Chapter Fifteen

“...inexpertly repaired...”

    In Galactic Pot-Healer, Glimmung takes on multiple shapes, from the human form to a bird-like creature among others, they are accessed to be that of creatures from planets that he either viewed or directly visited over the course of his life and travels.

    His true form, which the novel hints as such, is shown during the convening of the members he had recuited, including Fernwright and Mali Yojez, on Plowman’s Planet. There, he appears as a “huge mass of fluttering extremities, the whipping, writhing arms which flung themselves at every spot...”¹

    This description bears more than a passing resemblance to his ultimate adversary, the printers, as they are described in the previous chapter. The “pseudopodia,” the tentacle-like limbs, of the biltong in Pay for the Printer are also in alignment in appearance.² But the similarities go further.

    Earlier in Galactic Pot-Healer, Glimmung speaks of his abilities to which he says “‘I could of course manufacture life, light and activity around me, but they would be extensions of myself alone.’”³ This is very much like a printer’s ability to create things by extracting a piece of itself. But it goes just a little further.

    When Fernwright is first brought into contact with Glimmung, Fernwright accuses him of being “‘broke,’” meaning stingy with his abilities, to which Glimmung responds “‘That’s a calumny, I am merely parsimonious. It is an inherited characteristic of my order...I...am still on the free enterprise plan...’”⁴

    This puts forth the notion that Glimmung is either a printer himself or more likely something similar to one, just as the Neanderthals were similar to Homo sapiens on prehistoric Earth. The Book of the Kalends suggest this as it refers to Glimmung as not a printer but “‘a Glimmung.’”⁵

    The outro speculations may serve possible explanations for what this signifies in this bitter conflict between the two.

“...a record gone wrong.”

    In Galactic Pot-Healer, when Fernwright first encounters Glimmung, the only way the latter speaks to the former is by Fernwright cranking a victrola from which the record miraculously speaks Glimmung’s words and replies to Fernwright’s questions.⁶

“...he became hollow.”

    Glimmung has had One Summer Day for so long that life without it is akin to one losing one’s sight or hearing. Its knowledge has aided in his plans for millennia, telling him the threats his enemies pose, the usefulness of allies, and who will ultimately betray him.

“...the final page in the book.”

    Rather impressive that a book with such vast knowledge is only forty-five pages long. If it has never been longer, then it must be like a revolving door of information, replacing less relevant articles with more relevant ones and vague passages with ones more detailed and specific the closer the events foretold come closer to occurring.

    Another thing to note as another possible miraculous attribute is that the book more than likely changes its language to whomever is reading it as the chances that Glimmung’s native tongue matches Nick’s is very unlikely.

“‘“...he will never end.”’”

    It was probably this passage that has given Glimmung the confidence that he will win the war.

“‘Glimmung is hurt!’”

    This wound that has been inflicted upon him may serve as an explanation as to why Glimmung in Galactic Pot-Healer is in need of assistance in his undertaking. More on that in the speculation outro.

“‘...he forgot his enemy.’”

    Glimmung’s blinding desire for One Summer Day was so strong that he was willing to risk what a printer could do to him if he got vulnerably near one.

“‘...he will not be the same as before.’”

    Unless the spear in Glimmung’s wound is somehow removed by an outside party. Its possible the werjes, father-things, and trobes might not have the medical skills or materials necessarily to do this.

    One key thing to keep in mind is that One Summer Day specifies that Glimmung can be wounded and can “be made powerless” and not will be.⁷ Meaning that the wound he has been given was not inevitable and thus becoming withered is also not inevitable. If the right circumstances are in place, there is an implication that he can be healed.

“‘You have saved us all.’”

    Due to his actions against Glimmung, the denizens of Plowman’s Planet will see and remember Nick as a great hero, a figure who changed the course of Plowman’s Planet’s history.

“‘...in his mountains, in his high places...’”

    Presuming the officer’s statement is correct, the mountains Nick and the spiddles passed in the last chapter must have been Glimmung’s base of operations all this time, unreachable to the Grand Four and possibly even Glimmung’s allies.

