I've read the Tiptree bio. It is fascinating as well.
― He was only 21 years old when he 16 (Alex in SF), Saturday, 11 July 2009 14:56 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm partway through reading the collections of short stories, and King of the Elves was one of the most WTF - I hope Disney don't change a single thing...
― Not the real Village People, Saturday, 11 July 2009 20:14 (fourteen years ago) link
The best PKD biography is still Paul Williams' one: Only Apparently Real
― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 12 July 2009 00:41 (fourteen years ago) link
Start of a six part series on the LA Times site on PKD's life in Orange County. Good stuff, they're currently up to the third part.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 27 January 2010 22:02 (fourteen years ago) link
Movie version of Radio Free Albemuth on the way. Starring Alanis Morissette and with music by Robyn Hitchcock.
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 1 February 2010 08:28 (fourteen years ago) link
The Exegesis is forthcoming:
In 1974, after a number of novels that explored the notions of personal identity and what it means to be human, Mr. Dick had a series of experiences in which he believed he had information transmitted to his mind by a pink beam of light. He wrote about these and similar occurrences in autobiographical novels like “Valis,” but also contemplated their meanings in personal writings that were not published.“It’s something that he talked about and created a kind of amazing aura around,” Mr. Lethem said, “so that people have an image of it as if it’s some kind of consummated effort. ‘I’m working on my exegesis.’ But what he really meant was he was turning his brain inside out on the page, on a nightly basis, over a period of years of his life.”Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which has also acquired the rights to 39 of Mr. Dick’s previously published works and will release them next year, plans to release Volume 1 of “Exegesis,” which is about 350 pages, in the fall of 2011, and Volume 2, at the same length, a year later.
“It’s something that he talked about and created a kind of amazing aura around,” Mr. Lethem said, “so that people have an image of it as if it’s some kind of consummated effort. ‘I’m working on my exegesis.’ But what he really meant was he was turning his brain inside out on the page, on a nightly basis, over a period of years of his life.”
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which has also acquired the rights to 39 of Mr. Dick’s previously published works and will release them next year, plans to release Volume 1 of “Exegesis,” which is about 350 pages, in the fall of 2011, and Volume 2, at the same length, a year later.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:28 (fourteen years ago) link
Wow! Awesome news.
― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:32 (fourteen years ago) link
can't wait to the wikipedia summaries of these!
― emotional radiohead whatever (Jordan), Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:33 (fourteen years ago) link
I don't think this is a good idea tbh
― the sound of a norwegian guy being wrong (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:37 (fourteen years ago) link
altho I'm curious about the non-exegesis unpublished works
some of this was collected in The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings, right? Which I remember as being pretty unreadable and dull (though it has been over ten years)...
― Jeff LeVine, Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:40 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah pieces have been published here and there.
I guess if you are also excited to read rants posted on telephone poles by homeless schizophrenics then this will be right up yr alley
― the sound of a norwegian guy being wrong (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:41 (fourteen years ago) link
"Pamela Jackson, a Philip K. Dick scholar"
lol, cute. Really could care less about this, but the nearly complete canonization of Dick has truly been a wonder to behold.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:43 (fourteen years ago) link
I've enjoyed the exegesis excerpts I've read; I expect I'll enjoy the whole hit and caboodle as well.
― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:43 (fourteen years ago) link
It's still excerpts though, 700 pages out of 8,000 or whatever...
― Jeff LeVine, Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:47 (fourteen years ago) link
Whole thing feels like it'll be the equivalent to that Jung book that recently came out.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:49 (fourteen years ago) link
Sort of surprised Vintage lost (or gave up on?) the rights to Dick's work after all these years...
― Jeff LeVine, Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:49 (fourteen years ago) link
Are Jonathan Lethem books worth reading? I know him almost entirely for his "I AM THE BIGGEST DICK FANBOY"-dom, but he actually writes books, right?
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:51 (fourteen years ago) link
unfortunately no he's not worth reading anymore. as soon as the NPR/NYT crowd got ahold of him it was all over. His early stuff is quite good though, would be happy to recommend some if yr curious
― the sound of a norwegian guy being wrong (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:52 (fourteen years ago) link
xp Probably just got outbid.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:52 (fourteen years ago) link
I am. I see copies remaindered all over the place.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:53 (fourteen years ago) link
you don't love me yet (2007?) isn't horrible. there's even a kangaroo reprise
― kamerad, Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:54 (fourteen years ago) link
My commute is putting a serious dent in the stack of unread books by my bed so any suggestions are welcome actually.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:54 (fourteen years ago) link
Gun With Occasional Music - some PKD silliness (genetically engineered talking kangaroos! super-intelligent babies!) plus Dashiell Hammet/Raymond Chandler noir narrativeGirl in Landscape - PKD plus Little House on the Prairie, Martian colony coming-of-age story from the POV of a young girlAmnesia Moon - pretty much just straight PKD homage. Plague of amnesia has hit the planet, nobody can remember anything for more than a few days, civilization has collapsed, etc.The Shape We're In - THE BEST. very short, Kafka-esque journey by two hapless miniature protagonists as they try to find their way around a body that they live in (literally, they are trying to get from the bowels to the eyes)Men and Comics, some other collection I can't remember the name of right now - short stories, prose experiments, usually pretty well done. he's an excellent stylist.
