with Ray Nelson
Num |
N | S | Writing Date |
Pub. Date |
Previous |
Next |
Notes |
150 |
40 | c.1964 - 1966 |
June 1967 |
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ACE, pb, G-627, Jun 1967, 157pp, $0.50, (Jack Gaughan) | |
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Arrow, pb, 005370-2, 1971, 192pp, 25p (photo collage) | |
HISTORY
This novel was slow in development and dates to the summer of 1964. When Philip K. Dick lived in Oakland he was part of a circle of science fiction writers and their families. While sitting around partying they’d toss around ideas. Ray Nelson, Dick’s collaborator on the novel, recalls the good old days:
In the dream I remembered the brainstorming sessions I had had with Phil and the many other members of the San Francisco Bay Area science fiction community on those long lazy Sunday afternoons in East Oakland. Three outlines for novels had been developed during these sessions during which everyone threw ideas into the common pool, and I had gone home to put the resulting chaos into some sort of order. Only the first, THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER, was actually written and published.
Nelson goes on to talk about how the book was written:
The fact is, we wanted to write RING OF FIRE, but we had to write something, so we wrote TAKEOVER
Since we were "only practicing" for "the big one", we wrote the book we did in a spirit of almost hysterical hilarity, enclosing weird newspaper clippings and Beatle bubblegum cards in the installments of the ongoing story we mailed back and forth. When we met --first at his place in East Oakland and later at his other place in Marin County near the water, we often spent more time smoking grass, dropping acid and flirting with each others' wives than working. Not for nothing is TAKEOVER dedicated to both Kirsten and Nancy. Joan Hiashi is a composite in many ways of these two remarkable women, and many of the concepts and plot twists were contributed by them in the nonstop brainstorming that always formed a part of our relationship. We never actually "swapped wives" or "swung", yet the emotional involvement of this foursome went far beyond what normally passes for friendship between two married couples.
This fragment of conversation from Ray Nelson helps us date the genesis of THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER (as well as THE UNTELEPORTED MAN) to between mid 1964 and late 1965 when Phil and Nancy moved to San Rafael, California.
There is some confusion as to the original title that the two authors gave to the story – for once not occasioned by PKD himself. In a letter to his agent, Scott Meredith, in 1968, PKD wrote:I am very anxious to get back from Ace the outline for THE STONES REJECTED (retitled by Ace, THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER). Could you get the outline for me?
But responding via PKDS to Ray Nelson’s remarks in Apel & Briggs’ THE DREAM CONNECTION, Terry Carr wrote:
Ray's mentioning that THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER was originally titled THE EARTH'S DIURNAL COURSE is a bit confusing to me. Probably Ray is right in saying so -- though the title would have been IN EARTH'S DIURNAL COURSE, a line from a Romantic poet, well-known, but I forget which one. The apparent fact that Phil's and Ray's THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER originally had this title, till Scott Meredith changed it, surprises me because Phil had earlier put that title on some other novel published by Ace Books and it was Don Wollheim who changed it -- I think it was DR. BLOODMONEY, OR HOW WE GOT ALONG AFTER THE BOMB, though I can't swear to that. (90% chance I'm right, no more). Since DR. BLOODMONEY was published in 1965 and THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER in 1967, its quite possible that after Don Wollheim had changed that title once, Scott Meredith may have felt it would be fruitless to submit another even partly PKD novel to Don under the original title.
And with that covered we find that there is no more information worth noting about THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER.
The novel was published by Ace Books under their title of THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER in June 1967. The first UK edition did not appear until 1971. Of all editions the British hardcover from Severn House in 1988 seems to be the most valuable for collectors.
Earth is occupied by telepathic slug-like Ganymedeans who with the help of their terran stooges attempt to consolidate their power. But in Tennessee the black guerilla leader, Percy X, and his cohorts still fight on employing a variety of horrific weapons. But Percy’s distrust of his white allies leads to complications.
THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER is worth ô ô ô
OTHER ENGLISH EDITIONS
For
Cover Pix Click Here: 
 |
J'ai Li, pb, 1067, 1980, 224pp, ?, (?) {tr. into French as LES MACHINES A ILLUSIONS} | |
 |
J'ai Lu, pb, ?, 1982c, ?, ? (?) {tr. into French as LES MACHINES A ILLUSIONS} |
NOTES
TDC 135
(Ray Faraday Nelson:) In the dream I remembered the brainstorming sessions I had had with Phil and the many other members of the San Francisco Bay Area science fiction community on those long lazy Sunday afternoons in East Oakland. Three outlines for novels had been developed during these sessions during which everyone threw ideas into the common pool, and I had gone home to put the resulting chaos into some sort of order. Only the first, THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER, was actually written and published. (It has since been repeatedly published in the USA, England, France and Germany). The second, The Whalemouth Colony, was later recycled by Phil in part. The third and best, The Ring Of Fire, remains to this day little more than an outline, and a lot of scribbles on odd bits of paper... and perhaps, if I haven't erased it, a tape recording of a brainstorming session.
{For continuation see: TDC 136}
TDC 138
(Ray Faraday Nelson:) The fact is, we wanted to write Ring Of Fire, but we had to write something, so we wrote TAKEOVER
Since we were "only practicing" for "the big one", we wrote the book we did in a spirit of almost hysterical hilarity, enclosing weird newspaper clippings and Beatle bubblegum cards in the installments of the ongoing story we mailed back and forth. When we met --first at his place in East Oakland and later at his other place in Marin County near the water, we often spent more time smoking grass, dropping acid and flirting with each others' wives than working. Not for nothing is TAKEOVER dedicated to both Kirsten and Nancy. Joan Hiashi is a composite in many ways of these two remarkable women, and many of the concepts and plot twists were contributed by them in the nonstop brainstorming that always formed a part of our relationship. We never actually "swapped wives" or "swung", yet the emotional involvement of this foursome went far beyond what normally passes for friendship between two married couples.
SL-38 229
I am very anxious to get back from Ace the outline for THE STONES REJECTED (retitled by Ace, THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER). Could you get the outline for me? {PKD > Scott Meredith Feb 28, 1968}
See: Ed Meskys in Bumbejimas. PKD had met Ray Nelson in late 1962 or early 1963. PKDS-6 9. Terry Carr to PKDS, 1985. See THE UNTELEPORTED MAN for more from this letter.Collector's Notes
Phildickian: THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER, Ace, pb, 1967. VG+ $25
Phildickian: THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER, Ace, pb, 27346, 1977. VG $10
Phildickian: THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER, pb, Granada, 1980. VG- $10
Phildickian: THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER, Severn House, hb, 1988. FINE/FINE $50
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