1) Galactic Pot-Healer (Vintage Books, 1994), pg. 82

2) The Philip K. Dick Reader (Citadel Press, 1997) pg. 247

3) Galactic Pot-Healer (Vintage Books, 1994), pgs. 85-86

4) Ibid, pgs. 42-43

5) Ibid, pgs. 76-77

6) Ibid, pg. 42

7) Nick and the Glimmung (Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1988) pg. 127

 

Chapter Fourteen

“...ruins of a farmhouse could be made out.”

    Whether this structure resembles the homes built by the robot-teams mentioned in chapter nine or not is never specified.

“‘...he made the settlers go away.’”

    By mentioning settlers, one would assume the spiddle is speaking of earthlings being driven away by Glimmung.

“‘...years back.’”

    This statement brings up an important question; when did humans first begin settling on Plowman’s Planet? Assuming an alternate history of the space race between the USA and the USSR, beginning around 1966, where faster-than-light travel is invented, the first settlers may have reached Plowman’s Planet by the late 1980s at the earliest but more likely somewhere closer to the turn of the millennium. But this is merely speculation.

“‘...stiff and brittle, like parched bone.’”

    It appears that this spiddle had either witnessed this man and woman’s plight or was given a detailed account of it.

“‘...they always leave.’”

    We are not specifically told how many more people tried to farm here but they must have come and gone close together in quick succession given the current condition of the farmhouse.

“...perhaps for decades, perhaps as much as a thousand years...”

    This is quite a range of time. Keep this quote in mind for the next note.

“‘...Glimmung first appeared on this world.’”

    This explains Nick’s guess of a millennium.

    With this information and how shockingly close this landing spot is from the decimated farm, it is curious, and unlikely, that Glimmung would leave such land untouched until only recently.

    Looking towards Galactic Pot-Healer, there was another race that populated Plowman’s Planet, one humanoid in appearance. The Earth phone encyclopedia identifies them as “‘the once-ruling master species,’” the fog-things (not to be confused with the father-things).¹

    In the same encyclopedia, in fact in the same passage, the fog-things were driven, or “‘passed away’” as it describes it, sometime before Glimmung arrived on the planet, but, interesting to note, after the printers had come.² The Book of the Kalends uses the word “‘vanished’” in relation to the fate of the fog-things.³

    It is possible that Glimmung’s gradual materializing before he fully arrived may have been a contributor to the decline of the fog-things.

    According to Mali Yojez, the fog-things perished because they “‘challenged the Book of the Kalends.’”⁴ If we take what she means as the book One Summer Day then the fog-things knew of the book before Glimmung arrived. More than likely the printers, arriving from the same planet Glimmung had came from, informed the fog-things as a warning and the latter either did not believe the former’s claims or believed they could deal with Glimmung themselves.

    In fact Yojez even states that spiddles believe that the kalends, when they wrote of the fog-things passing away in their Book of the Kalends, caused the fog-things to pass away/vanish.⁵ Again if we assume we are talking about One Summer Day, then it is possible that it is the kalends who created the book in the first place.

    Another detail to take into account is that the one fog-thing that appears in Galactic Pot-Healer, named Questobar, in an ethereal form at the bottom of Mare Nostrum, Glimmung recognizes upon sight. Though Glimmung declares him dead Questobar replies that “‘[n]othing on the Planet completely dies.’”⁶

    Whether Glimmung knew of Questobar from One Summer Day and/or spied on him as his consciousness slowly materialized on Plowman’s Planet is never confirmed.

“‘...searching for living things to infest with its weight.’”

    This sensation of fatigue that Nick and the spiddles feel as they travel this area must be the same oppressive sensation that caused the fog-things to pass from the planet and, later on, drive the human settlers away.

“‘...a fair number of them, in fact.’”

    The place where the printers reside may be the most densely settled area that humans are populating in Nick and the Glimmung.

“...shapeless cone which radiated wet, dull colours, a mound of immense size which pulsed, ebbed and flowed and then reformed itself.”

    Consider this description of the printers when reading the notes for the next chapter.

“‘...intelligent and kind, full of wise goodwill and the determination to help all who come to it.’”

    This description of the collective character of the printers seems to bolster the earlier theory that they must have attempted to assist the fog-things in combating Glimmung.

