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

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

#151

Post by benatkin »

bawolff wrote: post #123
benatkin wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is an old trope of counting sheep to fall asleep, but that's not a dream. How about when people dream about what they were thinking about when they fell asleep? It happens.

In the context of the story, i think "dream" should be taken as "yearn for" i.e. something you dream of having one day, not so much what you dream of at night.

Those meanings are connected. I think it was a reference to counting sheep but it describes yearning as far as connecting the title to the plot.

Also, upon further reflection I don't really agree with what the other commenter said: "There is an old trope of counting sheep to fall asleep, but that's not a dream". If you try to and manage to think in a way that causes you to become less alert, it starts to be like daydreaming, so I think this sort of falling asleep thinking is under the umbrella of dreaming.

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

#154

Post by genewitch »

fragmede wrote: post #145
mcv wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Youtube is surprisingly good at recommending me really obscure channels that nobody else seems to be watching (often I see why, but there are some gems). And it's not recommending Mr Beast, so I must be doing something right I guess. I also get a lot of channels lately about philosophical analysis of science fiction stories, so that's pretty cool.

That sounds awesome. Care to share some of those channels so I can seed my algorithm too?

there's the deepintoyoutube subreddit, which might jolt the algo into recommending more obscure things.

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

#155

Post by pests »

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…

I haven’t read too much PKD but have been meaning to, do you mind dropping titles on what you mentioned at end of third paragraph?

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

#157

Post by PaulHoule »

oldgradstudent wrote: post #132

If a committee can produce the Cyberiad, books should always be written by committees.

The Cyberiad is one of the best and most underrated works of science fiction there is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cyberiad

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

#158

Post by Barrin92 »

mcv wrote: post #135
philistine wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Philip K. Dick was vindictive, continually broke, terrible at titles, unlucky, and a wonderful writer. He never had a happy ending.

He was very good at channeling his mental issues and insecurities into brilliant plots. I wonder if his books would have been as good if PKD hadn't been so fucked up as a person. Paranoia seems to be a surprisingly effective muse.

>I wonder if his books would have been as good if PKD hadn't been so fucked up as a person

I can't even see how most of them would've existed to be honest. Most of P.K. Dick's work is about his mental issues in particular in combination with the psychedelic culture he was surrounded by. Always loved the attribution in A Scanner Darkly:

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8446272-this-has-been-a-nov...

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

#159

Post by ForOldHack »

nottorp wrote: post #71
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the film could have had more content about the real/artificial animals though it did feature a bit with the snake scales and the owl. Also agree about meeting the other agency though I can imagine that would have complicated the plot a bit (disclaimer - I haven't read Androids for many years and can't remember the details of that scene). I just think that Mercerism was a superb concept - a participatory religio…

> can't remember the details of that scene Deckard gets arrested by a different police agency - they think they're the only ones, just like Deckard's agency. He gets accused of being an android with implanted memories. They administer Voigt-Kampf tests to each other and while everyone ends up as human, the scene serves to make who's human and who isn't even more of a question. What really ticks me off about all movie…

It really really ticks me off too, because it makes multiple watchings much more interesting, and the writing has much more depth.

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

#160

Post by andrei_says_ »

wozer wrote: post #131
andrei_says_ wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talk about mind bending. By the way, there’s a movie somewhat based on it with Harvie Cartell. Worth a watch.

"The Congress" (2013) probably?

I believe so.
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