Science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick

For the collection of stories by Philip K. Dick named after this story, see The Golden Man (collection).

Illustration by Frank Kelly Freas for "The Golden Man" in If : Worlds of Science Fiction (April 1954)

"The Golden Man" is an 11,600-word science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was received by the Scott Meredith Literary Agency on June 24, 1953, and first published in the April 1954 issue of If magazine.[1] The story was illustrated by Kelly Freas in its original publication.[2] The story is set in a post-apocalyptic future where the existence of potentially powerful mutants has become a reality. The mutants are seen as dangerous and have been hunted to death by human beings for years. A golden-skinned mutant called Cris is captured by the government, which attempts to execute him. However, his appearance and abilities to see into the future allow him to escape.

## Plot summary[edit]

The protagonists of the story are a government agent and his fiancée who are members of a government agency tasked with tracking down and sterilizing or eliminating mutants – individuals with physical abnormalities and superhuman powers (such as mind reading or telekinesis) that make them a threat to normal humans. The eponymous "Golden Man" is a beautiful yet feral young man named Cris with gold-colored skin and the proportions of a Greek god. He possesses no language but has the ability to see into the future (specifically, the ability to see all possible outcomes from any single action, described in the story as similar to a chess player with the ability to see all possible moves 5 steps ahead). The agency manages to capture Cris after surrounding him so completely that his precognition tells him there's no way out, at which point he simply surrenders himself. The agency takes him back to their fortified laboratory to study his abilities, and then execute him. Unknown to the agency, Cris's physical perfection and noble-looking countenance influences the fiancée into freeing him. He then impregnates her and makes his escape as she provides a distraction to aid him. The story ends with the protagonist reflecting on how animal instincts have triumphed over human intellect, and how that is the new direction evolution will take if Cris continues to breed children with his abilities.

## Reception[edit]

In the Story Notes for the collection The Golden Man, Dick wrote of the eponymous short story:

> Here I am saying that mutants are dangerous to us ordinaries, a view which John W. Campbell, Jr. deplored. We were supposed to view them as our leaders. But I always felt uneasy as to how they would view us. I mean, maybe they wouldn't want to lead us. Maybe from their superevolved lofty level we wouldn't seem worth leading. Anyhow, even if they agreed to lead us, I felt uneasy as where we would wind up going. It might have something to do with buildings marked SHOWERS but which really weren't.[3]

## Film adaptation[edit]

The film Next, a very loose adaptation of "The Golden Man", was released in 2007. It was directed by Lee Tamahori and stars Nicolas Cage as Cris Johnson and co-stars Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel, Thomas Kretschmann, and Peter Falk.

## See also[edit]

* Literature portal
* Speculative fiction portal

## References[edit]

1. ^ Rickman, Gregg (1989), To the High Castle: Philip K. Dick: A Life 1928–1963, Long Beach, Ca.: Fragments West/The Valentine Press, p. 389 ISBN 0-916063-24-0
2. ^ Levack, Daniel (1981). PKD: A Philip K. Dick Bibliography, Underwood/Miller, p. 97 ISBN 0-934438-33-1
3. ^ Dick, Philip K., (edited by Mark Hurst), (1980), The Golden Man, Berkley Books, p. 332 ISBN 0-425-04288-X

## External links[edit]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The Golden Man

* The Golden Man title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

* v
* t
* e

Philip K. Dick

* Bibliography

Novels|

* Gather Yourselves Together (1950)
* Voices from the Street (1952)
* Solar Lottery (1954)
* Mary and the Giant (1954)
* The World Jones Made (1954)
* Eye in the Sky (1955)
* The Man Who Japed (1955)
* A Time for George Stavros (1956)
* Pilgrim on the Hill (1956)
* The Broken Bubble (1956)
* The Cosmic Puppets (1957)
* Puttering About in a Small Land (1957)
* Nicholas and the Higs (1958)
* Time Out of Joint (1958)
* In Milton Lumky Territory (1958)
* Confessions of a Crap Artist (1959)
* The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike (1960)
* Humpty Dumpty in Oakland (1960)
* Vulcan's Hammer (1960)
* Dr. Futurity (1960)
* The Man in the High Castle (1961)
* We Can Build You (1962)
* Martian Time-Slip (1962)
* Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb (1963)
* The Game-Players of Titan (1963)
* The Simulacra (1963)
* The Crack in Space (1963)
* Clans of the Alphane Moon (1964)
* The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1964)
* The Zap Gun (1964)
* The Penultimate Truth (1964)
* The Unteleported Man (1964)
* The Ganymede Takeover (1965)
* Counter-Clock World (1965)
* Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1966)
* Nick and the Glimmung (1966)
* Now Wait for Last Year (1966)
* Ubik (1966)
* Galactic Pot-Healer (1968)
* A Maze of Death (1968)
* Our Friends from Frolix 8 (1969)
* Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (1974)
* Deus Irae (1976)
* Radio Free Albemuth (1976; published 1985)
* A Scanner Darkly (1977)
* VALIS (1981)
* The Divine Invasion (1981)
* The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1982)
* The Owl in Daylight (unfinished)