    In addition, the characteristic of the printers is shared by what are called the biltong in Dick’s short story Pay for the Printer. There, the people of Earth struggle to survive in a post-nuclear war world that has left civilization on the edge of total collapse. The biltong have been assisting in making copies, or “prints” as they are called, of technology and objects necessary for humanity’s daily life for, at the very least, a century and a half before the beginning of the story. The evidence to support this time frame being that one of the biltong is specified to be around that age.⁷

    As to whether this short story is a part of the Glimmung continuity is a bit up to interpretation. The narrator specifically states that “[p]robably [the biltong] were indigenous to the Centaurus system.”⁸ Now on the face of it, that contradicts where Plowman’s Planet is, the Sirius star-system, but there are two points in response to the narrator’s statement.

    First, the word “probably” casts a bit of doubt. The narrator is not revealed to be any of the characters in the story. The use of “probably” leads the reader to conclude that the narrator is not omniscient.

    Second, supposing the narrator’s guess is correct, the printers in Nick and the Glimmung, as has been hinted at in earlier chapters, are not indigenous to Plowman’s Planet. The Centaurus system might be where the planet the printers, and by extension Glimmung, came from.

    If one were to assume the biltong never lived on Plowman’s Planet it is also possible that, just as Glimmung was able to split his consciousness across multiple star-systems, the biltong may well have been a group who parted ways with the printers heading to Plowman’s Planet. There may have been multiple groups of biltong/printers who went off in different directions than just those two.

“...produced from itself a reproduction of the object.”

    For the notes for the next chapter, also consider this ability of the printers.

“...their weariness, their age, their inability to keep their reproductions...”

    This observation may be a clue to the origin of the conflict between Glimmung and the printers.

“...a portion of him came loose, forming a separate, small mound.”

    Another detail to keep in mind for the next chapter.

“...solidified into black and white chessmen.”

    In Pay for the Printer the biltong’s biological process of recreating objects is specified as producing a fluid from a “front orifice” before forming its “print” with its pseudopodia.⁹

    Also in the short story, additional information is given about biltong biology. They are hatched from what it says are “basketball-sized” eggs, that these eggs taste good to Earth animals.¹⁰ In addition, when it is threatened it will make “a defensive shield” around itself.¹¹

“‘...do so much better; even last month, in fact.’”

    The biltong are also struggling to keep the quality of their object replicas up in Pay for the Printer.¹²

“‘Won’t you try again?’”

    This insistence from the settler to keep trying to produce another better copy of her object is another possible clue for the eons long conflict.

“‘...Glimmung’s book.’ the woman behind Nick cried.”

    So, there are people who have seen One Summer Day. One wonders how this lady found herself in such circumstances.

1) Galactic Pot-Healer (Vintage Books, 1994), pg. 26

2) Ibid

3) Ibid, pgs. 76-77

4) Ibid, pg. 78

5) Ibid, pg. 72-73

6) Ibid, pg. 171

7) The Philip K. Dick Reader (Citadel Press, 1997) pg. 240

8) Ibid, pg. 241

9) Ibid, pg. 248

10) Ibid, pgs. 245-246

11) Ibid, pg. 251

12) Ibid, pgs. 242-243, 246, 252

 

Chapter Twelve

“‘“...then regain it.”’”

    Nick’s reacquiring the book, after trading it to the late Mr. Frankis for a ride to his family’s new home, from Frankis’s wrecked truck is now recorded in One Summer Day. This passage confirms the book’s updating ability as Nick notices that it was not there before when Helen, his mother, read about the Graham family back in chapter seven.

“‘“...grey and very old...”’”

    What is contained in this particular passage about an elderly Horace and the details that follow is the most vivid, and only, account of an event which will not be realized in Nick and the Glimmung, neither will it be seen in Galactic Pot-Healer.

    For context let’s consider the history of the cat’s life. In chapter one it is specified that Horace has been with the Graham family for “two months” and in chapter two it is indicated that he has been alive for a least a year.¹ The fact that the cat can still run as was demonstrated in chapter six would suggest that he is still fairly young.²

    To speculate how many years in the future the passage described takes place, one should consider the lifespan of a cat. According to Catster.com the average is “14 years, with a range of 10 to 15 years.”³ Of course there have been cats that have lived longer than that. The current record holder for the longest living cat at the time of writing this is Creme Puff, who lived to her 38th birthday.⁴ With these facts in mind, this projected event may be as far as three decades ahead in time from the end of Nick in the Glimmung.

