Phillip K. Dick

Tree

Arguably one of the greatest SF writers.

Someone in waterstones decided he should be on 3 for 2, so for those of you as weak as me (i got five books yesterday) you can go add to your collection.


In the middle of A Scanner Darkly at the moment, really messed up and im lovin it!

monkeyfudge

Yep brilliant writer... and a really interesting character too...

I'm reading 'Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said' at the moment.

One of my favourite storys of his is 'Cadbury, the Beaver Who Lacked', although that one really isn't exactly science fiction.

simu

Oh, cool!

Thanks for the info!

He rocks!

I recommend: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, The Man in the High Castle, Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep?, A Scanner Darkly, Valis, the short story anthologies...

Tree

just finished a scanner darkly, its fab, and the trailers for this new film seem cool too. woo for pkd overload!!!

CiDeRmAn

The man was a genius, pity Paycheck and Impostor stank like dead monkeys as movies, ah well.

monkeyfudge

Yeah... Paycheck seemed to go out of the way to make sure it wasn't a science fiction film.

Crucifix

I've never read any Philip K Dick....where would be a good place to start?

simu

Any of the books mentioned above really!

monkeyfudge

Crucifix wrote:

I've never read any Philip K Dick....where would be a good place to start?

I'd go with one of the anthologies.

We Can Remember it For You Wholesale is a good one... the title story became Total Recall.

Tree

Crucifix wrote:

I've never read any Philip K Dick....where would be a good place to start?

defo start w/ the short stories beware the addictive nature of good scifi!

(on a side note, i discovered today that the K stands for Kindred. poor man)

monkeyfudge

Are you all familiar with how strange his life was?

I've read some stuff about him over the years.

He believed that our world was a simulated reality created by a super-computer that orbited the Earth and in actual fact the Roman empire had never colapsed.

An alien would speak to him in his head... It actually told him that his son was sick, he had him tested out and they found nothing, but the voice told him to ask for a very specific type of test and when they performed it they found that there was something wrong with his son and were able to treat him.

Crucifix

I picked up 'A Scanner Darkly' in the end. I've only read a bit of it, but I like the style so far.

Earthhorse

I'm not a fan of his longer fiction. I found The Man in the High Castle, Radio Free Albemuth, Flow My Tears The Policeman Said and Confessions of a Crap Artist all lacking in some manner. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is the one novel of his I would recommend.

The short fiction on the other hand is almost all ace. 'We Can Remember...' is the fifth in the series and probably the best (though I haven't read the fourth and I distinctly remember thinking Cadbury, The Beaver Who Lacked was the worst short story by Dick I'd ever read).

CiDeRmAn

Man in the High Castle is genius, just very subtle.
None of your Harry Turtledove bombast here, a world where the Axis powers have won and the aftermath, the Japanese with a rather benign colony on the west coast of the US and the Nazis with a more brutal setup on the east, and you just know they aren't going to get along for long. The remains of the free US in the middle, it has to be read a couple of times to get the most out of it.

If I might be so bold, I would like to suggest a book to everyone, Black Easter by James Blish, rather hard to find, most likely get it on Ebay, one of the best books I have read in a long time.

Johnny Storm

Note for PKD beginners:- "A Scanner Darkly" is actually his darkest book. Keep away from it if you're depressed
"Clans of the Alphane Moon" is probably his most humorous.
Ubik is often considered to be his best, the 3 Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Martian Time-Slip and Man in the High Castle are also critically regarded. (Martian Time-Slip is pretty dark too)

Many of his early novels are pretty bad.

If your interested in PKD's life Laurence Sutin's "A Divine Invasion" is one of the best biographies I have ever read.

I read all PKDs books many years ago, and they made a big impression on me. I'm interested in opinions of newcomers to PKD on how his work has stood up over the years. Does he seem dated?

Tree

Some of his stuff seems a bit dated, but if you read savage amounts of older sci fi anyway, you tend not to notice how dated it is. it comes across less in teh short stories than in teh novels.

but ignoring the casette tapes being the cuttin edge of technology and those commies coming to get us, you can stil relate to most of the ideas, he write more about ppl than technolOGY and the world state.

Morlar

I think theres a slight retro feel to most sci-fi written in the 60's 70's - his stories have stood up very well though compared with most of his contemporaries. On the biographical note - I remember seeing a documentary about him years ago (think it was omnibus or the south bank show) where it was mentioned that he once lived on dog food for a week because he had absolutely no money whatsoever ! This was while churning out absolute classics - its hard to imagine a writer of that quality living in such circumstances while writing those books - for me it makes them all the more worthwhile to have a little background to the circumstances he was in when he wrote (not all of them but some) them.

Johnny Storm

Morlar wrote:

I think theres a slight retro feel to most sci-fi written in the 60's 70's - his stories have stood up very well though compared with most of his contemporaries. On the biographical note - I remember seeing a documentary about him years ago (think it was omnibus or the south bank show) where it was mentioned that he once lived on dog food for a week because he had absolutely no money whatsoever ! This was while churning out absolute classics - its hard to imagine a writer of that quality living in such circumstances while writing those books - for me it makes them all the more worthwhile to have a little background to the circumstances he was in when he wrote (not all of them but some) them.

