― Alex in SF, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― max, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alex in SF, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― max, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― max, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:14 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:16 (seventeen years ago) link
― sexyDancer, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― max, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alex in SF, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alex in SF, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― max, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alex in SF, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― max, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alex in SF, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― max, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alex in SF, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― kingfish, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― max, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― max, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alex in SF, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― max, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― max, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:42 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alex in SF, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alex in SF, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― shieldforyoureyes, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alex in SF, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― shieldforyoureyes, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alex in SF, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:47 (seventeen years ago) link
― shieldforyoureyes, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alex in SF, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 26 February 2007 22:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― Matt #2, Monday, 26 February 2007 23:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 26 February 2007 23:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alex in SF, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 00:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alex in SF, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 00:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― remy bean, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 02:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 05:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― peter in montreal, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 08:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― peter in montreal, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 08:47 (seventeen years ago) link
― Matt #2, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 09:46 (seventeen years ago) link
so I read "The Adjustment Team" a few days ago cuz it's online (public domain) and I have to review the new, no doubt hugely inflated and freely adapted Matt Damon movie made from it tonight. I take it it's not considered a major work, and Hollywood just liked the price?
The best Dick-based film I've seen (tho I like Blade Runner) might be Barjo, a French adap of Confessions of a Crap Artist.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 17 February 2011 12:49 (thirteen years ago) link
"I take it it's not considered a major work, and Hollywood just liked the price?"
You are correct.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Thursday, 17 February 2011 13:11 (thirteen years ago) link
I dig the B-movie vibe of Screamers actually.
― sex cells (S-), Thursday, 17 February 2011 13:17 (thirteen years ago) link
william mayne, earthfasts (not the sequels)joan aiken, the wolves of willoughby chase (and the sequels, maybe)
― thomp, Thursday, 17 February 2011 13:57 (thirteen years ago) link
You've taken a wrong turn methinks.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Thursday, 17 February 2011 20:28 (thirteen years ago) link
Do Andoids Dream of Electric Sheep?Martian Time SlipGalactic Pot-HealerA Scanner DarklyConfessions of a Crap ArtistFlow My Tears, the Policeman Said
I really need to read VALIS.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Thursday, 17 February 2011 20:32 (thirteen years ago) link
Is Barjo available anywhere? I was looking and it's not on Netflix, but that's no surprise.
― w/no hesitation (mh), Thursday, 17 February 2011 20:33 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah Hollywood is not equipped to deal with his major works, they pretty much stick to his early, more easily adaptable short stories
― never meant to heart anyone (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 17 February 2011 20:34 (thirteen years ago) link
It appears that Barjo was only released on VHS eons ago.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 17 February 2011 20:39 (thirteen years ago) link
I get a little excited by those promos for Adjustment Bureau because, with the exception of the melodrama and chase scenes in the trailer, the John Slattery/Terence Stamp scenes really scream that it's a PKD work.
― w/no hesitation (mh), Thursday, 17 February 2011 20:43 (thirteen years ago) link
I read the Hugo award winning The Man in the High Castle last year. My only complaint is that it is unfinished - the ending was anticlimatic. Dick was too disturbed by WWII that he could never gather the strength to write the sequel (and he tried several times - often resulting in other books). The BBC One is supposedly making a 4 part miniseries of The Man in the High Castle to be directed by Ridley Scott but I haven't heard any new news since October 2010.
― call me king bubbles and sound like a sheik sheik (CaptainLorax), Thursday, 17 February 2011 20:43 (thirteen years ago) link
The Man in the High Castle is overrated
― never meant to heart anyone (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 17 February 2011 20:48 (thirteen years ago) link
I mean it's good, but it isn't anywhere close to his best
― never meant to heart anyone (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 17 February 2011 20:49 (thirteen years ago) link
Does anyone actually think it's his best though? Just because people thought it was the best sci-fi novel the year it was published doesn't mean they think it was his best novel.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Thursday, 17 February 2011 20:55 (thirteen years ago) link
Was gonna say that in 1998 Thomas M. Disch thought it was, but now I see that, though he liked it a lot, he said "Dick blossomed as a writer after finishing The Man In The High Castle"
― Poll Man River: The Jerome Kern Poll (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:00 (thirteen years ago) link
I thought it was the only major award he ever won but now I see he got some memorial award for Flow My Tears and some Brit award for A Scanner Darkly
― never meant to heart anyone (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:02 (thirteen years ago) link
Flow My Tears won the Campbell and was nominated for Hugo/Nebula.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:03 (thirteen years ago) link
Losing to the Dispossessed for both btw (334, which is better, was also nom'd for the Nebula.)
