Shell Game (short story)
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"Shell Game" is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick. First published in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1954, it forms an interesting early examination of extreme paranoia. A group of paranoid mental patients are stranded on an alien planet and believe themselves to be constantly under attack by Terrans. Even when they discover the truth, they construct sophisticated explanations to explain it as a plot by the enemy. At the end of the story there is some ambiguity over whether the men really are paranoid or not. How would a paranoid measure his paranoia?
The story was later expanded into the novel Clans of the Alphane Moon.
"Shell Game" appears in the following Philip K. Dick collections:
- The Book of Philip K. Dick (1973)
- The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Vol. 3: The Father-Thing (1987)
- The Philip K. Dick Reader (1997)
The Cookie Lady · Stability · Roog · Project: Earth · Expendable · The Little Movement · The Preserving Machine · The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford · Beyond Lies the Wub · The Gun · The Skull · The Defenders · Mr. Spaceship · Piper In The Woods · The Infinities · The Indefatigable Frog · The Variable Man · The Crystal Crypt · The Builder · Meddler · Paycheck · Out In The Garden · The Great C · The King Of The Elves · Colony · Prize Ship · Nanny · Beyond the Door · Second Variety · Jon's World · The Cosmic Poachers · Some Kinds of Life · Progeny · Martians Come In Clouds · The Commuter · The World She Wanted · A Surface Raid · The Trouble with Bubbles · A Present for Pat · Breakfast at Twilight · Of Withered Apples · The Hood Maker · Human Is · The Impossible Planet · Adjustment Team · Impostor · James P. Crow · Planet For Transients · Small Town · Souvenir · Survey Team · Vulcan's Hammer · Prominent Author · Fair Game · The Hanging Stranger · The Eyes Have It · Time Pawn · The Golden Man · The Turning Wheel · The Last of the Masters · The Father-thing · Strange Eden · A Glass of Darkness · Tony and the Beetles · Null-O · Exhibit Piece · To Serve the Master · The Crawlers · Sales Pitch · Shell Game · Upon the Dull Earth · Foster, You're Dead! · Pay for the Printer · War Veteran · The Chromium Fence · Misadjustment · A World of Talent · Psi-man Heal My Child! · Service Call · Autofac · Captive Market · The Mold of Yancy · Minority Report · The Unreconstructed M · Recall Mechanism · Explorers We · War Game · If There Were No Benny Cemoli · Novelty Act · Waterspider · What the Dead Men Say · Orpheus with Clay Feet · Stand-by · The Days of Perky Pat · What'll We Do With Ragland Park? · Oh, to be a Blobel! · All We Marsmen · The War with the Fnools · Cantata 140 · A Game of Unchance · The Little Black Box · Precious Artifact · The Unteleported Man · Retreat Syndrome · Project Plowshare · Faith of our Fathers · We Can Remember It For You Wholesale · Holy Quarrel · Your Appointment Will Be Yesterday · Return Match · Not By Its Cover · The Story To End All Stories · The Electric Ant · A. Lincoln, Simulacrum · Cadbury, the Beaver Who Lacked · The Different Stages Of Love · A Little Something For Us Tempunauts · The Pre-persons · The Eye of The Sibyl · The Exit Door Leads In · Chains Of Air, Web Of Aethyr · Strange Memories Of Death · I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon · Rautavaara's Case · Fawn, Look Back · The Alien Mind · The Day Mr. Computer Fell Out Of Its Tree · Goodbye, Vincent · 11-17-80 · The Name of the Game is Death
