In Milton Lumky Territory, or PKD on the Road

Philip K. Dick's In Milton Lumky Territory, one of his realist novels, is a short and endearing read about a young man adrift in the Western states. A product of small-town Idaho, Bruce Stevens encounters a quirky salesman, an older woman he knew in his past, and takes a vast drive across multiple Western states to find himself. As Dick reveals in his foreword, it features a happy ending and, although certainly not politically correct to readers of 2018, engages in humorous vignettes of family life, marriage, and finding meaning in the universe. Given his youth, Stevens's major fumble proves to be a learning experience that allows him to grow and succeed. Like many other PKD protagonists, Stevens represents a quirky or slightly out there 'average man,' a small businessman, out there competing against larger forces and trying to find his home. Perhaps, akin to Mr. Biswas, he's searching for his patch of the earth to claim as his own, and not simply waste away or be utterly dependent. In that light, this realist novel is an entertaining and uplifting tale on adulthood, although its utterly quotidian nature and comic tone may conceal its nature. 

Aizawa Seishisai's Shinron

While reading Ishmael Reed's Japanese By Spring, I couldn't help but enjoy the quotation of Seishisai's Shinron:

"Today, the alien barbarians of the West, the lowly organs of the legs and feets of the world, are dashing about across the seas, trampling other countries underfoot, and daring, with their squinting eyes and limping feet, to override the noble nations. What manner of arrogance is this!"