pkd could be sloppy for sure -- again, the speed -- but i think his prose takes a lot of undeserved beating. without that weary, sad, self-questioning tone, the later novels might be unreadable for me. they have their rough patches, sure, but you can't say he didn't find the right voice for them.
― jesus christ (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Monday, 14 May 2012 23:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
― Godzilla vs. Rodan Rodannadanna (The Yellow Kid), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 04:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
Love that cover so much - that face coming out of the spray!
― Godzilla vs. Rodan Rodannadanna (The Yellow Kid), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 04:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
I've thought many times about getting that as a tattoo.
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 04:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
James Tiptree is the real ultimate. Don't even bother with the novels, but she's probably the best short story writer ever.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Monday, 14 May 2012 23:13 (Yesterday)
I can probably agree with this, Ten Thousand Light Years From Home is so amazing.
― sleeve, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 05:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
Oddly enough Bloodmoney is probably one of my most-hated out of the handful I've read but I loved the ending on that one, with the disc jockey in space. I remember getting such a lift from that...
― cinco de extra mayo (loves laboured breathing), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 06:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
fwiw 'the man in the high castle' placed highest in the poll i ran last year: THE ILX ALL-TIME SPECULATIVE FICTION POLL RESULTS THREAD & DISCUSSION
personal fave is 'three stigmata' but i cant really remember if its a 'good book' or not i mean all those stupid names in neon from beyond theres a dreary inevitability to it all that doesnt stop the book from being really evocative i guess thats a word its a bad trip
'galactic pot-healer' is p rad too ilx poster 'thomp' has some good things to say about it iirc
― Lamp, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 06:46 (1 year ago) Permalink
I remember having serious questions about what exactly happened at a certain point in Stigmata. I will post itt about it tomorrow if I get the chance
― cinco de extra mayo (loves laboured breathing), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 06:52 (1 year ago) Permalink
I think Galactic Pot Healer would have a different rep if it was titled Interstellar Vase Repairman tbh (or at least lots of friends who are down w/nice Penguin Man In The High Castle are a bit loldrugs/60s when I bring it up).
― jesus christ (strongo hulkington's ghost dad)
Yeah, there's something compelling about his drabness, and I think j0hn d0lan put it pretty well at the eXile ages ago:
"Dick wrote two or three great scenes per book. They're like arias, and he rationed them very carefully. His books are plot and dialogue; the great scenes are the payoff, and they come at the end. The Martian jackal, who looks "like a wizened grandmother," veers at the last second away from its prey, Barney Mayerson, and telepathically asks him, "I can't eat you. I'd be sick. You're unclean; can't you cleanse yourself some way?" The garrulous automatic cab tells the hero of Now Wait for Last Year tells the hero he's "a good man" for sticking with his malevolent, braindamaged wife, as it speeds him home in misery...there are a few such moments in each Dick novel, written as well, line for line, as any Joyce. But a book of great lines is a burden to the reader, and Dick saves them for the end."
― etc, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 07:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
i can't even begin to parse the levels of self-delusion involved in writing that paragraph
― thomp, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 11:20 (1 year ago) Permalink
i reread three stigmata recently and when i finished it i felt like i had a pretty good fix on it and now, er, probably not so much. which is my experience with a lot of these - thinking about them is the process of reading them, the process of reading them is thinking about them. i should probably read them all again.
the run from martian time-slip to pot-healer is where the money is for me. the ending of the last makes sense as capstone to his whole sixties thing on every imaginable level. (of the two that follow it before he slows down 'maze of death' is pretty negligible, don't think i ever got to 'frolix 8'.)
i'm not sure i feel about the late stuff as sci fi; i think by the time you're reading things like 'the divine invasion' or 'flow, my tears' you have a particular investment in him that goes beyond reading him as a science fiction writer of quality, or at least i did. ilx poster 'j.' i think i recall is more fond of 'the divine invasion' than i can understand anyone being. on the other hand, he probably does not find himself thinking about xenogears whenever he reads it or contemplates reading it.
the first-person voice in VALIS would be a remarkable achievement if he hadn't lived it. i mean, it still is, but.