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:05 (thirteen years ago) link
1963 was a weak year for sci-fi novels judging by his Hugo competition.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:08 (thirteen years ago) link
Not a lot of love for H. Beam Piper around here.
― Poll Man River: The Jerome Kern Poll (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:10 (thirteen years ago) link
kinda agree that 334 > Dispossessed > Flow My Tears. Flow My Tears is pretty good, but it's basically an extended Twilight Zone episode. Linklater's OTM in that the best/most striking thing about it is the weird biblical allegory towards the end
― never meant to heart anyone (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:11 (thirteen years ago) link
As I said on another thread I love Dick, but its not like he's some unassailable giant of sci-fi. There are dozens of sci-fi authors from the 50s-60s-70s who were equally great writers and just as prolific.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:16 (thirteen years ago) link
PKD has never clicked with me, despite 2-3 extended good-faith attempts to get into his work. Dunno why.
― old man yells at poop first thing in the morning (pixel farmer), Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:17 (thirteen years ago) link
Reminds me that skot just said something about sci-fi writers and graphomania.(xp)
― Poll Makossa (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:19 (thirteen years ago) link
I love his mid-to-late 60's stuff the most, I think. Sure there's lots of other good writers but I don't know of anyone who wrote more deliciously paranoid, dystopian short stories.
all 5 collected storiesDr. BloodmoneyRadio Free AlbemuthWe Can Build YouClans Of The Alphane MoonThe Simulacra
― sleeve, Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:21 (thirteen years ago) link
Lots of writers are nuts, lots of writers are coherent, but I do think it's a rare commodity to be coherently nuts like PKD, which trumps a lot of other things, like say writing good endings.
― Philip Nunez, Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:23 (thirteen years ago) link
Man in the High Castle is the only PKD published as a Penguin Modern Classic in the UK, which I think partly accounts for its high reputation here.
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:43 (thirteen years ago) link
Barjo was pretty good, but it annoyed me that they cut out the whole last act of Confessions of a Crap Artist, which I thought was the best part.
― peter in montreal, Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:51 (thirteen years ago) link
Man in the High Castle is great and worth its reputation. It's not my favourite PKD, and it's probably more highly regarded amongst non-SF readers because of its relative lack of hard SF elements, but you're very wrong about it being "unfinished", Captain L.
The anti-ending (in general) is my favourite device in 20th century fiction I think.
― Elmer Fuiud (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 February 2011 21:56 (thirteen years ago) link
I don't think I got to the end of High Castle (because someone had ripped out the pages!), but in general PKD's endings were not ... the best, particularly in the ones adapted for movies. They weren't really anti-endings so much as not-very-good endings, but it probably reflects the kind of "crank them out so I have money to eat" mode he was in.
― Philip Nunez, Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:04 (thirteen years ago) link
I don't know what you guys are talking about, he has some of my favorite endings ever - Ubik, Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, A Scanner Darkly, Divine Invasion, Transmigration of Timothy Archer, Eye in the Sky
― never meant to heart anyone (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:06 (thirteen years ago) link
someone on the internet reviewing TMitHC:"The ending is maddeningly inconclusive, loose ends popping up everywhere. Dick has taken, in a literal sense, slices of life and left them as they stand. They begin messily and end messily, just as in "real life" (a phrase every serious reader of PKD should have doubts about)."
I mean, I guess it's not unfinished but was at a loss when I got to the end of the book. I wanted it to keep going
― call me king bubbles and sound like a sheik sheik (CaptainLorax), Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:07 (thirteen years ago) link
You can't always get what you want (from a book)
― Elmer Fuiud (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:07 (thirteen years ago) link
I rarely read anything. And that was the only Dick book I've read
― call me king bubbles and sound like a sheik sheik (CaptainLorax), Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:09 (thirteen years ago) link
"A Scanner Darkly"
This is maybe my favorite ending of any book. Gets me misty just thinking about it. And then the afterword, oh boy.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:09 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah. I was so happy (well, maybe happy is the wrong word... gratified?) when they appended the afterword in the film.