He writes about the dog food/horse meat in the intro to the Golden Man short story collection. That intro is revealing/heart-warming if you are into PKD.

CiDeRmAn

If you like A Scanner Darkly and its ilk get Stand On Zanzibar by John Brunner and Spares by Michael Marshall Smith, wonderful stuff

Tchocky

I just finished High Castle, wonderfully evocative of a period that never existed

TechnoRich

Hello, I'm new here,

I found 'boards.ie' by looking for stuff on this author.
I would certainly recommend the short stories as a good introduction to PKD's style. One cool idea after another.
I'd say 'Ubik' is my favourite novel so far.
Philip.K.Dick is certainly not cheerful reading, but it is often rewarding.

A film of 'A Scanner Darkly' is out soon, which promises to stay true to Dick's dark story telling - maybe the first since 'Bladerunner' to come close.
It is directed by Richard Linklater (School of Rock) and was made outside the Hollywood mainstream, using animation layered over live-action. I Can't wait !

Check the official website run by his family for all your PKD needs;

www.philipkdick.com

Cheers, Rich

Johnny Storm

Welcome to boardsie, TechnoRich

NADA

I think I will buy the man in the high castle for going on holidays. Sounds like my kind of story. What do you guys think?

simu

Go for it!

NADA

Unfortunaltely I am going tomorrow and never quite got around to buying it! Ah well. There is always something in Hughes and Hughes in Dublin Airport!

TechnoRich

NADA wrote:

Unfortunaltely I am going tomorrow and never quite got around to buying it! Ah well.

Oh well, Nada.

I bought '...High Castle' for my last trip to Japan, but I was too busy looking out the train windows to read much.

I have fond memories of reading Philip.K.Dick on my holidays.
Maybe the sunny, relaxed atmosphere helps soften the dark ambience of some of his stories.
I remember reading bits in some of his books ('Ubik' springs to mind), and thinking; ''this man has had some serious trips !''.

I like the short story 'Faith of Our Fathers', in which the population is under forced mass hallucination to prevent them from knowing their great leader is not human at all. The main character buys an anti-hallucinogen from a street peddler, and the terrifying truth is revealed !

Thanks PKD !

CiDeRmAn

There lies the wub was a great selection of early tales, some lighter examples of his writing there.
Just finished A Scanner Darkly a couple of weeks ago and along with Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas rates as one of the best anti-drug books ever.
Especially when you read his own notes at the end of the story, this stuff should be on the school reading list, essential stuff.
Can't wait for the movie, the clips I have seen are perfectly lifted from the bool. from the scramble suits to the debate on where the missing bicycle gears went, genius.

Johnny Storm

CiDeRmAn, I have never heard "Fear and Loathing" refered to as an anti-drug book before Are you kidding ?

Also IMHO even though Scanner is totally full of hatred for drugs it also portrays the humour and fellowship of dopers very well.

I'm looking forward to the movie too. The first 24 minutes are available here up to and including the bicycle gear scene!¬

CiDeRmAn

Just read the post Johnny and yes, I do think that its an anti drug book, maybe not in the way that the establishment is antidrug but certainly not portraying self mediacation as the path to a sane way of life, a high Samoan lawyer anyone? Perhaps a machete and some melons, a fake croc tail and an american flag draped over ones shoulders, its all good baby

Johnny Storm

Does anyone have any opinions of the film "A Scanner Darkly"?


In the meantime here's a cool link to Phil reading some of A Scanner Darkly.
And here's a good pic (from the early 60s?). Both from PhilipKDick.com

Tree

loved the film, very close to the book, didnt feel liek stuff was left out and it did fit the storyline well. watch the film and GO READ THE BOOK PPL

pH

I'd like to add to that list Eye in the Sky, one of his earlier books, written in 1957 and now probably hard to find.

I read it years ago, and what had a lasting impression on me was its description of a literal Christian world, where things worked as the bible says they do.

Johnny Storm

Personally, I thought the movie of Scanner Darkly was very good. As Tree said it was very close to the book without slavishly following it (

Donna wasn't Bob's supervisor in the book, was she? Its been a while since I read it

) Robert Downey Jr was excellent as Barris - he really added to the role. Keanu - well what can you say - he's a very good-looking fella and that was probably necessary to get the film made but he wasn't ideal for the role of Bob who I thought of as being a bit more introspective. The house they lived in was perfect - just as described in the book. And they kept in all the best scenes like the bicycle gear bit as mentioned by Ciderman. I missed Bob's 'cephscope though and the scene where Donna says "Look, there's one of those new Porches with two engines" - Cant have everything I suppose.
Also - Rotoscope? Did that actually add anything to the movie? I'm not sure.
The scramble suit was cool though.

Tree

i think the scramble suits look better for the rotoscope, it'd be damned hard to make them look that well usin live action and cgi

it's not mentioned or implied int eh book, as to who his boss is, but it could be her easily, there's nothing to stop it. There was a few other things liek seeing freck in the home which could be shown on the film but you wouldn't be able get from the book, i did love them there implications though

Johnny Storm

Thanks for that!;)

Maybe they could have done just teh scramble suit in roroscope?

Tree

but it needs to look like real people at the same time