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
― tom west (thomp), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Monday, 11 September 2006 23:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 16:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 18:08 (eighteen years ago) link
i have ordered both lies inc and the unteleported man, as i think reading both might be an interesting experience. thx jeff.
― tom west (thomp), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 18:50 (eighteen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 03:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― tom west (thomp), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 14:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 14:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 14:19 (eighteen years ago) link
The Man Who Japed (1956)Dr. Futurity (1960) Vulcan's Hammer (1960) The Crack in Space (1966)
Are the short stories still available in 5 volumes? You could probably cut that down to maybe 2 volumes of the really good ones, I'd recommend individual stories but I can't remember which one's which at the momemnt (and I have to go to bed). Maybe tomorrow!
How many film adaptations of Dick are there now? I've seen :
Blade RunnerTotal RecallA Scanner DarklyMinority ReportScreamers
John Woo made a film version of Paycheck (according to IMDB)?? 3 years ago??? I have no memory of this. There also seem to have been adaptations of Impostor and Confessions Of A Crap artist, and there's some suckass looking version of The Golden Man out soon (called Next) starring Nicolas Cage, great.
Go Tom!
― Matt #2 (Matt #2), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 22:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 23:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― Paul Eater (eater), Thursday, 14 September 2006 17:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― Marmot (marmotwolof), Friday, 5 January 2007 00:12 (seventeen years ago) link
The Game Players of Titan (1963)The Penultimate Truth (1964)The Crack in Space (1966)The Ganymede Takeover (1967) with Ray NelsonThe Zap Gun (1967)Our Friends from Frolix 8 (1970)Deus Irae (1976) with Roger ZelaznyThe Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1982)
i will probably be done by feb or so; i was thinking of doing the platonic dialogues this year, tho.
― tom west (thomp), Friday, 5 January 2007 01:38 (seventeen years ago) link
ii) he gets funnier the more you read, i guess. (but i like jokes more when they get repeated or extended, usually.)
iii) i find myself noting the recurring deployment both of standard SF tropes and dick's own more idiosyncratic ones in a way which is kind of new to me, although i am certain not new to people who e.g. read or write book-length studies of henry james. but i like (a lot) finding myself wondering what e.g. the non-realist colonisable and astrologically dated concept of mars is going to mean or represent or do in this particular fiction. (and his other repeated figures: schizophrenic viewpoints, dark-haired women, simulacra, religion...)
― tom west (thomp), Friday, 5 January 2007 01:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marmot (marmotwolof), Friday, 5 January 2007 10:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― Paul Eater (eater), Friday, 5 January 2007 22:28 (seventeen years ago) link
Adam Gopnik on the new Library of America edition of Dick. Most telling sentence:
At the end of a Dick marathon, you end up admiring every one of his conceits and not a single one of his sentences.
― o. nate, Tuesday, 21 August 2007 16:37 (seventeen years ago) link
hah
that's not entirely true, i think. the first person voices in VALIS and 'timothy archer' are uneven but nuanced, compelling, i guess.
also some of his conceits are lame, duh
― thomp, Tuesday, 21 August 2007 21:48 (seventeen years ago) link
gosh, i was trying pretty hard earlier on this thread.
― thomp, Tuesday, 21 August 2007 21:50 (seventeen years ago) link