“‘“...into the great fish the creature will go.”’”

    This great fish, or any fish for that matter, does not appear in Nick and the Glimmung. Looking to Galactic Pot-Healer, it is confirmed there that Plowman’s Planet does have an ocean, named Mare Nostrum.⁵ Mare Nostrum is quite central to the novel’s plot and is explored, giving details of what it contains. It is shown that many types of fish dwell within. Along with these fish is the previously mentioned doppelganger of Glimmung’s, identified as a Black Glimmung.

    Glimmung’s ability to change his form, mentioned in the notes for chapter seven, is also shared with his double. When Fernwright first encounters this Glimmung while diving in Mare Nostrum it appears as a skeleton.⁶ But in two different points in time in the history of Glimmung’s residing on Plowman’s Planet, the first occurring before Galactic Pot-Healer (and even before Nick and the Glimmung), the second during Galactic Pot-Healer, the Black Glimmung took on the form of a large fish.⁷

    On top of that, during Fernwright’s underwater expedition, he discovers a pot on the ocean’s floor. Upon the pot are a series of panels, which he believes to be a depiction, as well as a foretelling/prediction, of his adventures on Plowman’s Planet. The final panel shows a fatal encounter with an enormous black fish. In the passage describing these panels the word “great” is applied to the black fish three times.⁸

    Is the great fish that will one day take Horace away and the fish form of the Black Glimmung one in the same?

“‘“...the chant of sorrowful people.”’”

    With this concluding sentence it is implied that this encounter with the great fish results in Horace’s death.

    It is odd that none of the Graham family is directly mentioned among the “‘“sorrowful people”’” mourning the loss of the cat. If one also refers to the quote from One Summer Day back in chapter seven about Horace misleading the Graham family until too late and that they “‘“are undone by their love”’” it takes on quite a different, unnerving in fact, tone if it is interpreted as a long run prediction and not just as a literal summation of the Graham family’s initial difficulty in getting to their new home.

    One thing to add is that the Graham family never appears, nor is referred to, in Galactic Pot-Healer.

    If Horace’s death is significant enough for people to mourn him it may possibly be because he will be the last surviving member of the Graham family by then. As to why the Grahams will be of significance by then will be shown in chapter fifteen.

    Another detail to take notice of is the parallel between the dread the werjes and spiddles have of Horace, being described as smelling of the ocean, and the deathlike state of what Glimmung calls the “‘“Aquatic Sub-World”’” of Mare Nostrum in Galactic Pot-Healer, which not only features Glimmung’s shadow duplicate and the predicting pot but also the decayed, living-dead visage of a double of Fernwright himself.⁹ This last detail will be giving a closer look in the outro.

“...would not change, as did the book itself.”

    The problem of Nick’s plan to copy One Summer Day is very much the problem that a single edition of The Book of the Kalends has in Galactic Pot-Healer; a copy would remain fixed at whatever information it had at the time and remain unchanged.

    The outro speculations of this blog will attempt to theorize a connection between these two books.

“...remain his forever.”

    With Horace kidnapped by the trobes back in chapter ten, One Summer Day gives Nick the knowledge that the cat will break free and be re-united with him. It is possibly this reassuring information that changes Nick’s mind from his initial reluctance towards the book in chapter seven. This realization to the book's capabilities may now be too tempting to for him to give up.

    Could this have been the very same way Glimmung felt when the book was first in his possession? If the saying “absolute power corrupts absolutely” is true then absolute knowledge, or near-absolute knowledge in this case, may be just as destructive to anyone.

Chapter Thirteen

“...a wild, unnatural serpent.”

    This description of the materiel of the book’s cover is a subtle hint to the idea of the limitless knowledge of One Summer Day as an ultimately corrupting temptation, paralleling the Book of Genesis where a serpent encourages humanity to take a bite from the fruit of the tree of knowledge, resulting in their being cast out of paradise and condemned to pain, illness, and mortality.