― never meant to heart anyone (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:11 (thirteen years ago) link
xxpost
Ok. I'm not trying to be mean or sniffy. For me leaving "loose ends popping up everywhere" is an important literary device and speaks to my distrust of narrative arcs. It's not the only satisfying way of ending a book, obv.
― Elmer Fuiud (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:12 (thirteen years ago) link
"I might as well put those packets of proof-artifacts away, McClane said to himself resignedly. He walked, step by step, back to his office. Including the citation from the UN Secretary General. After all, the real one probably would not be long in coming."
― Philip Nunez, Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:13 (thirteen years ago) link
In fact the dissatisfaction is part of the point? If the book is a nightmare alternate world, or if it's just a writer's nightmare vision of/in this world - and the leaks make me think that's closer to what it is - then waking up is not a very viable plot option.
― Elmer Fuiud (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:15 (thirteen years ago) link
it's not so much loose ends as all the ends hastily tied at the last minute.
― Philip Nunez, Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:15 (thirteen years ago) link
i mean they affect the short stories much more than the serious novels, but it's the short stories that have the more quintessentially PKD elements.
― Philip Nunez, Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:17 (thirteen years ago) link
I don't wanna question the books as they stand in terms of PKD's autobiography tho - whether they're a fact of his business life or a deliberate artistic statement they stand as they are and you have to appreciate them or not within the book's context. To me it works v. well.
― Elmer Fuiud (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:18 (thirteen years ago) link
like whyever the style is like it is, it is a fact of his style, now.
― Elmer Fuiud (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:19 (thirteen years ago) link
do you read comic books Noodle Vague?
― call me king bubbles and sound like a sheik sheik (CaptainLorax), Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:19 (thirteen years ago) link
those never end :)
― call me king bubbles and sound like a sheik sheik (CaptainLorax), Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:20 (thirteen years ago) link
i don't really read comics but yeah I like that in them.
― Elmer Fuiud (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:21 (thirteen years ago) link
It's not really a dealbreaker -- Hitchcock has terrible endings, too. ("Whoops the killer who got away with it was captured sometime later for morality's sake.")
― Philip Nunez, Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:25 (thirteen years ago) link
again I like Hitch's discarded endings - it's because endings don't matter, obviously
― Elmer Fuiud (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:26 (thirteen years ago) link
except the ones that do. actually his endings aren't really like that, much.
― Elmer Fuiud (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 February 2011 22:27 (thirteen years ago) link
Three Stigmata of Palmer EldritchMartian Time-SlipOur Friends from Frolix 8A Scanner DarklyClans of the Alphane MoonThe Game-Players of TitanUBIKFlow My Tears, The Policeman SaidNow Wait For Last YearThe Penultimate Truth
― more barn (Myonga Vön Bontee), Thursday, 17 February 2011 23:41 (thirteen years ago) link
The Three Stigmata of Palmer EldritchUbikThe Man in the High CastleDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?A Scanner DarklyMartian Time-SlipGalactic Pot-HealerOur Friends From Frolix 8Eye in the SkyClans of the Alphane Moon
― tricked by a toothless cobra, Friday, 18 February 2011 06:58 (thirteen years ago) link
The Man in the High Castle ending is awesome fourth-wall breaking reality-questioning metafictional headfuck, and surely prefigures his later extreme and personal obsessions with the nature of reality, VALIS, etc (which I haven't read and am a little bit scared to, I don't find that kind of thinking terribly healthy).
― ledge, Friday, 18 February 2011 10:01 (thirteen years ago) link
I get a little excited by those promos for Adjustment Bureau because...the John Slattery/Terence Stamp scenes really scream that it's a PKD work
This is, ultimately, not the case. Movie is about true love, lol.
Michel Gondry allegedly developing film of Ubik.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Friday, 18 February 2011 12:20 (thirteen years ago) link
hey philip k dick ppl - which of those volumes of the collected short stories do you recommend to start w/?
