Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb. Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb. Cover of first edition (paperback)Author. Philip K. Dick. Country. United States. Language. English. Genre. Science fiction novel. The nightmare aftermath of Hiroshima: Parents carry burned children past corpses and rubble in rare photographs taken during the days after atomic bomb killed 140,000. Stan Bernard Interviews Malcolm X (February 18, 1965). And the pilot can't tell who the bomb is. Find out more about the history of Birmingham Church Bombing, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on. Publisher. Ace Books. Publication date. Media type. Print (hardback & paperback)Pages. Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb is a 1. American writer Philip K. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1. Ace editor Donald Wollheim however suggested the final title which references Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1. Bloodmoney is set in a post- apocalyptic future. In 1. 97. 2, before the start of the narrative, Dr. Bruno Bluthgeld (German for . However, a miscalculation caused an atmospheric nuclear accident leading to widespread fallout and mutations. More recently the United States has been involved in a prolonged period of hostilities with China and the Soviet Union erupting in a war in Cuba. In 1. 98. 1, the now universally hated Bluthgeld seeks psychotherapy with Dr. Stockstill for his paranoia and guilt. Meanwhile, Stuart Mc. Conchie, Hoppy Harrington and Jim Fergesson, employees at Modern TV Sales and Service in Berkeley, California, go through a fairly typical day, pausing to watch Walt and Lydia Dangerfield being launched into orbit in the first stage of a colonization mission to Mars. This ordinary day, however, is disrupted by a massive nuclear strike. Orbiting overhead, Walt Dangerfield witnesses the tragic events as they unfold, while other characters are reduced to desperate measures in their struggle for survival. Fergesson is killed as his shop collapses. Meanwhile, Bluthgeld is convinced that he caused the strike in response to a universal conspiracy against him. After the Bomb Section 2 www. Then, in the Japan–Republic of Korea Normalization Treaty of 1965. After the uncertain war of 1965 with India, Pakistani nation starts to blame Ayub Khan the Field Marshal at that time for divulging the cause of Kashmir. After the bomb was dropped, Stalin was furious. The place Russia had earned as a world power by its victory in the war had been snatched away. News Stories about the Bombing. UPI News Report of the Birmingham Church Bombing. Six Dead After Church Bombing Blast Kills Four Children; Riots Follow. Believing that he has shown the world his power, he sets out to heal and restore order through his imagined magical powers. The narrative jumps to 1. A military government has arisen in Cheyenne, Wyoming, while in California government is by local community councils that view one another with varying degrees of hostility. Most pre- war technologies and amenities have been lost. Oil shortages result in disabled cars being pulled by horses or fitted with wood- burning (steam) engines. Former California ranch territory has been converted into agricultural land for corn and other crops. Human mutants have become more common, such as phocomeli, as well as conjoinedsymbiotes. At the same time, former domestic animals like dogs and cats have undergone mutations that have greatly enhanced their intelligence. Many of these former pets and zoo specimens have allied themselves into ferocious tribal units of their own. Bruno Bluthgeld's dog Terry is capable of imitating simple human speech, while some species of felines may have developed their own evolved languages. Walt Dangerfield, supplied with enough rations to last him for at least several more years, as well as a vast treasury of books and musical recordings, has become a disc jockey in orbit. His broadcasts help provide some sense of continuity with pre- war civilization in the isolated settlements that comprise the postwar world. His wife Lydia committed suicide at some point during the intervening period. Dangerfield has begun to experience symptoms of an unknown medical condition, causing some of his listeners to worry. In Marin County survivors including Bonny Keller, Dr. Stockstill, June Raub and Hoppy Harrington have organized into a self- governing community. Harrington, a Thalidomide baby missing all four of his limbs, harbors a quietly smoldering resentment of the patronizing and condescending attitudes he endured before