1) Nick and the Glimmung (Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1988) pgs. 7 and 18

2) Ibid, pg. 52

3) https://www.catster.com/cat-health-care/how-long-do-cats-live/ (Retrieved on December 26, 2025)

4)https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/oldest-cat-ever (Retrieved on February 20, 2026)

5) Galactic Pot-Healer (Vintage Books, 1994), pg. 70

6) Ibid. pgs. 112-113

7) Ibid, pgs. 129-131

8) Ibid, pgs. 120-123

9) Ibid, pgs. 100-101, 112-113, and 120

 

Chapter Nine

“...larvae, recently laid.”

    In The Father-Thing these larvae are described as being laid by an insect-like creature that is thin and jointed with a multitude of crooked legs and a tail, its color is specified as both reddish-brown and metallic.¹

    The story also adds that once this creature has laid its larvae it burrows itself into the ground for protection.²

“...a Nick-thing.”

    Like the closing paragraph of the previous chapter, these opening paragraphs are a slight variation of a passage from The Father-Thing.³

“‘...by imitating...’”

    The theme of doppelgangers is also present in Galactic Pot-Healer.

“‘...foretold our coming here; remember?’”

    With the future knowledge of the Graham’s arrival, Glimmung made preparations.

    The father-thing’s choice in imitating Nick first instead of his father suggests that One Summer Day specified Nick would be Glimmung’s greatest threat.

“‘...too short-handed.’”

    The lacking amount of law enforcement on Plowman’s Planet is yet another suggestion that these events are taking place before Galactic Pot-Healer.

“‘...will burn it up.’”

    In The Father-Thing the alien and its kin are destroyed when kerosene is poured down the insect creature’s burrow.⁴

Chapter Ten

“‘...venture out after dark.’”

    It is possible that the attack the werjes made upon the Grahams might have been unusual for creatures that, as suggested here, strike at night. Perhaps Glimmung was further studying them as a threat so as to assess what to do next, maybe even hoping to convert the family to his side or at the very least keep them neutral in the conflict.

“‘...possibly a few human colonists.’”

    Glimmung must also be aware of the ticking clock of the increasing number of earthlings emigrating to Plowman’s Planet. As more arrive they will be more likely to side with the Grand Four once they realize that the printers, nunks, and spiddles are not as they had been led to believe they would be from Glimmung’s The Last and Final War.

Chapter Eleven

“‘...going to be eaten,’”

    Here a spiddle tells Nick of what will become of him if the Nick-thing catches him. Charles’s father suffers the same fate in The Father-Thing with only his skin left behind to tell the tale.⁵

“‘...changes every time it’s read.’”

    Here yet another miraculous attribute of One Summer Day is brought up, its ability to update itself over the course of time, providing the reader with more accurate information. Again, much like the mythical book described in the Earth phone encyclopedia and The Book of the Kalends in Galactic Pot-Healer.⁶

“‘...especially against humans.’”

    With this idea that Glimmung directly attacking people, fatally in the case of Mr. Frankis in this chapter, being a rare occurrence in conjunction with the arrival of the Graham family and the loss of One Summer Day, Glimmung is beginning to take increasingly more drastic measures in an attempt to turn events in his favor.

“...like a many-tailed squirrel...”

    This simile seems to be a hint as to where Dick must have got the name of this life-form from. Spiddle appears to be a corruption of the word squirrel.

    This is not the last time Dick attributes rodent-like traits to the spiddles. In Galactic Pot-Healer, he describes one as looking like a rat.⁷

1) The Philip K. Dick Reader (Citadel Press, 1997), pg. 107

2) Ibid

3) Ibid, pg. 109

4) Ibid, pg. 110

5) Ibid, pgs. 103-104

6) Galactic Pot-Healer (Vintage Books, 1994), pgs. 26, 76-77

7) Ibid, pg. 71

 

Chapter Eight

“‘...robot work-teams’”

    In Galactic Pot-Healer, unlike on Earth, robots are much a part of daily life on Plowman’s Planet even to the point of being considered a form of life.¹

“‘...no one living nearby...’”

    This is further evidence as to the lack of a city-level population, predating the establishment of Diamond Head city in Galactic Pot-Healer. It would make little sense for such a place to be left unmentioned if it was present even as a town or a village.

“‘Spiddles,’ the invisible creatures said.”

    As is shortly unveiled, spiddles can speak English. This would lead one to believe that the majority, of not all, of the human colonists hail from English speaking nations.

