jameson in particular thinks his early stuff is "van vogtish" - anyone ever read much van vogt care to elaborate?
the lottery determines randomly who in the solar system gets to be dictator of the nine planets. this is kind of "weird", although it's a weirdness i find i end up reminding myself is 50s SF weirdness, not particularly dickian weirdness.
i'm enjoying it, mind. but apart from recognising the prose style on the kind of level of recognising prose style one can hardly point out particular features of, i'm not sure what's in it, or in my enjoying it.
― tom west (thomp), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 18:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 19:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 20:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 22:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― Chris F. (servoret), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 23:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 15:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― ledge (ledge), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 16:39 (eighteen years ago) link
The part where I think Abendsen scoffs is when he angrily retorts, "Germany and Japan lost the war." It seems like Juliana is saying that the book is true in a non-literal sense (since it is clearly not true in a literal sense within the universe of the book), but he is mockingly resisting any non-literal interpretation. Then he reconsiders, but in the end, he says, "I'm not sure of anything." I don't think this means he is questioning the very fabric of his reality, but rather that he is admitting that perhaps there is an inner truth to his fiction, but he isn't sure what it could be.
― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 17:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― Josh (Josh), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 17:16 (eighteen years ago) link
Whoa - the Chick Corea album title! I didn't know this came from the I Ching.
― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 17:19 (eighteen years ago) link
Well, Abendsen himself provides the concise interpretation of the hexagram and Juliana agrees with him. So while it might be interesting to explore the history of interpretation of that hexagram in general, it seems that Dick himself is telegraphing his interpretation as it applies to his story:
"It means, does it, that my book is true?"
"Yes," she said.
― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 18:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― ledge (ledge), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 19:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 22:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― Bob Six (bobbysix), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 22:37 (eighteen years ago) link
i think their realisation that their universe is fictional does not necessarilly entail "i am a character in someone's novel", or, rather, that the apparatus of the author of the grasshopper lies heavy is a way of having the realisation have a meaning beyond that
― tom west (thomp), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 23:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― ledge (ledge), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 23:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― Bob Six (bobbysix), Wednesday, 1 February 2006 00:14 (eighteen years ago) link
I read VALIS, A Scanner Darkly and Ubik in quick succession and I really wasn't myself for a while afterwards. PKD fucks with your head.
― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 1 February 2006 11:04 (eighteen years ago) link
― ledge (ledge), Wednesday, 1 February 2006 14:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― tom west (thomp), Wednesday, 1 February 2006 15:27 (eighteen years ago) link
It is worth reading the short stories, though many of the early ones are obviously practice runs that shouldn't have been published, and wouldn't have been if not for Dick's later fame. Some of the later ones are brilliant though. I think Dick was a natural short story writer; quick, incisive, characters not his strong point... It's a pity all the financial rewards come from novels.
― Zora (Zora), Wednesday, 1 February 2006 22:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tripmaker (SDWitzm), Wednesday, 1 February 2006 22:26 (eighteen years ago) link
hm xpost.
― tom west (thomp), Wednesday, 1 February 2006 22:27 (eighteen years ago) link
I'm still not convinced that they have in fact realized that their universe is fictional. Maybe you're right - it just seems like such a strange idea for a writer to have - but maybe if I read more Dick I would come to expect twists like that. In any case, I think a much more effective passage at conveying the sense of someone coming loose from their reality moorings is the passage where Tagomi is contemplating the piece of wu-filled jewelry and becomes disoriented.
― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 1 February 2006 22:41 (eighteen years ago) link
anyway my planned reading order right now has it about a dozen novels away so.
― tom west (thomp), Wednesday, 1 February 2006 23:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― Paul Eater (eater), Thursday, 2 February 2006 17:41 (eighteen years ago) link
next up:i) divine invasionii) the transmigration of timothy archeriii) carrere bioiv) the world jones made*v) the man who japedvi) the cosmic puppets
* i got a lovely old panther SF ed of this from my amazon marketplace seller when i was expecting a fugly gollancz reissue. this made me happy.
― tom west (thomp), Thursday, 2 February 2006 21:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 2 February 2006 22:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― jeffrey (johnson), Friday, 3 February 2006 21:50 (eighteen years ago) link
― tom west (thomp), Saturday, 4 February 2006 16:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― zappi (joni), Sunday, 5 February 2006 01:18 (eighteen years ago) link
does anyone have a copy of 'eye in the sky' they'd be willing to part with that's less hideous than this one?
― tom west (thomp), Sunday, 5 February 2006 01:21 (eighteen years ago) link
fantastic: dick carried on a correspondance with stanislaus lem which tailed off when he accused "lem" of being a front for the communist-roman conspiracy.
slightly remarkable: 'kevin' and 'david' from VALIS are k.w. jeter and tim powers.
on dick's middlebrow-ness: this kinda seems an oversimplification, given his love-hate affair with his lowbrow vocation, and his fondness for working-class figures and craftsmen. and, you know, fucker read kant. i dunno. there's a mentally ill relative of mine who has a masters in phil. & was once going to get a phd in theology, and these days he can't distinguish that books like 'The Bible Code 2' aren't really, you know, where it ought to be at: and i think that dick's bio suggests something similar, on a more terrifying scale.
