Analysis: “The Exit Door Leads In”

PluribusOne™ has analyzed films based on science fiction stories written by Philip K. Dick (PKD). Having turned our attention to his less renowned works, we recently examined an award-winning short story by PKD, first published in 1979 in Rolling Stone College Papers, a magazine designed to appeal to college students. The story, The Exit Door Leads In, was republished in 1980 in an award-winning anthology: The Best Science Fiction of the Year #9, edited by Terry Carr, and republished again, in 1985, in a book titled: I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon, a collection of PKD short stories. 

Like many PKD stories, The Exit Door Leads In has been placed under numerous literary microscopes over the years, including some manned by analysts who well recognize PKD as having been a philosopher who chose to use science fiction storytelling as his medium for philosophical expression, not just a creative writer. Yet much of what has been said about the story has been, in our opinion, flawed and/or incomplete. Our purpose here is to offer some new insights and a fresh perspective. 

To begin, it is important to note that PKD crafted The Exit Door Leads In to suit the designated purpose of the magazine that solicited the writing, and to realize that the story was aimed at the intellectual level of its intended audience: youthful college students. Some analysts seemed to have been unaware of the fact that the story was meant to be an entertaining “teaching story” on the subject of rebelling. The teaser blurb on the magazine cover states: LEARNING TO REBEL—a Sci-Fi Fantasy by Philip K. Dick. PKD was a rebel. If Henry David Thoreau had been alive and hired to write the piece, it would have been something aligned with his Civil Disobedience essay. 

We see The Exit Door Leads In as allegorical and darkly comedic, expressive of distrust regarding governmental authority and institutions. But we do not see it as pessimistic despite the non-heroics of its conformist protagonist, Bob Bibleman. It is certainly not a story aimed at instilling an attitude of futility with respect to rebelling, as some have implied. PKD was not discouraging rebellion against the Establishment—to the contrary. His story effectively encourages skepticism and a healthy attitude regarding constructive disobedience while examining the when, where, and how of rebelling successfully and productively. The story also makes clear the truth that failing to appropriately rebel can have consequences more dire than rebelling inappropriately. 

To rebel, or not to rebel?—that is the question. Both have consequences. Which is why the story impresses an even more fundamental truth, that making decisions one can live with requires self-examination, self-knowledge, and self control—being loyal to one’s self rather than robotically following the inculcated dictates of parents, society, scriptures, or “intelligent” machines. The name Bibleman is a big clue. The fact that he learns his hard lesson at a “college” is also not coincidental given the venue for the story: Rolling Stone College Papers. Good colleges do, in fact, make a point of steering youthful minds toward self-advocacy, critical thinking, and independent action-taking. And those students unable to meet the challenges of this kind of learning environment—a radical departure from their follow-the-conformist public schooling experience—will fail. 

Although the following facts unfold subtly: as in real life, Bob Bibleman finds that entering the college involves a competitive process, and yet higher learning is required and inevitable, and the experience has a cost. He fails the test but gains the school-of-hard-knocks lesson that taking responsibility is unavoidable. Even the exit door leads in.

Tags: civil disobedience, I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon, Learning to Rebel, Philip K. Dick, philosophy for young adults, Rolling Stone College Papers, Terry Carr, The Exit Door Leads In, to rebel or not to rebel, unavoidability of responsiblity