    The spiddle that introduces itself to Fernwright in Galactic Pot-Healer, by contrast, communicates by way of a device which contains a prerecorded message spoken in multiple intergalactic languages.²

    It is never demonstrated anywhere else in that novel if spiddles themselves can speak these languages. It is more likely that with the increased numbers of visiting aliens, it would be impractical for spiddles to learn, and be fluent in, countless tongues.

    Though the specific color of the spiddles is not mentioned in Nick, one is described as being brown in Pot-Healer.³

“‘...copies of it floating around Plowman’s Planet.’”

    It appears it is The Last and Final War with its less than favorable descriptions of the creatures that consist of The Grand Four barring humans, which in the sixth chapter of Nick and the Glimmung specifies this exact order of joining; printers, nunks, the human colonists, and the spiddles, is what information on the life of Plowman’s Planet is getting relayed back to Earth.

    In Galactic Pot-Healer, The Book of the Kalends is widely distributed to the denizens of Plowman’s Planet in much the same way.⁴ On top of that it is given updated editions on the daily, like a newspaper.⁵

    The Book of the Kalends will be discussed further and speculated on in the outro.

“‘...Grand Four, in fact, need it.'”

    The Grand Four know that if they were in possession of One Summer Day, they would surely emerge victorious in the war. A guess as to why there has not been a seeming effort in acquiring it, besides the danger that it would pose, is the probable belief among a significant percentage of the Grand Four, mostly humans matching Mr. Frankis’s view in the previous chapter, that this book is not real and not worth the risk of approaching Glimmung in any way just to confirm whether it exists or not.

“‘Even Klakes...’”

    No piece of information is obscure enough that One Summer Day won’t take into account within its pages.

This is the last mention of Klakes in the story.

“‘...past and the future...’”

    A characteristic One Summer Day possesses that matches the description from both the book described in the Earth phone encyclopedia and The Book of the Kalends: its ability to foretell of events before they occur.⁶ This will be demonstrated in chapter twelve.

“‘...once a happy place,’”

    The planet being at peace before Glimmung’s arrival seems to be the one nugget of information that both sides of the war agree upon.

“‘...their struggle began before this planet existed.’”

    If this spiddle is telling the truth, this means that both the printers and Glimmung are not native to Plowman’s Planet and that they are an older race of aliens that have been fighting each other on at least one previous planet.

    As to giving this conflict a time frame of any kind, one character in Galactic Pot-Healer, a robot named Willis, claims that land life on Plowman’s Planet first appeared “‘a billion years ago.’”⁷ The fact that he is referring to life and not the planet itself coming into existence means this puts the number even higher for whenever the planet formed and consequently a number higher than that one for when the war between Glimmung and the printers began.

    Though there is no outright stated explanation as to why the conflict started, there is one possible theory that could explain Glimmung’s connection with the printers. This will be touched upon in the notes for chapter fourteen and fleshed out further in the outro.

“...he could tell what it was.”

    This paragraph is almost verbatim recycled from Dick’s short story The Father-Thing.⁸ Unlike Beyond Lies the Wub, this story could be connected to the Glimmung universe. More relating its context in said continuity will be related in the closing speculations of this blog.

1) Galactic Pot-Healer (Vintage Books, 1994), pgs. 92-94

2) Ibid, pgs. 71-72

3) Ibid, pg. 71

4) Ibid, pg. 72

5) Ibid

6) Ibid, pgs. 26,76-77

7) Ibid, pg. 109

8) The Philip K. Dick Reader (Citadel Press, 1997) pg. 109

 

Chapter Seven

“‘“...misleads them until it is too late.”’”

    The most obvious interpretation is made by Helen Graham shortly after this passage is read, that Horace is responsible for them being lost and unable to locate their new home.

    However, if this quote is considered in conjunction with a future quote in chapter twelve it takes on a more ominous tone for the future of the Graham family beyond the events of Nick and the Glimmung.

“‘“...join the horned klake, the enemy of us all.”’”

    Considering the situation in Galactic Pot-Healer where the werjes seem to be on good terms with Glimmung it is possible that this betrayal by the werjes will either occur sometime after the end of Nick and the Glimmung or somewhere after the events of Galactic Pot-Healer.

