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<Jul 15, 1953 |
Nov 1954 |
MS title: "Protection Agency" |
FIRST PUBLICATION
Orbit Science Fiction #5, Nov-Dec 1954 HISTORY:
Under the title "Protection Agency", this story reached the SMLA on July 15, 1953. It was first published in Orbit Science Fiction #5 in Nov 1954 as "The Last Of The Masters."Surprisingly enough for such a good story, it was scarcely anthologized although Mark Hurst included it in his 1980 collection, THE GOLDEN MAN. About the story, PKD wrote this: Now I show trust of a robot as leader, a robot who is the suffering servant, which is to say a form of Christ. Leader as servant of man; leader who should be dispensed with -- perhaps. An ambiguity hangs over the morality of this story. Should we have a leader or should we think for ourselves? Obviously the latter, in principle. But -- sometimes there lies a gulf between what is theoretically right and that which is practical. It's interesting that I would trust a robot and not an android. Perhaps it's because a robot does not try to deceive you as to what it is.{TGM 'Story Notes'}
"The Last Of The Masters" rates ööö
Other Magazine and Anthology appearances. More Cover Pix
here: 
| 1958 Mar | SPACE STATION 42 And Other Stories, Jubilee, ?, 212, ?,?,? (?) Australia | ||
| 1980 |  |
THE GOLDEN MAN, Berkley, pb, 04288, ?,? (?) {Ed. Hurst} | |
| 1984 |  |
ROBOTS, ANDROIDS AND MECHANICAL ODDITIES, SIUP, hb, ?, 1984, ?,? (?) {Ed. Warrick} | |
| 1987 | THE COLLECTED STORIES OF PKD | ||
NOTES:
TGM
Now I show trust of a robot as leader, a robot who is the suffering servant, which is to say a form of Christ. Leader as servant of man; leader who should be dispensed with -- perhaps. An ambiguity hangs over the morality of this story. Should we have a leader or should we think for ourselves? Obviously the latter, in principle. But -- sometimes there lies a gulf between what is theoretically right and that which is practical. It's interesting that I would trust a robot and not an android. Perhaps it's because a robot does not try to deceive you as to what it is. – PKD in story notes to THE GOLDEN MAN.
SRG 52
... In "The Last Of The Masters" Dick continues to make us aware of the paradoxical cast of human existence. Even as the Anarchist League glories in its two-hundred-year-old success at destroying all government, it hears a rumour of a remnant of the old order that is still flourishing. The League goes on a search and destroy mission, an unnecessary move. The small anachronistic society is gradually breaking down of its own entropy. Complete with a disciplined economic organization (but no market to supply) and a well-trained military (but no enemy to fight), the group exists at the will of a deteriorating pre-war robot master. Even as the Anarchists break the robot up beyond all salvage, one of the service men pockets a memory chip "just in case the times change."
Collector’s Notes
Ken Lopez: "The Last of the Masters" in Orbit Science Fiction, No. 5, Nov-Dec 1954 (1st). FAIR. Signed by the author. Water warped, with staple rust marks. Signature safe. $85
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