Manuscript received at SMLA Aug 11, 1952

   (1953 JUN): GALAXY {ill. by Ed Emshwiller}
(1953 OCT): GALAXY Vol.3#8 (UK)
(1955) A HANDFULL OF DARKNESS, Rich & Cowan, hb,
(1974): SPACE OPERA {ed.: Aldiss} Wiedenfeld & Nicolson, ?, --Not in Orbit edition.
(1977): THE BEST OF PKD, Ballantine, pb, 25359,
(1987): BEYOND LIES THE WUB/THE SHORT HAPPY LIFE OF THE BROWN OXFORD
(1987): ROBERT SILVERBERG'S WORLDS OF WONDER, {ed.:Silverberg} Warner, ?,

CSVol1 404:

The ultimate in paranoia is not when everyone is against you but when everything is against you. Instead of "My boss is plotting against me," it would be "My boss's phone is plotting against me." Objects sometimes seem to possess a will of their own anyhow, to the normal mind; they don't do what they're supposed to do, they get in the way, they show an unnatural resistance to change. In this story I tried to figure out a situation which would rationally explain the dire plotting of objects against humans, without reference to any deranged state on the part of the humans. I guess you'd have to go to another planet. The ending of this story is the ultimate victory of a plotting object over innocent people. (PKD>1976)

SRG 41

In a theatrical but effectively lethal fashion, the native life form on Planet Blue wipes out the "Colony" survey team just moments before they embark for home.. Oddly, one remembers this team less for their fate than for the scathing remarks they make about the "picknickers" who will move onto the planet once it is certified safe, thereupon polluting and spoiling the edenic condition of Planet Blue.

TTHC    429:   fn25: {...}(Two Dick stories, "The Defenders" and "Colony" -- were adapted by other hands for the radio series "X Minus One" in 1956.)