― just sayin, Friday, 18 February 2011 12:55 (thirteen years ago) link
Damn. Well, thanks for the warning, Morbs.
― w/no hesitation (mh), Friday, 18 February 2011 14:09 (thirteen years ago) link
re: short stories - whatever volume has 'the electric ant' in it (think its vol 4).
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 18 February 2011 14:19 (thirteen years ago) link
volume 4 is the best, but electric ant is actually in vol 5
― peter in montreal, Friday, 18 February 2011 14:34 (thirteen years ago) link
thx dudes
― just sayin, Friday, 18 February 2011 15:06 (thirteen years ago) link
I would say... not Volume 1
― ice cr?m's world of female people (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 18 February 2011 16:27 (thirteen years ago) link
whatever happened to that Giamatti PKD biopic sorta thing that was supposed to have something to do with Ubik...?
― ice cr?m's world of female people (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 18 February 2011 16:29 (thirteen years ago) link
just finished NOW WAIT FOR LAST YEAR, really phenomenal, don't know why it doesn't get more praise
― flappy bird, Thursday, 19 November 2015 17:57 (eight years ago) link
conversation with the cab at the end is so great
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 19 November 2015 18:00 (eight years ago) link
yes! i can't believe it's passed over so often. the mariner editions are either matte (well-known & popular) or glossy (lesser works), i don't understand how THE MAN WHO JAPED is a matte and NWFLY is a glossy
― flappy bird, Thursday, 19 November 2015 18:56 (eight years ago) link
I don't remember it too clearly tbh - reading the wiki on it makes it sound like a jumbled fix-up but I'm not sure if it's based on an earlier story or what. Probably worth re-reading, I think I have this on my shelf.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 19 November 2015 18:58 (eight years ago) link
It's one of my top ten favorite Dick books. Concept and ending are fantastic.
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Thursday, 19 November 2015 19:22 (eight years ago) link
what should i read next: THE MAN WHO JAPED, MAZE OF DEATH, or CLANS OF THE ALPHANE MOON?
― flappy bird, Thursday, 19 November 2015 19:56 (eight years ago) link
Clans, but Maze is good too.
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Thursday, 19 November 2015 20:00 (eight years ago) link
Maze->Clans------------>Japed
― めんどくさかった (Matt #2), Thursday, 19 November 2015 20:02 (eight years ago) link
^^^ otm
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 19 November 2015 20:04 (eight years ago) link
saw an orig pulp version of clans of the alphane moon in a bookstore window the other day
so palmer eldritch is good? so many people have it in their POX's, but in the notes of my anthology it quotes him as saying "I can't even look at it" less than a year after it was published
― flopson, Thursday, 19 November 2015 20:11 (eight years ago) link
oh yeah that one is top 10 easy
it sounded like it was fairly traumatic for him to write (or, at least, it incorporates some traumatic experiences he had)
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 19 November 2015 20:13 (eight years ago) link
it was weird the ones that Dick liked and didn't like - pre-Blade Runner he was very hostile towards Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which again wld def be in my Dick Picks
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 19 November 2015 20:23 (eight years ago) link
lol whoops i never read Ubik, gonna go with that
― flappy bird, Thursday, 19 November 2015 22:50 (eight years ago) link
the cosmic puppets is another great early one. are the crack in space, vulcan's hammer, and dr. futurity worth reading at all? my impression are most people think those are his third worst
― flappy bird, Saturday, 23 January 2016 22:47 (eight years ago) link
They're all third-rate, yeah
― Οὖτις, Saturday, 23 January 2016 23:06 (eight years ago) link
practice makes perfect!
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 23 January 2016 23:08 (eight years ago) link
Guys, follow Shakey's lead and read the John Sladek parody, "Solar Shoe-Salesman."
― YOLO Versus Powerball on the Moneygoround, Part One (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 23 January 2016 23:12 (eight years ago) link
I thought Cosmic Puppets was pretty corny.
― Austin, Saturday, 23 January 2016 23:56 (eight years ago) link
at the very least books like cosmic puppets and galactic pot healer have at least one image or bit that stay with me (in puppets, the realization that the curvature of the earth is actually a person, and in pot healer, the concept of everyone dreaming the same dream at night, and can enter a contest to write the dream everyone dreams)
― flappy bird, Friday, 16 December 2016 05:04 (seven years ago) link
The Library of America box set of PK Dick is really nice. There are six novels in the collection that I had not read before. I'm reading Ubik for the first time, it's the last novel of the first volume.