    It is interesting to note that the passage says “‘“horned klake’”’ instead of horned klakes as it was said in chapter three. Assuming this is not a typo, there are three possible explanations; the first is that the word klake and klakes are interchangeable words for the plurality of that species. The second one would be that a horned klake is a specific kind of klake, implying there is a non-horned variety. The third would be that it is referring to one specific klake that will lead a conflict against all of Plowman’s Planet and the werjes will join that particular klake.

“‘...on neither side.’”

    A possible explanation for the wubs being neutral can be found in the ending of Beyond Lies the Wub in which the titular alien is killed and consumed despite its protests. The captain eats its meat only for the wub’s consciousness to take over the captain’s body.¹ If the wubs of Plowman’s Planet have a similar trait, it would serve to keep both Glimmung and the Grand Four from attacking them, leaving them mostly free to roam.

“‘Money is nearly worthless here.’”

    Except for the wubs, there seems to be no actual financial structure set up yet. It must be a trading-based economy.

“‘I didn’t believe it existed.’”

    Although the book One Summer Day is never brought up by name, there is a possible allusion to it in Galactic Pot-Healer. Towards the beginning of the novel the Earth phone encyclopedia refers to “‘a peculiar book, probably nonexistent, in which, it is alleged, everything which has been, is, and will be, is recorded.’”²

    In the subsequent chapters of Nick and the Glimmung, in particular the twelfth, the attributes of One Summer Day will match the above description.

    With a book with such powerful knowledge, it’s only natural that Glimmung would keep it a secret and most likely be the one responsible for convincing everyone else, including the legions who fight for him, that such a tome is merely a myth. The idea that the werj mistook One Summer Day for The Last and Final War in the previous chapter would make more sense from that theory.

    Along with One Summer Day never making an appearance in Galactic Pot-Healer there are two further details. The first is that, earlier in the Earth phone encyclopedia’s description, this unidentified book has “‘sharply curtailed’” Glimmung’s power.³ throughout the events of Galactic Pot-Healer, Glimmung is never seen with the book. It’s reasonable to assume he no longer possesses it by then as he would have certainly found it useful in his endeavors in that novel.

    The second detail is that in the novel there is another book, one like One Summer Day but not quite. According to Mali Yojez the book itself is untitled, and it is written in multiple languages, both of and not of Earth, by a group of authors collectively known as the Kalends.⁴ Thus the book is from there referred to as the Book of the Kalends.⁵

    The species known as the Kalends themselves never appear, nor are they mentioned, in Nick and the Glimmung. It can be assumed that the Kalends are either a species foreign to Plowman’s Planet or they are among the natives of the Planet neutral to the war happening in Nick and the Glimmung and are in hiding.

    Another distinction between One Summer Day and the Book of the Kalends will be elaborated on in the notes for the twelfth chapter.

“‘...brought it with him when he came to this planet, years ago.’”

    If this is true, then this is the earliest point in the history of the existence of One Summer Day. Whether Glimmung created the book himself or procured it from someone, something, or somewhere else is left untold in this story. There is however one potential clue hidden in Galactic Pot-Healer which will be discussed in the notes for chapter fourteen.

“‘...take many shapes.’”

    Glimmung’s ability of changing his form is on full display in Galactic Pot-Healer, more on that in chapter fifteen’s notes.

“‘Werjes can’t read.’”

    This better explains how the werj made the mistake of giving the Grahams the wrong book.

“‘...furious.’”

    Glimmung’s temper is another of his attributes also present in Galactic Pot-Healer.⁶

1) The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick Volume 1 (Citadel Twilight, 1990), pg. 33

2) Galactic Pot-Healer (Vintage Books, 1994), pg. 26

3) Ibid

4) Ibid, pg. 72

5) Ibid, pg. 106

6) Ibid, pg. 44-45

 

Chapter Six

“...rather than fly.”

    In Galactic Pot-Healer more physical characteristics of the werjes are described. One specimen is a “portly organism with a long, ropy tail” with “fuzzy paw[s].”¹ It also has gray lips, as well as teeth and elongated thumbnails.² According to Mali Yojez “‘their reflexes are so acute.’”³ One is even seen “smoking some peculiar form of native grass.”⁴

    By the time of that novel the werjes are employed in jobs such as driving the taxi service.⁵ A more detailed explanation will be made for how this comes about in the speculative outro section of this blog.

