surveillance in fiction