What is the finest Philip K. Dick Novel?

(novels and publication dates pulled from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick_bibliography - i didn't include the unfinished works, or the ones where the manuscripts were lost, for obvious reasons)

Ubik. But only by a smidgen over about 6 others.

i've only read Man in the High Castle, Ubik, and VALIS, and I suppose that Androids, Three Stigmata, Flow My Tears and A Scanner Darkly are probably the other "major" works of PKD that are most often referenced. But I'm really hoping that people can hype up some of these other 40-odd novels that are probably actually really awesome.

I remember the Game Players of Titan having a great premise; how do you bluff an opponent who can read minds?

Scanner is probably the "best" in the sense that it features the strongest combination of writing and ideas and it feels deeply personal as well (and the last page of the novel and the dedication make me cry every time I read them) and it's always the one I give to people who've never read Dick, but I feel like I should vote for something more off the wall like Dr Bloodmoney or Martian Time-Slip or Now Wait For Last Year just cuz they are just amazing idea filled books. 60s >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 70s Dick IMO and Valis still overrated and boring.

Martian Time-Slip is amazing.

oh man, VALIS boring? I just devoured it like a beast.

Martian Time-Slip or Ubik. Hmm..

Never read Game Players of Titan, should I?

Ubik

xxxp For Dick it's boring. It read Dick mostly in order (I mean the main stuff obv for a long time it was hard to find stuff like the Cosmic Puppets.) I suspect folks mileage with his later work may vary depending on when you started reading it. There is also a large portion of at least one of those Dick threads with me complaining about how lamely Dick's canonization has exceptionalized him in a way that has sort of diminished the rest of the genre in the period when he was most prolific (which was frankly amazing from basically 50s-late 70s.) Anyway enough about that. I'd rather people talk about books I haven't read in a while in a way that encourages me to re-read them.

remy - it's not great, but even lesser PKD explores some crazy ideas in interesting ways.

xxxp It's not as good as MTS or Ubik, but it's entertaining enough.

My favorite crazy idea not very well written PKD book is Clans of the Alphane Moon. LORD RUNNING CLAM!

oh yeah! Classic.

I've read:

Vulcan's Hammer, 1960
Dr. Futurity, 1960
The Cosmic Puppets, 1957
The World Jones Made, 1956
Eye in the Sky, 1957
The Man Who Japed, 1956
Time Out of Joint, 1959
Confessions of a Crap Artist, 1975
The Man in the High Castle, 1962
We Can Build You, 1972
Martian Time-Slip, 1964
Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb, 1965
The Simulacra, 1964
The Crack in Space, 1966
Now Wait for Last Year, 1966
Clans of the Alphane Moon, 1964
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, 1965
The Unteleported Man, 1966
The Ganymede Takeover, 1967
Counter-Clock World, 1967
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, 1968
Ubik, 1969
Galactic Pot-Healer, 1969
Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, 1974
A Scanner Darkly, 1977
Radio Free Albemuth, 1985
VALIS, 1981
The Divine Invasion, 1981
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, 1982

I've loved:

** Martian Time-Slip
** The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
** Ubik
**VALIS
** The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

Three Stigmata is v. underrated, methinks.

I've hated:

Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb, 1965
Humpty Dumpty in Oakland, 1986
The Crack in Space, 1966
The Unteleported Man, 1966
Galactic Pot-Healer, 1969

I'd be curious to see a concordance of Perky Pats/ brown-haired women named Pat throughout PKD's novels. Any of you read the exegesis?

My first Dick novel was The Eye In The Sky, bought used on a whim when I was 9 or 10 (the same year Dick died, coincidentally). This cover caught my eye (no pun intended) and the pages within messed with my head. I did not understand anything but the basic plot. Was surprised when I reread it years later that it lead me to ever read another one.

http://eurekaifoundit.us/books/k90917.jpg

remy OTM about Three Stigmata. One of my favorites.

