[HN Gopher] Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Among the Charlatans
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Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Among the Charlatans
Author : pmoriarty
Score : 42 points
Date : 2021-05-29 19:44 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.depauw.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.depauw.edu)
| throwawayboise wrote:
| Sorry I had to bail out. Seven paragraphs of mentally exhausting
| prose before Philip Dick's name is mentioned. It was like a
| William F. Buckley monologue.
|
| I've read a few of Dick's stories when I was in high school. I'm
| not much for scifi anymore but they were decent, as I recall.
| pavlov wrote:
| I recently bought P. K. Dick's "Complete Short Stories" published
| by Folio Society as a big box set.
|
| The stories are in chronological order, which is surprisingly
| interesting because you get to trace Dick's evolution as a
| writer. The first published stories are not very good by any
| standard, but he keeps gradually honing in on the concepts and
| atmospheres that eventually mark his work.
|
| As someone who has dabbled in SF writing, it feels like a
| consolation to see PKD's humble beginnings laid bare. He never
| gave up on evolving his craft.
| pmoriarty wrote:
| _" The first published stories are not very good by any
| standard"_
|
| I loved PKD's _Beyond Lies the Wub_ , which was his first
| published story (published in 1952). I also really liked the
| story he wrote the year before (but which didn't get published
| until the year after) called _Roog_.
| fallat wrote:
| I would have to say of all the writings, that compilation is
| the best. You get a taste of everything he had to offer. All
| his other books are based off of these stories IIRC.
| mypalmike wrote:
| Where can you find it though? It's a sold out special edition
| with only 750 copies in print.
| V-2 wrote:
| As far as I remember, Dick's writing was of mixed quality and
| it wasn't just linearly improving with experience. There were
| ups and downs. He wrote really a lot, often repeated concepts,
| and his weaker stuff was often a result of rushing and simply
| needing a quick buck.
| kevinmchugh wrote:
| He had a rough life, and it's not hard to see that impact in
| his work. I read many of his novels, back to back, in the
| Library of America collections, and by Ubik (my favorite of
| the bunch) I had the sense that he was barely holding
| together something moving downhill very quickly.
|
| That energy suits his work in a lot of ways, though not
| universally, and can be monotonous sometimes.
| firebaze wrote:
| While I partially agree, I'm not sure your assessment is
| helpful. There's a treasure trove hidden beyond the words,
| I'm not sure you're assessing the depth of his writings
| appropriately.
| anyfoo wrote:
| Ubik spoilers ahead.
|
| I read Ubik, it was a wild ride. I was not sure what to make of
| it. The story, especially the end, is logically inconsistent even
| if you take its wild premises into account (though what the
| premises _are_ is itself a bit of a guess); but that 's part of
| the charm of course. The whole thing is so bizarre overall that
| it was also impossible for me to relate to any characters, and it
| was more like reading a dream diary than a story.
|
| Anyway, one thing that I often think about is something not
| directly intended by the author. In the book, the perceived world
| around the protagonist regresses more and more into the past,
| taking the form of the 50s, 40s, 30s... one example that stuck
| with me (and I think the moment where this regression became
| apparent) was when a modern elevator suddenly took the appearance
| of a 50s style lift. With visible cage, cables, maybe even an
| attendant controlling the lift using a lever...
|
| This old elevator struck me as a beautiful way to describe the
| distant past when I read it about 10 years ago. But the book was
| written in 1969. So for the author, that was maybe 15 years ago.
| Even the 30s were about 35 years ago from when the book was
| written, from today that would merely be the 80s! And yet the
| world was being described as so massively transforming (including
| for example a scene of an old pharmacy with intricate wood and
| brass decors[1]), and technology regressing at a rapid rate... it
| made me feel that from some point of view, the world was changing
| much faster back then.
|
| [1] Like this one: https://media-
| cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/19/fa/fb/99/...
| Finnucane wrote:
| The charlatans were pretty miffed.
| ngold wrote:
| Valis is a very brave book, horselover fats biography if not
| Philip k. Dicks.
| bellazeus wrote:
| The entire Valis _trilogy_ is essential to understanding PKD.
| jimmygrapes wrote:
| For anybody interested in philosophy, religion, science fiction,
| or mental struggles, I highly recommend the 900+ page slog that
| is The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick. Mild warning: I read the
| introduction close to a decade ago and got bored before I even
| started the book itself. I picked it up again a few years ago and
| skipped to the actual content and was simultaneously hooked and
| blown away. Maybe it was just coincidence with my personal
| journey, but it felt a lot like the thoughts I had one day were
| found on the pages I read the next day. It is a little
| repetitive, because PKD is essentially iterating over possible
| explanations with slight changes each iteration, but if you've
| read any of his fiction you already know that!
