Beyond Lies the Wub

"Beyond Lies the Wub" tells the story of a man having an intellectual conversation with a pig-like creature called a Wub. The Wub discusses how his culture also has a variation of The Odyssey like the humans do. Then, the Captain kills and eats the Wub, thereby allowing the Wub to express itself through the Captain.

In my opinion, the point of the story is Dick establishing the ideas that, however abstract, science fiction has roots in classic mythology. Many of the elements that may seem futuristic do in fact have some roots in the classical. For example, the themes of government control can be traced back to Machiavelli's philosophies in The Prince. In Machiavelli's work, he sets the ground rules for an effective leader who has the ability to carry out violence to solidify his rule, yet should appear compassionate to his subjects in order to carry out this violence and not risk a revolution.

The nature of interplanetary travel can be traced back the Odysseus' journeys from island to island, where he encounters creatures he has never seen before. So far, Mars in Dick's works hasn't been explained too thoroughly, yet we get a sense that it is quite foreign to Earthlings, as the islands were to Odysseus when he traveled to them.