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FIRST PUBLICATION

•      Omni, Oct 1980

HISTORY:  

    "Rautavaara’s Case’ reached the SMLA on May 13, 1980. It was sold to Omni and published in the Oct 1980 issue of that magazine. The story has appeared in some prestigious anthologies and was selected for Mark Hurst and Paul Williams’ collection I HOPE I SHALL ARRIVE SOON in 1985. It was PKD’s second sale to a major magazine following "Frozen Journey" to Playboy.

    Very little comment has been made on "Rautavaara’s Case". The story itself tells of an accident in space in which three humans are killed. However, the alien Proximations from the Proxima system are on hand to save the brain of Agneta Rautavaara and she, along with her two dead companions, see a vision of Christ. This interests the Proximations greatly as they have their own version of the Saviour. They wonder if, with a slight change, she might have a vision of their Saviour. This she does but, unfortunately, as the Proximations are a plasmatic lifeform – effectively the opposite of humans who are a somatic lifeform – she is horrified when their Saviour starts to eat her companions. To the Proximations this is the highest honor: to be eaten by their God. But to humans this is the reverse of the Christian sacrament and Agneta’s brain is shut down and the Proximations censured in the intergalactic courts.

    "Rautavaara’s Case" rates ô ô ô

Other Magazine and Anthology appearances.    More Cover Pix Here:

1982		NEBULA AWARD STORIES 16, Holt-Rinehart-Winston, hb, ?,?,? (?) {Ed. Pournelle, John F. Carr}
1983		NEBULA AWARD STORIES 16, Bantam, pb, ?, 1983, ?,? (?)
1983		THE BEST OF OMNI SF #5, Omni, ?, largetp, #5, 1983, 144pp, $4.50 (?) {Ed. Bova, Myrus}
1985		I HOPE I SHALL ARRIVE SOON, Doubleday, hb, 19567-2, Jul 1985, 179pp, $12.95 (Cathy Canzani) 0-385-19567-2
1985		THE THIRD OMNI BOOK OF SF, Zebra, ?,?,?,? (?) {Ed. Datlow}
1986		I HOPE I SHALL ARRIVE SOON, Gollancz, hb, 03578-1, Feb 1986, 179pp, L8.95 (?) {Ed. Hurst, Williams} 0-575-03578-1
1987		THE COLLECTED STORIES OF PHILIP K. DICK

NOTES:

PKDS-8 9

    Doubleday's new collection of PKD stories, I HOPE I SHALL ARRIVE SOON, was published in late June{...}

    When Mark Hurst and I put together this collection, I told Doubleday I would supply story notes and asked them to give me a deadline. I never heard from them and, I'm sorry to say, I didn't nudge them until it was too late.

    By way of apology, then, here's a little bit of background:{…}

    "Exit Door" earned Phil a large fee, but "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon" was really his first sale to a recognized major short story market (Playboy), closely followed by "Rautavaara's Case" (Omni).

Collector’s Notes

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