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CLANS OF THE ALPHANE MOON |
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by Wikipedia
Clans of the Alphane Moon is a 1964 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. Clans of the Alphane Moon, by Philip K. Dick Plot War between Earth and Alphane has ended over a decade ago, but Earth intends to secure its now independent colony in the Alphane system. Its colony, an entire moon given over to a mental asylum, has lived peacefully for years. But, under the pretence of a medical mission, Earth intends to take their colony back. Against this background, Chuck Rittersdorf and his wife Mary are separating. Although they think they are going their separate ways, they soon find themselves together again on the Alphane moon. Mary travels there through government work, Chuck sees it as a chance to kill Mary using his remote control simulacrum. Along the way he is guided by his Ganymeadean Slime Mold neighbour Lord Running Clam and Mary finds herself manipulated by the Alphane friendly comedian Bunny Hentman. The Clans A lot of the main cast are mentally ill characters, sent to the moon of the book title, colonised as a mental asylum. The inmates have formed seven clans: The Pares are people suffering from paranoia. They function as the statesman class. The Pare representative to the supreme council is Gabriel Baines, and their settlement is called Adolfville (named after Adolf Hitler). It is located at the north end of the moon and is heavily fortified. This is where the supreme council building is, a stone, six-storey high building, the largest one in Adolfville. The Manses are suffering from bipolar disorder. They are the most active class, the warrior class. The Mans representative is Howard Straw. The Mans settlement is Da Vinci Heights. It is characterized as diverse but disordered, without aesthetic unity, "a hodgepodge of incomplete projects, started out but never finished." Also, this is where the moon’s TV transmitter is. There is supposed to be tension between them and the Pares, with the Manses constantly trying to stage a coup d'état. The Skitzes are the ones suffering from simple schizophrenia. They correspond to the poet class, with some of them being religious visionaries. The Skitz delegate to the bi-annual get-together at Adolfville is Omar Diamond. The Skitz town is named Joan d’Arc, "poor materially, but rich in eternal values." The Heebs clan consists of people suffering from disorganized schizophrenia. Their settlement is Gandhitown. To the other clans, they are useful only for manual labour. Their representative is Jacob Simion. Gandhitown looks like "an inhabited garbage dump of cardboard dwellings." Like the Skitzes, some of the Heebs are religious visionaries as well; but they are inclined to produce ascetic saints, whereas the schizophrenics produce dogmatists. An example is "the famous Heeb saint, Ignatz Ledebur, who radiated spirituality as he wandered from town to town, spreading the warmth of his harmless Heeb personality." Another notable Heeb character is Sarah Apostoles; she together with Omar Diamond and Ignatz Ledebur form "the so-called Holy Triumvirate." The Polys suffer from polymorphic schizophrenia. Annette Golding is the Poly delegate to the supreme council and their settlement is called Hamlet Hamlet. They are the creative members of society, producing new ideas. The children from every clan on the moon were born Polys, went to their common, central school as Polys, did not become differentiated until perhaps their tenth or eleventh year. And some never became differentiated. The Ob-Coms are the ones with obsessive-compulsive disorder, their delegate is Ingred Hibbler. The name of their location is not given. They are the clerks and office holders of the society, the ritualistic functionaries, with no original ideas. Their conservatism is balancing the radical quality of the Polys and give the society stability. The Deps
are suffering from clinical depression. Their representative to the
supreme council is Dino Watters and name of their town is Cotton Mather
Estates, where they live "in endless dark gloom.”
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