“...the creature living out its bloodless life inside it.”

    Keep this note of the fact that Nick senses another presence within the werj that is not its own.

“‘...smells of fish.’”

    The revulsion the werjes have towards Horace’s smell, reminding them of fish and the sea may have a greater significance which will be elaborated in the notes for the twelfth chapter.

“‘...concerns the war.’”

    It is here that a war on Plowman’s Planet is first brought up. This war will be corroborated with other denizens of the planet.

“‘...aware of Glimmung’”

    The presence Nick perceived in one of the werjes is identified as being Glimmung himself.

    Glimmung’s ability to inhabit other beings is also displayed in Galactic Pot-Healer throughout. A prime example is when Glimmung makes a mental presence in Fernwright’s mind when he arrives on Plowman’s Planet.⁶

    Mali Yojez explains that Glimmung is capable of “‘reflex relocation’” by using his brain. Not only can he inhabit others, he can also astral project “‘from one locus to another without time-lapse.’”⁷

    With this piece of information, the incident with Horace seeming to randomly stare at one spot on the spaceship bound for Plowman’s Planet in chapter four may very well be another instance of Glimmung’s reflex relocation. How and why he would know to spy on the Grahams will be explained in the notes for chapter nine and especially chapter twelve.

“‘...too late for any of us to escape.’”

    A shared theme between Nick and the Glimmung and Galactic Pot-Healer is that of fate versus freewill as well as the theme of interpretation of the written word. In multiple instances in both books, characters will state their view of what a particular passage means, often in contrast to another’s reading.

    Yet another theme is that of the legitimacy and ultimate authority of stated accounts and the written word, asking whether it can truly be relied upon.

“‘...no longer burned.’”

    With this statement Glimmung is revealed to not be native to Plowman’s Planet but from another world entirely whose sun had burnt out a long time before.

    This is corroborated by the Earth phone encyclopedia in Galactic Pot-Healer which states, “‘it had migrated [to Plowman’s Planet] several centuries ago...’”⁸

“‘...who could pay five cents.’”

    Assuming the werj is telling the truth, it either misspoke about the use of five cents, since Glimmung’s arrival on Plowman’s Planet is long before humanity arrived, or it is saying whatever the value equivalent of whatever the wubs were asking the nunks for so the Grahams would better understand.

“‘...the lies of the Grand Four...’”

    From the negative portrayal the nunks got from the news reporter’s claims of them being war-mongers back in chapter two, it appears that the book about the war that the werjes intend to give the Graham family is the main source of information to those outside of Plowman’s Planet.

“‘...misled by the printers...’”

    From the blame being placed on the printers, it seems that they are the ones leading the Grand Four with the support of the spiddles, the nunks, and the human settlers.

“‘...we fight for Glimmung...’”

    Glimmung leads the opposing side with support from the werjes, the trobes, and the father-things.

“...black fire, like a torch underwater.”

    This imagery of fire and water is reminiscent of how Glimmung will first reveal himself to Fernwright in Galactic Pot-Healer specifically appearing as “a hoop of water spinning on a horizontal axis” and “a transversal loop of fire” on the vertical axis.⁹

    The color black also takes on significance in Galactic Pot-Healer. This detail will be elaborated on in both the notes for chapter twelve and the speculation outro.

“...One Summer Day, it was called.”

    This book that the Graham family receives is in fact not about the war on Plowman’s Planet, which is identified as The Last and Final War, but something far more important, to both this story as well as to Galactic Pot-Healer.

    The possible meaning of this enigmatic title will be discussed in the outro portion of this blog.

“‘...don’t want to read it,’ he said aloud.”

    Despite Nick’s initial reaction to the book’s contents, he will see it differently during the twelfth chapter.

1) Galactic Pot-Healer (Vintage Books, 1994), pg. 88

2) Ibid, pgs. 149-150

3) Ibid, pgs. 88

4) Ibid, pg. 148

5) Ibid, pgs. 88 and 149

6) Ibid, pgs. 84-85

7) Ibid, pg. 89

8) Ibid, pg. 26

9) Ibid, pg. 41