Plot summary[edit]

"Roog" is a story told from the point of view of a dog named Boris, who observes
his masters carefully storing food in containers outside of their house day after
day. Unbeknownst to the dog, these are the human's trash cans for garbage. The dog
is later horrified to witness some food being 'stolen' by garbagemen who the dog
believes are predatory carnivores from another planet. The dog comes to know these
beings as 'Roogs', and tries to warn his master of each 'theft' with cries of
'Roog!' 'Roog!'. The humans, unable to comprehend the hound's message, think the
dog is just being rowdy. Thus they attribute the sound the dog makes to be the
sound that all dogs make when they are excited: 'Roog!' 'Roog!' The tale concludes
with the animal being somewhat distraught, barking "ROOG!" very loudly at the
garbagemen before they make off once more with trash in their garbage truck.
Publication[edit]
"Roog" was written in November 1951[1] and appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy &
Science Fiction (February 1953, page 123) without illustration.[2] During this time
Dick worked in a record store. In an essay prefacing a collection of his short
stories published in 1978, Dick recalled the story's gestation, as well as
discussing its plot, its general themes and his reaction at the time. Dick relates
that he contacted Anthony Boucher, a sci-fi/fantasy publisher, editor and fellow
writer whom Dick recalls as a kind friend. Dick wrote, "Without [Boucher's] help
I'd still be in the record business. I mean that very seriously." As a young man,
Dick was very pleased with the publication, and wondered if he could quit his job
at the record store and work full-time as an author, while the older Dick (27 years
on) dismissed that aspiration as delusional.[citation needed] Soon after "Roog"'s
original publication, Boucher attempted to get it published once more, in a science
fiction anthology being compiled by a person Dick refers to as "Ms. J.M." (Judith
Merrill Interview with Lupoff). However, she disliked the story, finding it obscure
and hard to understand. She also criticized Dick's description of the garbagemen as
inaccurate, apparently unable to see that the description is from the protagonist
dog's perspective. Despite Dick explaining the story in a letter to J.M. regarding
the themes of the work, she rejected the story. Boucher, however, proceeded to
publish it, and it remains in print today, at one time even appearing in a high
school literature textbook.
Reception[edit]
Dick regarded Roog as "quite a serious story". Dick explained in the introduction
to The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick that "Roog" "tells of fear, it tells of
loyalty, it tells of obscure menace and a good creature who cannot convey knowledge
of that menace to those he loves".[3] Furthermore Aaron Barlow suggests an
insightful connection of the story to the nature and themes of his writings: By the
end of "Roog," however, Dick has encouraged speculation that the "garbagemen"
really might be aliens held off by dogs the aliens call "Guardians.� Boris faces
two problems. First, though he barks that "Roogs" are coming, no one understands.
He cannot communicate his warning. Second, his "Roogs" may be a delusion instead of
a real danger. Boris cannot tell which; he doesn't even know that he could, in
fact, be wrong. He has seen the paperboy and barked at him, taking him, without any
evidence, as a Roog. [...] Dick gives no hint of any "truth" behind Boris's
subjective perceptions. Whatever the case, Boris's inability to communicate his
concern leaves the matter moot and leads him to fear the breakdown of his world of
suburban dog-life�and leads Dick to think about Boris's situation in human terms.
[...]
As a dog, Boris views the human world through the blanket distortion of canine
point-of-view. Yet what he sees subjectively may be "real"�just as it may be a mask
or a deception created through his own limited perceptual abilities. That these
"may"s exist concerned Dick a great deal. Perhaps the blanket distortion of human
point-of-view makes experience as difficult for us to decipher as for Boris.
Perhaps Boris, finally, is something like the poor fantasy writer no one listens
to. Like, hmm, Phil Dick. Like any struggler for communication, particularly for
communication that transcends individual, varied perception.[4]