The Eyes Have It
What do the eyes have? How did they get it? Where are they going with it? Why are they roving, moving, examining, fastening, and following those people? Somebody get those eyes under control!
The Facts
Text: The Eyes Have It Author: Philip K Dick
Genre: Humor, Science Fiction Year: 1953
Available: Public Domain (Free!)
The Fiction
When I was thinking about what story to read and write about this week it occurred to me that I hadn't written about many comedies. We passed the Thirty week mark on this blog last week, putting us just a little past the half way mark of this project. 52 short lives has thirty entries on short stories now most of which are horror, mystery, or postmodern dramas (which are all great), but this week I wanted something more lighthearted. Something funny.
Comedy has been a distinct genre of storytelling since the ancient Greek dramas, and while what "comedy" means has changed(from simply a story with a happy ending to a story full of jokes and punchlines) it seemed odd to me that the only story so far on my blog that might fall under the comedy category was The Secret Lie of Walter Mitty. I suppose that unlike horror or fantasy stories the things that make us laugh can be very subjective to our time periods, while the things that scare us have remained more long lasting.
In my search for a funny story I was surprised to find google recommend an author I recognized: Philip K Dick, one of the most prolific and influential science fiction writer's of all time. Dick's novels and short stories are still being adapted today with Blade Runner, and The Man In The High Castle as just two high profile examples. Having read both Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and The Man in The High Castle in university I decided to give Google's recommendation a go, which leads us to this week's short story: The Eyes Have It.
This week's story is not long at all. The premise is a man who believes he has uncovered an alien invasion of earth through reading a novel. He believes he has discovered this alien species because of the way the characters are described by the author of the novel. These aliens have eyes that rove, arms that can be removed, people without brains, and girls who give their heart's away! Clearly they are another species with such strange bodies!
The humor of the story comes the narrator taking the idioms of the book he is reading literally, and pokes fun at the idea of what it would be like if human bodies really worked the way idiomatic speech in novel's describes. It's a fun premise, and great for anyone with a love of playing with words.
The Feeling
I was looking for a light hearted story to make me laugh, and this one delivered. The earth isn't really being invaded by a species with the ability to remove their limbs and organs at will. As the reader we understand and probably recognize the idioms the narrator is taking literally. There are so many common phrases and conventions in English that we take for granted and never really think about what they men because we hear them so often. This story makes us actually appreciate how strange some of our language is.
The humor of The Eyes Have It comes from how seriously the narrator takes the threat of the aliens he believes he has discovered, while we as the reader know there is no real threat. This lets us sit back and laugh at the narrator's horror without having to experience it ourselves. I like the way the narrator's suspicions unfold. Starting with the realization that one of the character's can't be human if their eyes do that, then the realization that none of the characters around him reacted so they must be inhuman too, and actually the author themselves is describing this all way too calmly....
The narrator's last bit hope relying on the character Julia, only to have her "give her heart away" and prove to be "one of them" just works really well. The premise is so silly but the idea that this narrator was holding on to this hope only to have it dashed with a romantic cliché is great storytelling.
Despite how groan inducing some might find them eye have always loved a good pun or a bit of word play. For that reason eye liked this little story. It delights in the playfulness of language and the occasional ridiculous of idioms. Perhaps many writer's could have written about a character taking idioms literally, but Philip K Dick using it as a premise for fear of an alien invasion is just so unique and fun!
Well my fingers are falling off as eye type this, so eye better go put them back on before anyone sees!
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