Reading 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep', 'Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch' and 'Ubik' back to back to back there were some small mentions and themes that almost seem to reference each other like they are of the same world.
― earlnash, Friday, 16 December 2016 06:25 (seven years ago) link
i still haven't read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep but was reminded that I need to, after watching Blade Runner again the other night.
There isn't a thread for the Man in the High Castle show, I guess? Even though the second season just started? I just watched all of S1 for the first time a few weeks ago and was pleased to learn that the second season was coming out now. Accidentally great timing. It's really good, I think.
― Karl Malone, Friday, 16 December 2016 07:04 (seven years ago) link
I read the book quite a while ago and don't really remember too many details, so I can't speak to the differences, but my guess is that they've added some characters and plotlines, and those additions were a good move. Man in the High Castle is obv one of PKD's more highly regarded novels but to be honest it was never one of my favorites (Ubik and Valis are my current faves), but the tv version is pretty gripping.
― Karl Malone, Friday, 16 December 2016 07:07 (seven years ago) link
Blade Runner is definitely different than the book. The novel is much more sad and gets into some other thematic areas that the movie doesn't utilize. The movie seems to be a scifi nod to the LA detective like Sam Spade, it's fantastic but it is a very different. Deckard in the book is much more of a sad sack obsessed with his pet book and is married. There is a very PK Dick future religion called Mercerism and a device called a Mood Organ that are somewhat elements in the novel.
Re-reading the original novel a couple months backa nd then checking out the Wiki page is how I found out that there was actually two Blade Runner sequel novels written by a KW Jeter. I'm guessing the first one "Blade Runner: The Edge of Human" is going to be partially the basis for the film that is coming out. From what I gather this sequel novel utilizes some of the John Isidore story line from the original novel, whose character was somewhat adapted into the Sebastian character in the movie, but was tied in a totally different way. These sequels can be gotten for a penny plus shipping at Amazon, but I haven't been curious enough to buy it to check it out.
― earlnash, Friday, 16 December 2016 07:25 (seven years ago) link
i'll add do androids dream of electric sheep? to my spring 2017 reading list. that way at least something good will happen next year.
i'm surprised there isn't more of following for the show here. esp compared to the number of posts expended on a show like Westworld. i think part of it comes down to the way they're released - there's no reason to have a high castle thread because they all come out on the same day, so there's always going to be someone with the flu that watches the whole season in a single day and hovers over the thread like a demigod. whereas with westworld there are always 6 more days before the next very obvious plotpoint is revealed in a manner that subtly references the other dozen times that the twist was foreshadowed 5 million times earlier in the season.
every character in high castle seems so much more believable to me
― Karl Malone, Friday, 16 December 2016 08:05 (seven years ago) link
earl, KW Jeter is an excellent writer, at least in the non-franchise original novels I've read. He was also part of the little gang of young california writers whom Dick befriended and played poker with on the regular (Jeter, Tim Powers, and James P. Blaylock). I'll wager the Jeter BR novels are worthwhile.
― his eye is on despair-o (Jon not Jon), Friday, 16 December 2016 16:00 (seven years ago) link
I wrote what I thought of Man in the High Castle somewhere on this board. I thought the characters and/or actors were kind of weak (with the exception of the Obergruppenfuhrer), but I thought it got much better by the last couple of episodes and am actually looking forward to season 2.
I'm hoping it turns into one of those shows where the first season is kind of terrible but they eventually figure it out and it gets good.
― silverfish, Friday, 16 December 2016 16:53 (seven years ago) link
Jeter's got some great stuff and I will stan for him altho I haven't read his franchise novels (incl Bladerunner). He tends to be more mysanthropic and gorier than PKD.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 16 December 2016 17:03 (seven years ago) link
I bought one of the Jeter sequels (I think it cost a dollar), I read part of it, eventually I figured out that it was actually the second book of the series (or third if you think of the movie as the first). It did not seem particularly good.
If you want more bladerunner, a better option is maybe the 90s videogame, which I remember being pretty good.