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exegesis_of_Philip_K._Dick
| zabzonk wrote:
| Back in the 1970s I owned all of Dick's novels, and all short
| stories available in collections (which is quite a lot of stuff!)
| I'm not a book collector - I bought them because at the time he
| was my favourite writer.
|
| Just recently, I've started re-reading them on my Kindle. I've
| just finished "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch", and while
| I enjoyed it, I have to say it wasn't as good as I remember. Next
| up is "A Scanner Darkly", so we shall see how things go.
| B1FF_PSUVM wrote:
| Back then I used to read a lot of SF and didn't think much of
| P.K. Dick's writing. His stories had a tinge of paranoid
| fantasy about them, and felt implausible, rushed and
| disjointed, compared with more standard SF fare. I think this
| wasn't an uncommon perception.
|
| The movie guys, in spite of all the derision they get for
| bumbling and fumbling, were on the mark spotting a powerful
| source of mana, and made hay from PKD's chaff.
|
| Lem, being a genius on his on right and honed sharp by life in
| Soviet-watched Eastern Europe, was able to disregard the
| "shoddiness of the props" and get to the potency of the spell.
| pmoriarty wrote:
| I strongly recommend reading _Ubik_. To me it is his strongest
| and most consistently good book.
|
| I used to love _The Three Stigmata_ too, but when I tried to
| read it again recently I couldn 't get in to it either. I do
| think you have to be in the right mood to savor a Dick book, so
| maybe I was in the wrong mood that time.
|
| Other first-tier PKD books for me are _Martian Time-Slip_ and
| _Galactic Pot Healer_.
|
| Second-tier PKD books for me are _VALIS_ , _Maze of Death_ ,
| _Eye in the Sky_ , and _Divine Invasion_ (the 2nd in the
| _VALIS_ trilogy.. didn 't like the 3rd in the series, _The
| Transmigration of Timothy Archer_ at all).
|
| Many of his other books, like _Lies, Inc_ , also have great
| parts in them, but are kind of inconsistent.
|
| Some of his short stories are excellent. My favorites:
|
| - _Beyond Lies the Wub_
|
| - _Roog_
|
| - _The Father Thing_
|
| - _Faith of Our Fathers_
|
| I didn't really like _A Scanner Darkly_ , nor _Do Android Dream
| of Electric Sheep_ and would consider them of minor import had
| not movies been made of them. Other books in this category are
| _Now Wait for Last Year_ (made in to _Total Recall_ ) and _Time
| Out of Joint_ (made in to _The Truman Show_.. though the book
| is much darker). The movie _Minority Report_ was based on
| another minor short story of his, as _The Terminator_ might
| have been partially based on his story _Second Variety_.
|
| Virtually all of the movies made from his work only bear only a
| very slight resemblance to the originals, which tends to be a
| lot darker, a lot less action-filled, and much more thought-
| provoking than the Hollywood adaptations.
| Jtsummers wrote:
| _Total Recall_ was based on _We Can Remember It for You
| Wholesale_ , not _Now Wait for Last Year_.
| vlunkr wrote:
| A Scanner Darkly is my favorite book of his (that I've read so
| far). I think because it's a bit longer than most so there's
| more time to develop characters. It's got such a sad and
| interesting tone.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Holy Plate of Shrimp! I was just recommending a movie to a friend
| by comparing PKD and Lem:
|
| Hey have you seen The Congress???!?!?!
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Congress_(2013_film)
|
| I like it almost as much as Blade Runner, which it parallels, by
| being a movie based on a (Stanislaw Lem / Philip K Dick) book
| that it's inspired by but a lot different from, but the movie
| stands on its own and has something unique and interesting to
| say.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Futurological_Congress
|
| Both the book and the movie are excellent but different!
|
| There's a riveting dramatic scene on a Light Stage, where Harvey
| Keitel provokes emotional responses from Robin Wright for capture
| by the Light Stage. Lots of cool techno blinking lights. And it's
| actually technologically and anatomically correct! It acturately
| shows how a real Lightstage actually works.
|
| The Congress (2013) Scan Scene:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPAl5GwvdY8
|
| Light Stage:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_stage
|
| Paul Debevec:
|
| https://ict.usc.edu/profile/paul-debevec/
|
| The plot and story touch on deep issues!
|
| About how the movie industry is being turned upside-down! But
| much bigger than that. What happens to actors?
|
| And how do consumers "consume" characters and celebrities?
|
| They literally consume them not just like but AS drugs!
|
| It's visually delicious -- you can see some consumption here:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPGhw4nACfk&ab_channel=AlexG...
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(page generated 2021-05-29 23:00 UTC)