Collections|

* A Handful of Darkness (1955)
* The Variable Man (1956)
* The Preserving Machine (1969)
* The Book of Philip K. Dick (1973)
* The Best of Philip K. Dick (1977)
* The Golden Man (1980)
* Robots, Androids, and Mechanical Oddities (1984)
* I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon (1985)
* The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick (1987)
* Beyond Lies the Wub (1988)
* The Dark Haired Girl (1989)
* The Father-Thing (1989)
* Second Variety (1989)
* The Days of Perky Pat (1990)
* The Little Black Box (1990)
* The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford (1990)
* We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (1990)
* The Minority Report (1991)
* Second Variety (1991)
* The Eye of the Sibyl (1992)
* The Philip K. Dick Reader (1997)
* Minority Report (2002)
* Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick (2002)
* Paycheck (2004)
* Vintage PKD (2006)
* The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick (2011)

Short stories|

* "Beyond Lies the Wub" (1952)
* "The Gun" (1952)
* "The Skull" (1952)
* "The Little Movement" (1952)
* "The Defenders" (1953)
* "Mr. Spaceship" (1953)
* "Piper in the Woods" (1953)
* "Roog" (1953)
* "The Infinites" (1953)
* "Second Variety" (1953)
* "Colony" (1953)
* "The Cookie Lady" (1953)
* "Impostor" (1953)
* "Paycheck" (1953)
* "The Preserving Machine" (1953)
* "Expendable" (1953)
* "The Indefatigable Frog" (1953)
* "The Commuter" (1953)
* "Out in the Garden" (1953)
* "The Great C" (1953)
* "The King of the Elves" (1953)
* "The Trouble with Bubbles" (1953)
* "The Variable Man" (1953)
* "The Impossible Planet" (1953)
* "Planet for Transients" (1953)
* "The Builder" (1953)
* "Tony and the Beetles" (1953)
* "The Hanging Stranger" (1953)
* "Prize Ship" (1954)
* "Beyond the Door" (1954)
* "The Crystal Crypt" (1954)
* "The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford" (1954)
* "The Golden Man" (1954)
* "Sales Pitch" (1954)
* "Breakfast at Twilight" (1954)
* "The Crawlers" (1954)
* "Exhibit Piece" (1954)
* "Adjustment Team" (1954)
* "Shell Game" (1954)
* "Meddler" (1954)
* "A World of Talent" (1954)
* "The Last of the Masters" (1954)
* "Upon the Dull Earth" (1954)
* "The Father-thing" (1954)
* "Strange Eden" (1954)
* "The Turning Wheel" (1954)
* "Foster, You're Dead!" (1955)
* "Human Is" (1955)
* "War Veteran" (1955)
* "Captive Market" (1955)
* "Nanny" (1955)
* "The Chromium Fence" (1955)
* "Service Call" (1955)
* "The Mold of Yancy" (1955)
* "Autofac" (1955)
* "Psi-man Heal My Child!" (1955)
* "The Hood Maker" (1955)
* "The Minority Report" (1956)
* "Pay for the Printer" (1956)
* "A Glass of Darkness" (1956)
* "The Unreconstructed M" (1957)
* "Null-O" (1958)
* "Explorers We" (1959)
* "Recall Mechanism" (1959)
* "Fair Game" (1959)
* "War Game" (1959)
* "All We Marsmen" (1963)
* "What'll We Do with Ragland Park?" (1963)
* "The Days of Perky Pat" (1963)
* "If There Were No Benny Cemoli" (1963)
* "Waterspider" (1964)
* "Novelty Act" (1964)
* "Oh, to Be a Blobel!" (1964)
* "The War with the Fnools" (1964)
* "What the Dead Men Say" (1964)
* "Orpheus with Clay Feet" (1964)
* "Cantata 140" (1964)
* "The Unteleported Man" (1964)
* "The Little Black Box" (1964)
* "Retreat Syndrome" (1965)
* "Project Plowshare (later "The Zap Gun")" (1965)
* "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (1966)
* "Holy Quarrel" (1966)
* "Faith of Our Fathers" (1967)
* "Not by Its Cover" (1968)
* "The Electric Ant" (1969)
* "A. Lincoln, Simulacrum" (1969)
* "The Pre-persons" (1974)
* "A Little Something for Us Tempunauts" (1974)
* "The Exit Door Leads In" (1979)
* "Rautavaara's Case" (1980)
* "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon" (1980)
* "The Eye of the Sibyl" (1987)
* "Stability" (1987)

Adaptations|

| Films|

* Blade Runner (1982)
* Total Recall (1990)
* Barjo (1992)
* Screamers (1995)
* Impostor (2001)
* Minority Report (2002)
* Paycheck (2003)
* A Scanner Darkly (2006)
* Next (2007)
* Screamers: The Hunting (2009)
* Radio Free Albemuth (2010)
* The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
* Total Recall (2012)
* Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
* 2036: Nexus Dawn (2017)
* 2048: Nowhere to Run (2017)
* Blade Runner Black Out 2022 (2017)

|

TV series|

* Total Recall 2070 (1999)
* The Man in the High Castle (2015)
* Minority Report (2015)
* Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams (2017)
* Blade Runner: Black Lotus (2021)

Related|

* Isa Dick Hackett (daughter)
* Philip K. Dick Award

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