Philip K Dick suggestions

zhao

there are no accidents
I've read about 7 or 8 of his books and from my own experience and other people I talk to, Radio Free Albemuth is probably the single most necessary read. it just sucks you into its world of conspiratorial logic and does not let go... it's a state beyond paranoia, and like all great art (I'm saying this without too much thought) it makes it clear that "normal" people are the delusional ones.
 

AshRa

Well-known member
Missed it earlier on tonight but there's a Radio 4 thing on Philip K Dick.

I wish BBC would let people download the shows as MP3s for your headphones instead of being stuck using their player.. :(
 

zhao

there are no accidents
total inconsequential question: was that blockbuster The Island based on a Dick story?
 
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droid

Guest
confucius said:
total inconsequential question: was that blockbuster The Island based on a Dick story?

Dont think so - but its a common enough theme. Theres a Paul J McCauly short story which is similar, if less epic...

Nice one for ressurecting this thread... forgot all about it.
 

jasonh

Newbie
Love Man In the High Castle (which seems to be the majority vote as their favourite Dick novel).

The book (a loose biography) by Emmanuel Carrere "I Am Alive And You Are Dead" is also very good.
 

Freakaholic

not just an addiction
thanks for this list. all ive read is do androids sleep..., 3 stigmata..., and a collection of short stories.

while the first two have been mentioned heavily, i would like to say i really enjoy his short stories (esp on the pot), and feel this is one of the greatest mediums for science fiction.

also, to anyone who like PKD, i would highly recommend Last and First Men & Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon. 2 books combined into one, and the second was kind of a sequel to the first, but written many years later.
Last & First men starts off between WWI and WWII, and takes human history through millions of years after that showing how humanity goes through various changes, ultimately destroying itself every time. Star Maker is the same idea, on a much grander scale, taking all of the universe through all of time from the view of one star traveller.
 
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A Scanner Darkly captures drugbrain logic very well. The passage where they get rumbled as addicts because they cannot work out the fundamentals of how a bicycle works is funny.
Valis is bonkers, but compelling at the same time, like a tripped out Da Vinci code.
A Maze of Death - some great ideas in there, the protoplasmic blob factories have stuck with me. Suitably dark ending as well.

Must pick up Radio Free Albemuth...

Good to hear props for Olaf Stapledon, I happened to buy First and Last Men over the weekend after years of not quite doing so. Had never heard of Starmaker though, cheers.
 

D84

Well-known member
Jack Vance on PKD

I wasn't sure where to put this one but I just found this site with Jack Vance's answers to fans' questions and on this page he mentions meeting Philip K Dick. I expect some of you might be interested.

Here's the meat of it:

Look at Phil Dick. Phil Dick, besides being an awfully clever writer, he got the credentials of being crazy- he became big… there was a big clique around him.
For my taste, he was too batty, too sarcastic, too sardonic, negative.. and yet, some of his stuff was just insanely funny.. but he was not a person I could relate to, at all..

(John V. : Did you meet him?)

Oh, yeah, sure..

(John V.: Did you know him well?)

Not intimately, but fairly well..

(John V.: Did you meet him at parties, in that way?)

I don’t remember, to tell you the truth.
When I first met him, he was kind of meek, quiet, I didn’t think he was going anywhere… then the last time I saw him, Poul and I were invited over to a party over in Marin county, by some woman, didn’t serve us anything, didn’t even serve wine! Anyway, Phil Dick came storming in there, crazy as a coot, didn’t acknowledge either me or Poul, stomped through, stomped out, did some other things while he was there, I forget what now. That was the last time I saw him.. wearing a cape, big boots, swaggering through… the difference between that guy and the guy that I first knew.. where did I meet him, at Scott Meredith’s office, or Anthony Boucher’s house?.. this quiet, modest, little nondescript fellow.. the difference between that guy, and the guy that came stomping through that party, you know, swaggering, like a big pirate, with a big cloak, big boots, not waving a cutlass at all, but just swaggering through there.. by this time, he had his reputation.. he was on drugs, dope, crazy or something.. He was a clever son of a gun.

There was a fellow named Avram Davidson, married a women named Gronya, she divorced him, ultimately, a nice lady, we liked her.. she married Dick, and they lived, oddly enough, rented a house out in East Oakland, by some coincidence, or chance, owned by Ali Szantho...
 
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droid

Guest
Some of you might enjoy this:

weirdo1.jpg


More: http://www.philipkdickfans.com/weirdo/weirdo1.htm
 

luka

Well-known member
The thing Phillip K Dick got right about the future is the move to the subscription model, which is a rent model over an ownership model. In UBIK the door to your apartment demands money to open. The push behind the internet of things is likely motivated by switching things like fridges to a subscription model.
computer games have already gone this way to a large degree as have other bits of software like microsoft word. the idea of owning something is becoming obsolete
'you have no rights only privileges and these we can revoke at any time.'
 
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sadmanbarty

Well-known member
can version or anyone else in the know please post phillip k dick speaking about the pink beam of light going into his forehead. thank you
 

luka

Well-known member
Read the comic and that series of essays and then you will be ready for direct quotations.
 
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