― thomp, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 11:34 (1 year ago) Permalink
oh, the "i'm turning the car around" moment is hilariously funny and tragic and sad
― thomp, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 11:35 (1 year ago) Permalink
Wrote long thing, this is all that survives of it:
Voting Scanner because
But basically:
otm. His prose does certain things well – comedowny ugliness and flatness of stuff and people in particular – but the stuff inbetween the 'arias' isn't professional point-to-point keep-it-moving hackwork - it's often horribly clunky in ways that mirror the good stuff (like his dialogue is often good at these meta-therapy-speak emotional battles, but that turns into improbable tell-not-show 'i am feeling' dialogues where all the characters sound the same).
And We Can Build You was my vote for 'broken ending'.
And I thought Clans of the Alphane Moon should be renamed as well. Change to something about mental illness and/or an alien paraclete.
― woof, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 12:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
For me it's between High Castle, Three Stigmata, Ubik, and Scanner. Went with Ubik. I should re-read a bunch of these.
― Brad C., Tuesday, 15 May 2012 12:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
It's funny that he cites Now Wait For Last Year ending as GREAT writing. It's actually the opposite in my opinion, it's also a great example of one of his "huh endings" and if you read Dick's bio it's pretty creepy to boot to find a taxicab assure one of his proxy's that he's a "good man".
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 12:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
i think there might be some wiggle room to read dick's endless castrating females as at least partly projections of his endless hopeless male narrators, though there's probably more evidence against it than i'd like to countenance. i liked that moment when i read it, i haven't read that one since my teens tho.
― thomp, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 12:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
where's the thread on Lies, Inc/Unteleported Man? I did not understand that book. Not even a little. As in: I don't really get the basic outline of the plot, past the first ~ 100 pages.
― remy bean, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 13:31 (1 year ago) Permalink
Will somebody please explain PKD's Lies, Inc. / The Unteleported Man to me?
― remy bean, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 13:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
I remember liking Lies, inc., but don't really remember anything about it
― silverfish, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 14:07 (1 year ago) Permalink
from the wiki:
Circumstances had forced Rachmael to abandon his original plans and to journey to Newcolonizedland via energy transfer instead. Sinister modifications to the "Telpor" technology apparently cause its victims to experience a variety of so-called "paraworlds" which are thought to actually exist, somehow, as viable alternate realities. Participants are fearful that consensus or agreement amongst themselves as to the paraworlds' descriptions could somehow cause one or the other paraworld to manifest itself ever more aggressively until eventually displacing the current reality-paradigm altogether. And Rachmael's own paraworld experience is said to be the worst one of all.
seems straightforward enough
― silverfish, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 14:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
anyone know why 'Crack in Space' has been renamed 'Cantata-140'?
― pat rice memorial barbecue (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 14:19 (1 year ago) Permalink
Has anyone seen the Bill Pullman/Traci Lords pseudo-biopic from a few years back?
― Choad of Choad Hall (kingfish), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 14:21 (1 year ago) Permalink
I think even he regretted expanding the novella into a novel by having the main character undergo a really dull acid trip for about 50 pages.
Dunno, can't imagine the title change saves it from being one of his worst books. I saw a compendium of this, Vulcan's Hammer, Dr Futurity and The Man Who Japed, i.e. all his least readable novels in one handy volume! I'd hate to think anyone picked it up wanting to check him out, it would put anyone off for life.
― A++++++ would deal with again (Matt #2), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 17:31 (1 year ago) Permalink
I can't remember a single thing about Lies Inc. tbh his worst novels - Ganymede Takeover, Crack in Space, Lies Inc, Our Friends from Frolix 8, etc. - all kinda blur together
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 17:35 (1 year ago) Permalink
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Wednesday, 16 May 2012 00:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Thursday, 17 May 2012 00:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
that's a convincing margin.
― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 17 May 2012 00:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
I like this Ubik website : http://www.nineroses.com/pkd/ubikword.html
― A++++++ would deal with again (Matt #2), Thursday, 17 May 2012 00:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
i want to know who constituted the 'flow, my tears' bloc
― thomp, Thursday, 17 May 2012 00:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
Thought about Scanner but I'm the one who voted for Time Out of Joint
― Shakes-a-maxion (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 May 2012 01:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
didn't catch this in time to vote but i'd have voted for scanner
― the late great, Thursday, 17 May 2012 01:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
I actually forgot to vote.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Thursday, 17 May 2012 02:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
So did I.