I think part of the reason I really enjoyed VALIS (1981) is that the quality of the writing itself, as opposed to the plot/concepts behind the writing is noticeably improved as compared to the two earlier novels of his I'd read, from the 60s. By that I just mean his individual sentences are more pleasurable to read. I'm sure some will dispute that assertion, but for me it was a noticeable difference.

"I've hated:

Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb, 1965
Galactic Pot-Healer, 1969"

Don't understand this at all.

I didn't finish VALIS before I returned it to the library. I should take it out again and try to finish it

have reread ubik recently, pretty good

wanna say that FLOW MY TEARS is maybe the best

Never got the love for Dr. Bloodmoney. A chore of a book, w/ improbability stacked on improbability - "yes, you are psychic for some reason!"

Though I love how the title's a brazen attempt at a cash-in.

three stigmata or bloodmoney or time-slip or ubik or scanner or valis

going w/ stigmata

valis is one of those epic deeply felt failures i love so much though

"w/ improbability stacked on improbability"

Haha well when you put it that way I'm not going to try to change your mind.

dayo posted this a while back. pretty wicked:

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lbmuj88L6q1qzxdi6o1_400.jpg

I don't think I fell in love with VALIS until I read Radio Free Albemuth. I needed the second prism to see the light.

bloodmoney was just too weird for me, and pot healer was like a bad '60s take on lovecraft. i dunno. i also got annoyed with reading about pots and a telephone puzzle solving club.

That cover is totally bizarre.

In a great way obv.

the sadness in scanner and valis is almost overwhelming

high castle is one of those books that'd be anyone else's career high point but its almost too polished

Ha.

Bloodmoney just struck me as a book with no hook, just tedious movement from one scene to the next, nothing really congealing to grab one's interest. My favorite scene is the "Yes, we believe you caused this thing to happen, despite the fact that we have no reason to!"

High Castle is great, but yeah it feels more conventional than the best stuff from that period.

Dick is remarkable in sci-fi in that despite only writing one masterpiece novel (ASD) he probably wrote more quality novels than anyone. Most of writers of his ilk were concentrating on short stories for magazines (and then expanding the odd novella into a novel). Or they were writing a lot, lot fewer novels (and maybe trying a little harder too when they did haha). Really the only guy who produced as much amazing work in novel length was Silverberg and most of his best work was crammed in an eight year period which precipitated a burn-out. Dick basically was churning out novels for over 20 years (Time Out of Joint to Transmigration) and at least at the beginning of that period he was still producing a fair amount of short story work.

well he took a lot of speed.

A Scanner Darkly? I always have considered it second tier; good, not great, and far from his masterpiece.

I'm guessing he wasn't the only one though!

ASD is completely improved and strengthened by listening to Paul Giamatti's audiobook of it. I remember him doing far more character work by himself than the entire cast of the Linklater flick could.

This is the only bit I could find on YT, to which somebody added Dean Martin to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua3WGkLhyPc

or this scrap:

http://audioboo.fm/boos/447466-a-scanner-darkly-read-by-paul-giamatti

Also, whoever redesigned the covers for all those PKD trades that came out in the mid-90s needs to have their hands broken and never been allowed near a copy of Photoshop again.

xxp No way. I mean first of all the premise of the book (an undercover narc who ends up narcing on himself) is completely great. Features something like a dozen amazing alternately hilarious, head-shaking and sadly probably all too true conversations between the roommates. Probably his tightest plotting (not saying much admittedly) and some of his most consistent writing. And it's personal in a way that his other books aren't while not descending into total self-indulgence. And finally it has what is one of the most memorable endings of maybe any book I've read (sci-fi or not). And then just in case you weren't snuffling enough already, he caps it off with a note that is some of his best writing and which brings to mind way too many friends whose lives were similarly damaged.

. But I'm really hoping that people can hype up some of these other 40-odd novels that are probably actually really awesome.

― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Sunday, 13 May 2012 02:45 (1 hour ago)

I've read most of these and the ones that really stick with me are:

The Simulacra
Clans Of The Alphane Moon
We Can Build You
Flow My Tears
A Scanner Darkly
Radio Free Albemuth

I really love his deeply paranoid mid-60's classic sci-fi stuff (the first three I listed).

My enjoyment of Alphane Moon greatly increased when I realized exactly how all the Clans were organized.

Time Out of Joint I remember really well for some reason. Maybe because they ripped off the premise for the Truman Show. Either way it's great. World Jones Made not so much. Maze of Death and Solar Lottery both have the same sort of premise IIRC, but jesus it's been forever. I remember really liking the latter and not being so sold on the former although if I recall from the POX thread MOD had a few defenders. The only one of the non-sci-fi books I really like is the "Pike" bio, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, which is even better if you read the history of how it came about.

My version of Clans comes with a great Malzberg essay. I'm going to re-read it now!

Also, whoever redesigned the covers for all those PKD trades that came out in the mid-90s needs to have their hands broken and never been allowed near a copy of Photoshop again.

http://philipkdick.com/images-smallcovers/cov-ubik-v-200.jpg

you mean these covers? i think they're great!

Clans of The Alphane Moon is great!
I like all the ones I've read to varying degrees--I haven't read anything I've hated. Particularly, The Cosmic Puppets (this is kind of a goofy book but it hooked me HARD when i read it and i finished in an afternoon; di suggest you do the same) and A Scanner Darkly, Time Out of Joint and Radio Free Albemouth. Valis is great and I should re-read it.

i think the 90s pkd covers are great and much better than these--
http://www.amazon.com/The-Man-High-Castle-ebook/dp/B005MZN2B2/ref=sr_1_24?ie=UTF8&qid=1336886962&sr=8-24

Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, 1974

Probably the first one I'll pull out when I get on with a few PKD re-reads this summmer

where's the thread on Lies, Inc/Unteleported Man? I did not understand that book. Not even a little. As in: I don't really get the basic outline of the plot, past the first ~ 100 pages.

Will somebody please explain PKD's Lies, Inc. / The Unteleported Man to me?

I remember liking Lies, inc., but don't really remember anything about it

from the wiki:

Circumstances had forced Rachmael to abandon his original plans and to journey to Newcolonizedland via energy transfer instead. Sinister modifications to the "Telpor" technology apparently cause its victims to experience a variety of so-called "paraworlds" which are thought to actually exist, somehow, as viable alternate realities. Participants are fearful that consensus or agreement amongst themselves as to the paraworlds' descriptions could somehow cause one or the other paraworld to manifest itself ever more aggressively until eventually displacing the current reality-paradigm altogether. And Rachmael's own paraworld experience is said to be the worst one of all.

seems straightforward enough

anyone know why 'Crack in Space' has been renamed 'Cantata-140'?

Has anyone seen the Bill Pullman/Traci Lords pseudo-biopic from a few years back?

where's the thread on Lies, Inc/Unteleported Man? I did not understand that book. Not even a little. As in: I don't really get the basic outline of the plot, past the first ~ 100 pages.

I think even he regretted expanding the novella into a novel by having the main character undergo a really dull acid trip for about 50 pages.

anyone know why 'Crack in Space' has been renamed 'Cantata-140'?

Dunno, can't imagine the title change saves it from being one of his worst books. I saw a compendium of this, Vulcan's Hammer, Dr Futurity and The Man Who Japed, i.e. all his least readable novels in one handy volume! I'd hate to think anyone picked it up wanting to check him out, it would put anyone off for life.

I can't remember a single thing about Lies Inc. tbh his worst novels - Ganymede Takeover, Crack in Space, Lies Inc, Our Friends from Frolix 8, etc. - all kinda blur together

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

that's a convincing margin.

I like this Ubik website : http://www.nineroses.com/pkd/ubikword.html

i want to know who constituted the 'flow, my tears' bloc

Thought about Scanner but I'm the one who voted for Time Out of Joint

didn't catch this in time to vote but i'd have voted for scanner

I actually forgot to vote.

