Philip K. Dick: Stanisław Lem Is a Communist Committee (2015)

Post by coldtea » Mon, Apr 14, 2025, 11:00 AM UTC

mcv wrote: post #143

ahazred8ta wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Irony: the original bladerunner novel was about a courier carrying surgical instruments so that the doctor would not be arrested for black market medical treatment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bladerunner FWIW I was a Galactic Pot-Healer fan.

I did not know that. And running scalpels makes a lot more sense for that title. Because as cool as the title sounds, it doesn't make any sense for the movie. Nobody is running blades there.

Post by malaya_zemlya » Mon, Apr 14, 2025, 11:55 AM UTC

int_19h wrote: post #140

lordfrito wrote: post #112

I have immense respect for PKDs writings, he was far far ahead of his time, sad that he was such a mess mentally. His themes about the malleability of reality are just so prescient about the problems of the digital era. Neighbors no longer share the same narrative about what is actually happening in the world. I often wonder what PKD would say if he were alive today. Heck, I wonder what he'd be doing today in the dig…

Sometimes it's the small details. Remember all the microtransactions in Ubik? "insert coin to open this door" (to his own apartment!) etc.

Post by msanlop » Mon, Apr 14, 2025, 12:37 PM UTC

trwired wrote: post #41

p0w3n3d wrote: post #28

As far as I know Stanisław Lem was not allowed to like anything from US. These days the soviet propaganda in Poland disallowed people to like anything that came from "the rotten west"

> As far as I know Stanisław Lem was not allowed to like anything from US. These days the soviet propaganda in Poland disallowed people to like anything that came from "the rotten west" Such statement would hold somewhat true for the Soviet Union until the 80s, but not for Poland, whose society never stopped seeing itself as a part of wider European community, and because of significant migration in the XIX and XX ce…

Post by DonHopkins » Mon, Apr 14, 2025, 1:10 PM UTC

mezentius wrote: post #122

chrislongss wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an interesting insight, thank you. Are there any good articles about his deliberately comic / ironic approach, or his approach in general? His reliance on cliche story building troupes (like private detectives) can be off-putting at times, would love to understand better what was behind his choices.

A good starting point is Stanislaw Lem, “Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Among the Charlatans.” [1] For more recent analysis, read Jonathan Lethem: “My initial responsiveness to Dick’s work was to delight in his mordant surrealist onslaught against the drab prison of consensual reality… It took me a while to grasp how Dick’s novels, those of the early sixties especially, function as a superb lens for critiquing the colle…

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Apr 14, 2025, 1:33 PM UTC

zorked wrote: post #174

bawolff wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its mostly hailed as a great artsy movie, that general audiences find super boring. I think its asethetic & art design is what its hailed for. Nobody hails bladerunner for its pacing. Its hard to be good at everything. Being really good at one aspect is enough to get people to fawn. I disagree on the contemplative bit. I think both are quite contemplative but in very different ways.

Blade Runner passed the test of not making my children pick up the phone while watching it. Very few movies do that.