"At the dinner table, as they all ate, Ragle Gumm sat
deep in thought. Across from him, Sammy yammered
on about his club and its powerful machinery of war.
He did not listen.

Words, he thought.

Central problem in philosophy.Relation of word to
object...what is a word? Arbitrary sign. But we
live in words. Our reality, among words not things.
No such thing as a thing anyhow; a gestalt in the
mind....

Word doesn't represent reality. Word *is* reality. For
us, anyhow. Maybe God gets to objects. Not us,
though.

In his coat, hanging up in the hall closet, was the metal
box with the six words in it.

SOFT-DRINK STAND

DOOR

FACTORY BUILDING

HIGHWAY

DRINKING FOUNTAIN

BOWL OF FLOWERS"

from *Time out of Joint*
Phillip K. Dick
Vintage Books, May 2002