So did I.

yeah, me too. The Divine Invasion should have 1 vote.

According to ILX the best PKD are the ones I never got around to. Boldly taking the remedy by starting Ubik this morning (shitty PDF downloaded off the internet). Scanner after that.

about to finish re-reading Counter Clock-World - an odd one, almost reads like a bitter self-parody

Every PKD thread should have a link to this, imho.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ADzrcDiGk0

Would have voted for Flow My Tears, and would recommend the Simularca.

lol, was just thinking on my way back home from work about voting -- flow my tears, like jel (hi there jel!)

Yeah one of the big things I've got from this thread is that Flow My Tears is essential

I haven't read it in a long time but it struck me as little more than an extended Twilight Zone episode tbh

oh man, extended Twilight Zone episode! *pumped*

Plus I'll have the first song off the first Gary Numan album going through my head the whole time I read it.

it's not bad I just don't find it particularly noteworthy

It's getting more love here than "precursor to Sandra Bullock internet pizza movie" would suggest

i've only read a handful of these but flow my tears was actually my least favorite of them. i'll have to try it again at some point maybe since it seems like i missed something if everyone else loves it

Three Stigmata was my pick, but I almost voted for Martian Time Slip, and I'm surprised it didn't place higher.

ruminations on the exegesis:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/philip-k-dick-sci-fi-philosopher-part-1/

The unfinished mountain of paper, assembled posthumously into some 91 folders, was called “Exegesis.” The fragments were assembled by Dick’s friend Paul Williams and then sat in his garage in Glen Ellen, Calif., for the next several years. A beautifully edited selection of these texts, with a golden fish on the cover, was finally published at the end of 2011, weighing in at a mighty 950 pages. But this is still just a fraction of the whole.

Dick writes, “My exegesis, then, is an attempt to understand my own understanding.” The book is the most extraordinary and extended act of self-interpretation, a seemingly endless thinking on the event of 2-3-74 that always seems to begin anew. Often dull, repetitive and given to bouts of massive paranoia, “Exegesis” also possesses many passages of genuine brilliance and is marked by an utter and utterly disarming sincerity. At times, as in the epigraph above, Dick falls into melancholic dejection and despair. But at other moments, like some latter day Simon Magus, he is possessed of a manic swelling-up of the ego to unify with the divine: “I was in the mind of God.”

i meant to ask - has anyone read this? it's referenced throughout VALIS, and i'm assuming it's mentioned in some of his other later work?

I haven't read it but an edited version was published recently. Dunno how much religious rambling I can take. The Exegesis isn't explicitly mentioned in other works but it does inform the other two books in the Valis trilogy.

yeah, i doubt that it would be much fun to slog through all 950 pages of it, but i assume that it would be neat to read it in more of a scattershot manner.

Often dull, repetitive and given to bouts of massive paranoia, “Exegesis” also possesses many passages of genuine brilliance and is marked by an utter and utterly disarming sincerity.

like the bible!

exactly

Exegesis is under $10 for the Kindle version. Pretty tempting.

I have been tempted to get a Kindle solely for these kinds of situations. It would be nice for William Blake too.

I would think the notes and highlighting and bookmarks would be quite helpful for stuff like this.

I would like to read the Exegesis but I am scared it may be a word virus that would make me mentally ill

exegesis next to toilet since december, no complaints.

shoot, mama! how'd i miss this poll.
divine invasion all the way for me.

i surprise myself with how little i want to read the exegesis /:

I'm surprised how well that backwards emoticon works!

14 PKD e-books for $2 each, including the Exegesis.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000677541

thanks for that. just bought the exegesis

oh shit

yeah, bought the exegesis. I wonder if my kindle can handle it.

just finished Flow my Tears last night. whoever said upthread that it was the fastest read was right. but man oh man, does it have a weak ending. i'm not sure if it's thread or another where PKD's ending style is discussed, but Flow my Tears seems to be a prime culprit..

the one that moved me the most was Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said