― tom west (thomp), Monday, 6 February 2006 13:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 20 March 2006 13:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― tom west (thomp), Monday, 20 March 2006 14:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 20 March 2006 14:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zora (Zora), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 00:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 01:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― Philip Alderman (Phil A), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 11:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zora (Zora), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 11:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 12:13 (eighteen years ago) link
― lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 13:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 15:13 (eighteen years ago) link
Ha, this was how I took it. Not in my name, not on my shelf!
― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 16:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― remy (x Jeremy), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 19:55 (eighteen years ago) link
I'm currently in the middle of In Milton Lumky Territory, one of his "mainstream" novels. For some reason I seem to get slightly impatient with his non-SF work (I've read a couple of others). It's okay though - the twist of a guy moving back to his old home town and marrying one of his grade school teachers is interesting.
Has anybody heard anything about new editions that would bring back to print some of his other mainstrean novels, like Humpty Dumpty in Oakland, The Broken Bubble or The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike (which I'm assuming was mainstream novel, but I'm not sure)?
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Thursday, 15 June 2006 04:41 (eighteen years ago) link
i'll get back to it, sigh.
― tom west (thomp), Thursday, 15 June 2006 04:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― Josh (Josh), Friday, 16 June 2006 05:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zora (Zora), Friday, 16 June 2006 12:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Monday, 11 September 2006 16:03 (eighteen years ago) link
WASPy guy with two-syllable name who works in HVAC or equivalent? Jim Gunt? Hank Zip? Gord Hapfh?
oh man i never even noticed this one!
― carly rae jetson (thomp), Monday, 1 February 2016 11:58 (eight years ago) link
i thought and still think a good critical study could be written of dick that focuses on the themes/motifs/obsessions, not as psychologically revealing or whatever (blah) but as a kind of key to the processes of a certain kind of paraliterary reading, idk
― carly rae jetson (thomp), Monday, 1 February 2016 11:59 (eight years ago) link
character named 'pat'pottery?black iron prisons?
tbf these are only in a couple.
I would swap in "powerful male businessman w/fluid ethics and/or bitchy ex-wife"
― Οὖτις, Monday, 1 February 2016 16:12 (eight years ago) link
that pynchon thread revive makes me think that PKD is my TP. only PKD's shaggy hepcat hijinx easier for me to read and more entertaining and i get more WOW factor than i ever did from TP. PKD slays all beatniks too. in my book. no need to try to endure burroughs with him around.
(i never tried very hard with pynchon though. would get frustrated and bored and give up...)
― scott seward, Monday, 1 February 2016 16:20 (eight years ago) link
this is neat, i had no idea The Owl in Daylight was basically the premise of TRON, which came out seven months after PKD died http://www.avclub.com/article/read-philip-k-dicks-unfinished-final-novel-might-h-231491
― flappy bird, Monday, 1 February 2016 20:41 (eight years ago) link
huh. never heard that before.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 1 February 2016 20:44 (eight years ago) link
I have put holds on three P.K. Dick books at the library and plan to read one of them as my next book. Among these three titles, which should I read first:
Flow My Tears, the Policeman SaidA Scanner DarklyValis
― Respectfully Yours, (Aimless), Tuesday, 8 December 2020 20:55 (three years ago) link
scanner darkly is my favorite of those three
― the late great, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 21:22 (three years ago) link
Mine too
― Lily Dale, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 21:24 (three years ago) link
Scanner is the most powerful of these three, but it's depressing
I like Flow My Tears, it's sort of a throwback (from 1974) to his classic style of the 1960s
Valis is theological metafiction, not my favorite of his modes but biographically important
― Brad C., Tuesday, 8 December 2020 21:38 (three years ago) link
scanner fucked me up, but is prob the best.
― Fizzles, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 21:43 (three years ago) link
Valis def for last, though I like them all, it's just a particular thing that is probably best coming at after you've read a few.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 22:17 (three years ago) link
yeah i think i've said it before on another thread (maybe the one about the film adaptation) but the end of scanner destroyed me
a more astute reader might see what's coming, but i didn't :(
― the late great, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 22:48 (three years ago) link
Scanner was the first thing by PKD I read, and though nothing else I've read by him has quite measured up to it, it wasn't a bad place to start. I actually think it gave me a lot more patience with his less coherent books than I would have had otherwise.
So I'd say Scanner, then Flow My Tears, then Valis.
― Lily Dale, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 23:34 (three years ago) link
Had totally forgotten about this thread (incl. my posts), thanks! On ILE, also worth keeping up with: philip k dick C/D, S+D
― dow, Wednesday, 9 December 2020 00:53 (three years ago) link