the war. He has now become a successful mechanic thanks to electronic servo- mechanism technology as well as his gradually increasing abilities of psychokinesis or mind- over- matter. As such, he becomes a genuinely respected and absolutely indispensable member of the community. His ultimate goal, however, is to dominate and humiliate the people within his community through intimidation via his increasingly capricious and violent misuse of his ever- strengthening powers. He's been using his talents to gradually weaken Walt Dangerfield in order to take over Dangerfield's much- beloved satellite transmissions. Meanwhile, Bluthgeld, under the assumed name of Jack Tree, lives as a sheep farmer outside the community. One outsider searching for the infamous Bluthgeld was exposed by Bonny Keller and summarily executed for his troubles. Stuart Mc. Conchie has become a travelling entrepreneur in the post- apocalyptic world, selling . Still holding onto his ambitious pre- war salesman's mentality, Mc. Conchie travels to Marin County to meet Andrew Gill, a cigarette and alcohol entrepreneur, to discuss the re- introduction of automation within his factory as an agent of Berkeley- based business interests. His appearance in West Marin startles Hoppy Harrington and Bruno Bluthgeld, both of whom had last seen Mc. Conchie on the day of the . His magical powers, however, do not appear to be entirely imaginary. In his ardent desire to silence the talking satellite he seems to initiate another series of atmospheric explosions merely by willing them to occur. Hoppy, viewing him as a potential rival as well as a direct threat to the community and the planet itself, kills him from several miles away. Harrington employs his own psychokinetic powers in flinging the mad scientist high into the air and then simply letting him fall back to the ground. The Marin County council decides to thank Hoppy by presenting him with gifts of Gill's tobacco, alcohol and a monument in Harrington's honor, but Hoppy scorns these gifts as being much less than he deserves. Bonny Keller begins to worry that Hoppy will set himself up as a vindictive little tin god, and so she flees the county with Gill and Mc. Conchie in hopes of eventually settling beyond the reach of his powers. Meanwhile, Edie Keller's conjoined twin brother Bill, a sentientfetus within her body, has been yearning for an independent existence. Bill Keller is able to communicate telepathically with the dead, and they warn him how dangerous Hoppy is becoming. When Edie approaches Hoppy's house, Harrington uses his powers to draw Bill outside of her in hopes of causing him to perish. Little Bill has a near- lethal adventure inside of an owl before finally engineering a body- swap with Hoppy which quickly proves fatal to Harrington. The idol with feet of clay has finally been toppled. At the conclusion of the book, Dr. Stockstill begins a course of psychotherapy, broadcast over the radio, with Walt Dangerfield, who seems to be slowly recovering from his illness in the absence of a jealous Hoppy Harrington's debilitating mental emanations. Characters. Having faced discrimination before the war, Hoppy seeks power and respect through his work as a mechanic and his plot to replace Walt Dangerfield. Bruno Bluthgeld aka Jack Tree, aka Dr. An atomic physicist, Bluthgeld's miscalculations caused the pre- war Emergency and made him the object of worldwide hatred. He goes into hiding as sheep farmer Jack Tree. Bluthgeld is subject to paranoia, magical thinking, and megalomania; he may or may not actually have magical powers. Walter Dangerfield Slated to be the first colonist of Mars, Dangerfield was orbiting the earth in a satellite waiting for his final rocket firing when the nuclear war occurred. Stuck in orbit, Dangerfield becomes a popular disc jockey. His wife Lydia had committed suicide shortly after the outbreak of war. Bonny Keller A friend and former colleague of Bluthgeld, Bonny attempts to protect him when he goes into hiding. She has affairs with numerous men including Hal Barnes and Andrew Gill. Edie Keller Daughter of Bonny Keller and Andrew Gill. Edie tells everyone she has a twin brother, assumed by everyone to be an imaginary friend but really being a sentient fetus in fetu named Bill. Bill Keller Edie's brother, a fetus in fetu within her body. He depends on Edie for sustenance and for reports of her sense perceptions, but independently has telepathic contact with the dead. Stuart Mc. Conchie An African- American salesman, Stuart moves from selling television sets before the war to selling automated traps to kill