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The Essential Philip K. Dick

nytimes.com

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Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#71

Post by pmoriarty »

cableshaft wrote: post #65
pmoriarty wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had high expectations from a bunch of friends recommending Snowcrash , but when I read it I found it to be so awful I couldn't even finish it. It was just so childish and stupid. I don't get why people like it.

Of his books that I read, it is definitely the one that comes across as the most childish and stupid (with a few good ideas). His other books aren't like that. I had trouble getting through them as well, but for other reasons. For Cryptonomicon it was his "let me prove how smart I am" diversions off the main story for dozens of pages at a time, and for Anathem it was an interesting idea told in a boring yet difficult…

"his writing style and characters are pretty plain and not that compelling on their own"

Dick is a champion of the underdog everyman. His protagonists tend to be humble repairmen and other "losers" in the lower stratum of society... I find those characters very human and relatable.

The other type of Dick protagonists are those who think they're on top of the world, until their world turns upside-down and so they get to experience being dragged through the mud.... usually finding out that what they thought was a perfect world was broken, hostile, and sometimes even evil.

His writing style is direct and economical. I really don't have a problem with it.

Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#72

Post by atombender »

For those who have read Dick's "standards", I recommend one of his novels that never appears in these lists, and probably never will: Galactic Pot-Healer (1968).

PKD later said he couldn't call writing it, this being the period where he consumed copious amounts of amphetamines, and produced a ridiculous number of novels and short stories. I still think it's one of his most enjoyable books.

The plot is a ramshackle Vonnegutian comic fantasy featuring a totalitarian dystopia, an alien demigod, a man who "heals" broken ceramic pottery, and an early version of the old Internet pasttime where you use machine translation tools to translate English into other languages and then back again in order to produce humorously mangled sentences. It's a weird, fun, sad book.

Also worth mentioning is A Maze of Death (1970), which is a creepy alien planet exploration story that becomes something else and unexpected, and probably the closest Dick came to writing a Harlan Ellison story.

Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#73

Post by cgh »

pmoriarty wrote: post #51
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 consider Ubik to be Dick's best work... so if you found it only "somewhat intriguing", I doubt you'll be any more pleased with anything else he wrote. That said, if you are interested in reading more by him, of his books I can recommend: - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Martian Time-Slip - Galactic Pot Healer - Eye in the Sky - the middle part of Lies, Inc Some of his short stories: - Beyond Lies the Wub -…

I'd like to add Dr. Bloodmoney and A Scanner Darkly to your recommended list.

Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#74

Post by qull »

Jtsummers wrote: post #32
utopcell wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Check the HN FAQ. Paywalled sites are fine for submissions as long as there's a workaround (and there is here), and whining about it (as the person I responded to did) is considered off-topic. It takes about 10 seconds to pull up an archive link and maybe 5-10 seconds more to submit it, only slightly longer than it takes to write and submit a useless comment about how it is paywalled.

1. There was no workaround published when he commented. 2. Why not just use the working workaround link in the first place?

Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#75

Post by atombender »

yarg wrote: post #68
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…

He also had a problem with women (to be fair, he was a professional writer - and apparently his wife wouldn't let him use the house). I don't think I've read a single well-meaning intelligent woman in a PKD story. I remember being surprised at the start of one of his books, that the female character introduced at the beginning was clearly competent - turned out she was evil.

I would argue that Juliana Frink in The Man in the High Castle is certainly a "well-meaning intelligent woman". His strongest female character is probably Angel Archer, who narrates The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, his last novel.

Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#76

Post by skmurphy »

yarg wrote: post #68
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…

He also had a problem with women (to be fair, he was a professional writer - and apparently his wife wouldn't let him use the house). I don't think I've read a single well-meaning intelligent woman in a PKD story. I remember being surprised at the start of one of his books, that the female character introduced at the beginning was clearly competent - turned out she was evil.

Off the top of my head: Juliana Frink, a central character in "Man in the High Castle," is well-meaning and intelligent.

Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#77

Post by e12e »

atombender wrote: post #69
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #63

So for everyone here who has declared that Phil Dick wasn't a very polished writer - who is your example of a polished writer that you are comparing him to his detriment with?

I wouldn't call it unpolished at all. I would characterise PKD's prose as workmanlike. It's very effective, just not what anyone would ever call lyrical or stylish. Stephen King once described his own writing as "the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries", and there's some of that in PKD, at least on the surface level. I do think PKD improved as a writer in the 1970s, once he kicked his drug habit and slowed dow…

Perhaps Bruce Sterling and Frank Herbert (in particular "Dune"). Absolutely Samuel Delaney IMO.

For something similar to pkd, but perhaps more refined(?) Alfred Beater, "The Stars my Destination".

Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#78

Post by Jtsummers »

qull wrote: post #74
Jtsummers wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check the HN FAQ. Paywalled sites are fine for submissions as long as there's a workaround (and there is here), and whining about it (as the person I responded to did) is considered off-topic. It takes about 10 seconds to pull up an archive link and maybe 5-10 seconds more to submit it, only slightly longer than it takes to write and submit a useless comment about how it is paywalled.

1. There was no workaround published when he commented. 2. Why not just use the working workaround link in the first place?

> There was no workaround published when he commented.

There was, I'd posted it an hour earlier than their comment.

> Why not just use the working workaround link in the first place?

Who knows, who cares. It takes < 20 seconds to get an archive.org copy and post it yourself. Only a few seconds more than it takes to whine, and a lot more productive.

Re: The Essential Philip K. Dick

#80

Post by yarg »

atombender wrote: post #75
yarg wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He also had a problem with women (to be fair, he was a professional writer - and apparently his wife wouldn't let him use the house). I don't think I've read a single well-meaning intelligent woman in a PKD story. I remember being surprised at the start of one of his books, that the female character introduced at the beginning was clearly competent - turned out she was evil.

I would argue that Juliana Frink in The Man in the High Castle is certainly a "well-meaning intelligent woman". His strongest female character is probably Angel Archer, who narrates The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, his last novel.

You've got me there.
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