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Prominent Author is a short story written by Philip K. Dick first published in the May 1954 issue of If Magazine. It has been republished several times and can be found in the The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume Two Second Variety.

Plot Summary

Henry Ellis works for Terran Development, a company that manufactures the Jiffi-scuttler, a device for traveling long distances quickly via a "tube" through space-time. On his way to work, taking five steps for what would otherwise be a commute of over two hours, Ellis discovers a defect in the tube through which he can see tiny beings that he believes to be aliens due to their "non-terran" apparel and diminutive size. The beings pass him some writing through the defect that Ellis turns over to the company translation department as communication from aliens. The writing turns out to be a list of questions that Ellis cannot answer so he has the company library department provide answers that are then translated back into the original language. Ellis gives the results back to the "aliens" on his daily commute home via the Jiffi-scuttler without reading much of it himself. This exchanging of texts develops into a regular part of Ellis's workday and his favorite activity. Ellis notices that the beings that take back his responses are different from those who gave him the original questions and concludes that in their world generations are passing between interactions that take only a half day for him, and also observes that they are building temples and preparing offerings around his appearances. It all comes to an end when his boss calls him in to the office to fire him for not reporting the malfunction in the Jiffi-scuttler immediately and making improper use of company resources. In addition, he is informed that the messages were not in an alien language but in ancient Hebrew and is then shown a book from an "ancient archive" in which all the questions and answers can be found. The surprised Ellis attributes the tiny stature and unfamiliar appearance of what he now knows were ordinary people in distant antiquity to the expanding universe and the difference in time. Ellis is allowed to take the book home with him and later shows it to his wife and her friend describing the book, the Holy Bible, as a "just a little thing I threw together".

Expanding Universe

The fanciful abuse of the concept of expanding universe that has ordinary objects such as human beings becoming larger over time, instead of its usual meaning that certain celestial objects become more distant from each other over time was used previously in the short story Prize Ship.

Use in Later Works

This story provides the background for the novella Cantata 140 which was later expanded into the novel The Crack In Space. The Jiffi-scuttler and the Terran Development company are primary elements in the later works and the story of Henry Ellis is briefly summarized as an event from the past in the novella/novel story line.

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