mutant animals after the war. His personality and his salesmanship remain largely unchanged by the war. He expresses disgust for Hoppy Harrington and all . In love with Bonny, Gill chooses to remain in West Marin, manufacturing ersatz tobacco and liquor. Eldon Blaine An eyeglasses salesman who attempts first to kidnap Hoppy Harrington, and later to steal Hoppy's radio, for his own community. He is murdered by Hoppy. Dr. Stockstill A psychiatrist before the war, Stockstill later becomes a general practitioner. He attempts to treat Bluthgeld and Dangerfield. Mr. Austurias The West Marin school teacher, and an avid mushroom collector. He is killed for prying into Jack Tree's identity. Jim Fergesson Owner of Modern TV Sales and Service, Fergesson is committed to non- discriminatory hiring practices, and consequently hires Stuart Mc. Conchie and Hoppy Harrington. He dies instantly during the nuclear strike. June Raub A community leader of West Marin, who relishes the opportunity the war provides her for proving her worth. Hal Barnes Mr. Austurias' replacement as West Marin schoolteacher, Barnes has an affair with Bonny Keller, who comes to view him as a coward. Other versions. Bloodmoney into a short story in 1. This version, titled A Terran Odyssey, was first published in volume five of The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick in 1. 98. 7. References. De Angelis and Rossi, Firenze: Le Monnier, 2. The Pocket Essential Philip K. Dick: Harpenden: Pocket Essentials: ISBN 1- 9. Jameson, Fredric, (1. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb, Boston: Gregg Press. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, causing the deaths of 4. The dropping of the bombs, which occurred by executive order of US President Harry Truman, remains the only nuclear attack in history. In the months following the attack, roughly 1. Since 1. 94. 2, more than 1. Manhattan Project had been working on the bomb. At the time, it was the largest collective scientific effort ever undertaken. It involved 3. 7 installations across the US, 1. Nobel prizewinning physicists Arthur Holly Compton and Harold Urey. Directed by the Army's chief engineer, Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, the Manhattan Project was also the most secret wartime project in history. At first, scientists worked in isolation in different parts of the US, unaware of the magnitude of the project in which they were involved. Later, the project was centralised and moved to an isolated laboratory headed by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in Los Alamos, New Mexico. On 1. 6 July 1. 94. New Mexico desert. President Truman received news of the successful test whilst negotiating the post- war settlement in Europe at the Potsdam Conference. Although voices within the US Military expressed caution regarding the use of the new weapon against Japan, Truman was convinced that the bomb was the correct and only option. Six months of intense strategic fire- bombing of 3. Japanese cities had done little to break the Hirohito regime. In such circumstances, the use of the atom bomb was seen as the best means of forcing Japan to surrender, and ending the war. The alternative, of an Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands, was expected to cost hundreds of thousands of casualties. The effects of the attack were devastating. The predicted Japanese surrender, which came on 1. August - just six days after the detonation over Nagasaki - ended World War II. Yet the shocking human effects soon led many to cast doubts upon the use of this weapon. The first western scientists, servicemen and journalists to arrive on the scene produced vivid and heartrending reports describing a charred landscape populated by hideously burnt people, coughing up and urinating blood and waiting to die. As questions regarding the ethical implications of the attacks grew, the US Air Force and Navy both published reports which claimed (respectively) that the conventional bombing and submarine war against Japan would have soon forced her to surrender. At this time, another interpretation - most famously espoused in 1. Gar Alperovitz in his book Atomic Diplomacy - emerged: the atomic bombing of Japan had been motivated by a desire to demonstrate the US. While some argue that the terrible long term human cost to the Japanese population can never justify the use of such weapons, others maintain that in the context of total war, it would have been immoral if atomic weapons had not been used to end the war as quickly as possible.
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