― silverfish, Friday, 16 December 2016 17:12 (seven years ago) link
after taking a ~6 month PKD break, I just started A Maze of Death, psyched to get into it. Over the summer I finally got to The Divine Invasion and Transmigration of Timothy Archer. Loved the latter, thought it was remarkable how well PKD could write from the POV of a female character.
― flappy bird, Friday, 16 December 2016 18:13 (seven years ago) link
i absolutely love transmigration - it really feels like a development in his writing for exactly that reason, which makes it even sadder that he died before he had the chance to properly follow up on it
― Rush Limbaugh and Lou Reed doing sex with your parents (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 16 December 2016 18:19 (seven years ago) link
all three of those are great, for v different reasons.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 16 December 2016 18:58 (seven years ago) link
Electric dreams
Impossible planet on channel 4 now and it's not bad at all
― passé aggresif (darraghmac), Sunday, 24 September 2017 21:34 (six years ago) link
I haven't seen the first yet. According to the Graun review last week, that was the best ep and subsequent ones are not as good. But I might dip into this at some point. Brooker not having anything to do with it is a plus.
― calzino, Sunday, 24 September 2017 21:41 (six years ago) link
Flow My Tears, the Policeman SaidUbik A Scanner DarklyVALISNow Wait for Last YearEye in the SkyThe Three Stigmata of Palmer EldritchGalactic Pot-HealerThe Transmigration of Timothy ArcherThe Cosmic Puppets
reading Androids rn. gonna read Dr. Bloodmoney next
― flappy bird, Sunday, 24 September 2017 23:31 (six years ago) link
Newcombers also note philip k dick C/D, S+D
― dow, Sunday, 24 September 2017 23:46 (six years ago) link
Not read the story but I thought Impossible Planet was a snooze and the ending a let down.
― Shat Parp (dog latin), Monday, 25 September 2017 07:55 (six years ago) link
Brooker not having anything to do with it is a plus.
Other script writers thinking they can improve on Dick's stories is a minus.
― angelo irishagreementi (ledge), Monday, 25 September 2017 07:59 (six years ago) link
decent enough I thought, despite Channel 4's annoyingly aggressive advert schedule
don't know most of the short stories but most of what I love about PKD is unfilmable so
― be the cringe you want to see in the world (Noodle Vague), Monday, 25 September 2017 08:03 (six years ago) link
it's generally a good thing to have a series of self-contained 1 hour SF dramas without a fecking story arc or a fecking canon tbh
― be the cringe you want to see in the world (Noodle Vague), Monday, 25 September 2017 08:05 (six years ago) link
I don't care about canon but 99% sure Dick had more interesting ideas than anyone working in TV today. But ok I'll wait until I've seen this episode and discovered how far it differs from the original story before imparting my negative opinion.
― angelo irishagreementi (ledge), Monday, 25 September 2017 08:16 (six years ago) link
as I say, he's too good to be dramatized imo and that's largely because of the ideas he deals with, but his name is surely attached to this mainly for advertising purposes
― be the cringe you want to see in the world (Noodle Vague), Monday, 25 September 2017 08:19 (six years ago) link
they advertised an eighties synth-pop compilation called 'Electric Dreams' during Electric Dreams lol
― Shat Parp (dog latin), Monday, 25 September 2017 08:22 (six years ago) link
― be the cringe you want to see in the world (Noodle Vague), Monday, 25 September 2017 08:05 (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
V much the spirit in which I watched
― passé aggresif (darraghmac), Monday, 25 September 2017 10:01 (six years ago) link
Looked like some kind of first draft script where they hadn't quite figured out the characters' motivations yet. Interesting premises left hanging, out-of-character behaviour at the climax, the whole thing salvaged by Geraldine Chaplin's performance. The feel of it was more like a Ray Bradbury story than PKD I thought.
― めんどくさかった (Matt #2), Monday, 25 September 2017 10:44 (six years ago) link
Better than the first one I thought, at least it didn't jettison a perfectly good story in favour of some flimsy rubbish. "Out-of-character behaviour" was I presume due to oxygen deprivation.
― angelo irishagreementi (ledge), Thursday, 28 September 2017 20:15 (six years ago) link