― I must be old, I recognise nobody in ITV2 idents (aldo), Thursday, 17 May 2012 08:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
yeah, me too. The Divine Invasion should have 1 vote.
― silverfish, Thursday, 17 May 2012 14:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
According to ILX the best PKD are the ones I never got around to. Boldly taking the remedy by starting Ubik this morning (shitty PDF downloaded off the internet). Scanner after that.
― Hierophantiasis (Jon Lewis), Monday, 21 May 2012 16:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
about to finish re-reading Counter Clock-World - an odd one, almost reads like a bitter self-parody
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 21 May 2012 16:19 (1 year ago) Permalink
Every PKD thread should have a link to this, imho.
― StanM, Monday, 21 May 2012 16:30 (1 year ago) Permalink
Would have voted for Flow My Tears, and would recommend the Simularca.
― jel --, Monday, 21 May 2012 19:29 (1 year ago) Permalink
lol, was just thinking on my way back home from work about voting -- flow my tears, like jel (hi there jel!)
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 21 May 2012 20:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yeah one of the big things I've got from this thread is that Flow My Tears is essential
― Mark Ruffalo! is gonna tell us! about empathy! (loves laboured breathing), Monday, 21 May 2012 20:58 (1 year ago) Permalink
I haven't read it in a long time but it struck me as little more than an extended Twilight Zone episode tbh
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 21 May 2012 21:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
oh man, extended Twilight Zone episode! *pumped*
― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Monday, 21 May 2012 21:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
Plus I'll have the first song off the first Gary Numan album going through my head the whole time I read it.
― Hierophantiasis (Jon Lewis), Monday, 21 May 2012 21:35 (1 year ago) Permalink
it's not bad I just don't find it particularly noteworthy
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 21 May 2012 21:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
It's getting more love here than "precursor to Sandra Bullock internet pizza movie" would suggest
― Mark Ruffalo! is gonna tell us! about empathy! (loves laboured breathing), Monday, 21 May 2012 23:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
i've only read a handful of these but flow my tears was actually my least favorite of them. i'll have to try it again at some point maybe since it seems like i missed something if everyone else loves it
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 13:14 (1 year ago) Permalink
Three Stigmata was my pick, but I almost voted for Martian Time Slip, and I'm surprised it didn't place higher.
― remy bean, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 13:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
ruminations on the exegesis:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/philip-k-dick-sci-fi-philosopher-part-1/
― the fey monster (ledge), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 14:23 (1 year ago) Permalink
The unfinished mountain of paper, assembled posthumously into some 91 folders, was called “Exegesis.” The fragments were assembled by Dick’s friend Paul Williams and then sat in his garage in Glen Ellen, Calif., for the next several years. A beautifully edited selection of these texts, with a golden fish on the cover, was finally published at the end of 2011, weighing in at a mighty 950 pages. But this is still just a fraction of the whole.Dick writes, “My exegesis, then, is an attempt to understand my own understanding.” The book is the most extraordinary and extended act of self-interpretation, a seemingly endless thinking on the event of 2-3-74 that always seems to begin anew. Often dull, repetitive and given to bouts of massive paranoia, “Exegesis” also possesses many passages of genuine brilliance and is marked by an utter and utterly disarming sincerity. At times, as in the epigraph above, Dick falls into melancholic dejection and despair. But at other moments, like some latter day Simon Magus, he is possessed of a manic swelling-up of the ego to unify with the divine: “I was in the mind of God.”
Dick writes, “My exegesis, then, is an attempt to understand my own understanding.” The book is the most extraordinary and extended act of self-interpretation, a seemingly endless thinking on the event of 2-3-74 that always seems to begin anew. Often dull, repetitive and given to bouts of massive paranoia, “Exegesis” also possesses many passages of genuine brilliance and is marked by an utter and utterly disarming sincerity. At times, as in the epigraph above, Dick falls into melancholic dejection and despair. But at other moments, like some latter day Simon Magus, he is possessed of a manic swelling-up of the ego to unify with the divine: “I was in the mind of God.”
i meant to ask - has anyone read this? it's referenced throughout VALIS, and i'm assuming it's mentioned in some of his other later work?
― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 17:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
I haven't read it but an edited version was published recently. Dunno how much religious rambling I can take. The Exegesis isn't explicitly mentioned in other works but it does inform the other two books in the Valis trilogy.
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 17:20 (1 year ago) Permalink