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The Essential Philip K. Dick

nytimes.com

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Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#21

Post by skyechurch »

x86x87 wrote: post #8
keiferski wrote: post #6

PKD is one of my favorite sci-fi writers and I recommend Ubik if you're a new reader, although like the article mentions, you definitely need to be in a certain mindset to "get it." The Man in the High Castle has an interesting concept but I don't think it's particularly well-written. One thing that I think goes unnoticed about PKD is how some of his earlier short stories are undeniably, unquestionably bad. Fair Game…

PKD is my favorite writer of all times. I believe that even for his greatest works the writing could have been more polished, way better. The thing is PKD does not get you with the form of the writing but with the ideas that he captures. Truly visionary.

Dick can be really rewarding, although he's definitely not to everyone's taste, or a particularly good stylist. This is true of other great writers who deal in extreme psychological states - Dostoyevsky for example. The extreme state for PKD was a metaphysical paranoia (probably augmented by amphetamine abuse), which many people can relate to, although it's usually not as intense or as intricate as in his novels. Dick was often writing autobiographical science fiction, which is an absolutely unique vision, though not one I'd like to experience first hand.

Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#22

Post by wiredfool »

olivermarks wrote: post #12

I'm a big PKD fan - I also recommend reading the 1909 short story 'the machine stops' by em Forster which was incredibly prescient and I suspect informed some of PKD's thinking. People have often pointed out this piece 'predicted the internet age' while ignoring the dystopian collapse at the end of Forsters pice, which is alarmingly similar to the current collapse of some aspects of western civilization IMO... https:…

I find his short stories to be quite good -- if not a bit repetitive if read in bulk. His paranoia and the bleakness of post nuclear war are overwhelming after a while.

Quite a lot of his stories have been made into movies, for better or worse. They seem to be enough of a chunk to hang a story on, without getting too much in the way of telling a good story.

Minority Report -- much better in the story. We Can Remember it for You Wholesale -- both worked.

Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#23

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

keiferski wrote: post #6

PKD is one of my favorite sci-fi writers and I recommend Ubik if you're a new reader, although like the article mentions, you definitely need to be in a certain mindset to "get it." The Man in the High Castle has an interesting concept but I don't think it's particularly well-written. One thing that I think goes unnoticed about PKD is how some of his earlier short stories are undeniably, unquestionably bad. Fair Game…

I haven't read The Man in the High Castle for a long time, but I thought that it was a rarity amongst PKD's output in that he edited it rather than just writing and selling it. It's also notable for winning a Hugo.

Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#24

Post by cturner »

leephillips wrote: post #15
keiferski wrote: post #6

PKD is one of my favorite sci-fi writers and I recommend Ubik if you're a new reader, although like the article mentions, you definitely need to be in a certain mindset to "get it." The Man in the High Castle has an interesting concept but I don't think it's particularly well-written. One thing that I think goes unnoticed about PKD is how some of his earlier short stories are undeniably, unquestionably bad. Fair Game…

I found Ubik somewhat intriguing. I’m about 60 pages unto Valis , and so far it’s mostly bad philosophy and theology, thankfully saved by occasional flashes of humor, and the almost-interesting fracturing of the main character into at least two people. Does it get any better?

I have read a fair bit of pkd and found Valis an unsatisfying struggle. Radio Free Albemuth is an earlier attempt at similar ideas and is accessible.

Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#25

Post by olivermarks »

wiredfool wrote: post #22
olivermarks wrote: post #12

I'm a big PKD fan - I also recommend reading the 1909 short story 'the machine stops' by em Forster which was incredibly prescient and I suspect informed some of PKD's thinking. People have often pointed out this piece 'predicted the internet age' while ignoring the dystopian collapse at the end of Forsters pice, which is alarmingly similar to the current collapse of some aspects of western civilization IMO... https:…

I find his short stories to be quite good -- if not a bit repetitive if read in bulk. His paranoia and the bleakness of post nuclear war are overwhelming after a while. Quite a lot of his stories have been made into movies, for better or worse. They seem to be enough of a chunk to hang a story on, without getting too much in the way of telling a good story. Minority Report -- much better in the story. We Can Remember…

Amazing the standard of pulp fiction in that era - we need a big dose of dystopian 'nuclear war will be an apocalypse that will end our lives' right now given how amazingly unaware people appear to be to the grave danger of nuclear war threat we are facing right now

Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#26

Post by keiferski »

alex_suzuki wrote: post #14
keiferski wrote: post #6

PKD is one of my favorite sci-fi writers and I recommend Ubik if you're a new reader, although like the article mentions, you definitely need to be in a certain mindset to "get it." The Man in the High Castle has an interesting concept but I don't think it's particularly well-written. One thing that I think goes unnoticed about PKD is how some of his earlier short stories are undeniably, unquestionably bad. Fair Game…

Did you give the TV adaption of The Man in the High Castle a try? It’s on Prime, I found it quite enjoyable.

No, it seemed a bit generic to me, but maybe I'll take a second look.

Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#27

Post by nonrandomstring »

There's a bit in Ubik that stays in my mind. Joe Chip gets into an argument with his apartment door that refuses to open for him because he owes it money. I kinda got that the door was an autonomous money-making agent that held him hostage - a conversation reminiscent of that between Doolittle and the Bomb in Dark Star. It made me see the ridiculous side and ultimate absurdity of micropayments leading to world where a dollar value is put on everything so that every silly little thing becomes a coin operated nuisance whose actual function is replaced by squeezing a few more micro-credits out of you.

Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#28

Post by Jtsummers »

wiredfool wrote: post #20
w1nst0nsm1th wrote: post #5

I read all of them, at least the ones published in French... "A Scanner Darkly" is by far the most polished, and also the most twisted.

The afterward of a Scanner Darkly is a gut punch. My recollection is that it's a list of friends who had lost their lives to drugs of one form or another.

Lives and health, he's also included in the list.

Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#29

Post by utopcell »

Jtsummers wrote: post #19
btbuildem wrote: post #16

Paywalled article

https://web.archive.org/web/20221029011427/https://www.nytim... - I also posted this here in the discussion over an hour ago. Problem solved.

Thank you posting the archive link, but the problem is that if the article is not accessible, this becomes an ad posting for the site.

Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#30

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

abruzzi wrote: post #17
leephillips wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found Ubik somewhat intriguing. I’m about 60 pages unto Valis , and so far it’s mostly bad philosophy and theology, thankfully saved by occasional flashes of humor, and the almost-interesting fracturing of the main character into at least two people. Does it get any better?

I don't reccomend Valis for anyone but the most diehard Dick fans. Its an attempt to fictionalize an experience Dick had and spent the rest of his life trying to understand. It has some great moments, but it doesn't hold together terribly well as a story. I much prefer more focused stories like Scanner Darkly, Flow My Tears, or even Divine Invasion. Supposedly Dick's experience conceived three published novels--Valis…

There's a film version of Radio Free Albemuth https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1129396/

It's watchable, but my experience is soured by the terrible experience of contributing to the KickStarter and then not being able to get my reward for years due to living in the UK rather than the US (licensing issues).

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