Exhibit Piece is a 1954 science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick. The story is an early exploration of the concept of shifting realities, so common in the writer's fiction later on. The protagonist is a future historian of the 20th century and finds himself shifting in time from the future to that time period. At first it is unclear whether he is merely a man from the past imagining a future life, or vice versa.
The story is clearly resolved, with the conventional device of a 'time gate' explaining that the man has in actuality moved in time. This is unlike Dick's later fiction, in which the concept of a fixed 'reality' became increasingly ambiguous.
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Famous quotes containing the words exhibit and/or piece:
“Some minds are as little logical or argumentative as nature; they can offer no reason or guess, but they exhibit the solemn and incontrovertible fact. If a historical question arises, they cause the tombs to be opened. Their silent and practical logic convinces the reason and the understanding at the same time. Of such sort is always the only pertinent question and the only satisfactory reply.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“More broadly across time and cultures, it seems, one perennial piece of advice to father has been the importance of acting tenderly toward their children. The New Father, it turns out, is an old story.”
—David Blankenhorn (20th century)