This is the 80th anniversary of the birthday of Philip K. Dick, a science-fiction writer whose wild visions, from our 20/20 backward perspective, came far out of his time. His stories have been adapted into a variety of movies that challenge our notions of reality, the universe, and self: Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Impostor, Screamers, Next. His strangely named stories were nominated for and won numerous awards: Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?; The Man in the High Castle; Ubik; A Scanner Darkly; Dr. Bloodmoney.And he inspired me to write "Deus Jane," a poor homage to a transcendent genius. Thank you for that, man.
Anyone else remember this guy?
Anyone else think about writing a Daria fanfic with a PKD twist?
PPMB
- Yes, It's Summer, by Richard Lobinske (Part 1): The alternate-universe version of Is It Fall Yet? promises to be a killer. Best line so far: "But…Mr. O'Neill? All summer? What did I do that was so wrong?"
7 comments:
He's a genius but oddly enough- there is allot of stuff written about him saying: He can't write.
But his ideas are so unique that people love him.
He's on my reading list actually. My best friend is a huge devotee of him and insists i read some.
TAG wrote: Anyone else remember this guy?
The first PKD novel I read, about 1969 was the transcendentally weird Galactic Pot Healer. It has an alien in it who would be at home in a Warner Brothers cartoon. As can be expected, some of his books are better than others, he's a bit uneven. All have something of value, particularly how he gets you to look at underlying assumptions. Daria would be a PKD reader.
Part of the problem, perhaps, is that PKD was probably schizophrenic. If so, it is amazing he got as far as he did and had such influence on popular culture.
I've only ever read one thing of Dick's, an essay, and it's one of the most fantastic things I've ever read: http://www.greylodge.org/occultreview/glor_010/dick_world.htm
I still have to get around to reading The Man in the High Castle someday, too.
Another essay you might want to read by PKD is How to Build a Universe that Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later.
http://deoxy.org/pkd_how2build.htm
PKD was a great short-story writer. His novels, on the other hand, tend to feel rather meandering and plotless. Actually, I find that to be the problem with a lot of written sci-fi; ideas are often seen as justification enough for a story, and things such as characterization and style as extraneous. It's rare I can make it through a Hugo- or Nebula-award-winner, as the writing is often appallingly sub-par, even while the ideas are intriguing.
PKD created the most thought provoking concepts but his execution of said concepts were seriously lacking.
The only thing that actually clicked with me was Man in the High Castle. And that was because he portrayed the Axis (Japan)dominated America as so mundane that it was good.
Post a Comment