Everything afterwards = crap.
― the sound of a norwegian guy being wrong (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 29 April 2010 22:56 (fourteen years ago) link
well not totally crap but there's definitely a precipitous drop in quality (imho) when he started working in more conventional literary territory. his book about an indie rock band (the above-referenced You Don't Love Me Yet) = ugh, hated it. definitely put me off him for good.
― the sound of a norwegian guy being wrong (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 29 April 2010 23:01 (fourteen years ago) link
Ick.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Thursday, 29 April 2010 23:09 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah it's about a young couple who form a band together but aren't sure they're a couple (or really a band!) and .. ugh. just... why.
― the sound of a norwegian guy being wrong (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 29 April 2010 23:12 (fourteen years ago) link
oh there's also a split book he did with Carter Scholz called Kafka in America which is really good.
― the sound of a norwegian guy being wrong (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 29 April 2010 23:13 (fourteen years ago) link
Some of the excerpts from the Exegesis have been interesting. It's hard to believe that Ubik wasn't intentionally about gnosticism but that's what he claims. Dick said he only noticed the themes in his work in retrospect. Anyone ever read the early book that was explicitly Zoroastrian (the Cosmic Puppets)?
― Kenji Shwarz, Friday, 30 April 2010 02:30 (fourteen years ago) link
Finally returned to reading PKD for the first time since junior high, just finished The Simulacra and am ready to head back to the library for more.
― he's always been a bit of an anti-climb Max (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 30 April 2010 02:46 (fourteen years ago) link
When did the 'canonization' of PKD start? Anyone in particular responsible (Fredric Jameson)?
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 30 April 2010 18:34 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah I've read Cosmic Puppets... but lol don't remember a thing about it! A lot of his early work blurs together for me
― the sound of a norwegian guy being wrong (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 30 April 2010 18:38 (fourteen years ago) link
nah I would credit other sci-fi writers actually - LeGuin and Lem in particular were big advocates, and wrote stuff about him prior to his death iirc
― the sound of a norwegian guy being wrong (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 30 April 2010 18:39 (fourteen years ago) link
and duh Bladerunner
― the sound of a norwegian guy being wrong (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 30 April 2010 18:40 (fourteen years ago) link
LeGuin and Lem in particularWhen Author X was Compared to Author Y by Author Z
― Blecch Generation (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 April 2010 18:45 (fourteen years ago) link
The Cosmic Puppets is one of PKD's more underrated books imo. Generally I'm not a huge fan of his early work, but this one was great. The whole thing feels like a really weird twilight zone episode and I mean that in the best way possible.
― peter in montreal, Friday, 30 April 2010 18:45 (fourteen years ago) link
Bladerunner was more of a factor in putting the word of PKD out there, and I guess that could've been picked up by academics...which is more what I'm wondering about as to what sparked that process of canonization. xxp
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 30 April 2010 18:47 (fourteen years ago) link
Lem and Malzberg both published excellent career overviews of PKDs (Lem's was published while he was still alive iirc)
xp
― the sound of a norwegian guy being wrong (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 30 April 2010 18:48 (fourteen years ago) link
Seconded, it doesn't really fall into the SF bracket at all. Dunno what you'd call it genre-wise, fantasy? Not that it matters.
― Matt #2, Friday, 30 April 2010 19:21 (fourteen years ago) link
"When did the 'canonization' of PKD start?"
Late 70s was when it started to expand beyond sci-fi circles. It def. snowballed though post-Bladerunner and the Vintage tpbs.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Friday, 30 April 2010 19:42 (fourteen years ago) link
shakey this shape we're in's my favorite lethem too. it's almost as good as a donald barthelme novel. don't get the hate for ydlmy. indie rock shtick notwithstanding it's a long love letter to n. west and miss lonelyhearts imho
― kamerad, Friday, 30 April 2010 19:45 (fourteen years ago) link
When Jonathan Letham was Compared to Nathaniel West by Poster Kamerad.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Friday, 30 April 2010 19:46 (fourteen years ago) link
you spelled his name wrong though
― kamerad, Friday, 30 April 2010 19:47 (fourteen years ago) link
I did it on purpose just to demonstrate how little I care.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Friday, 30 April 2010 19:49 (fourteen years ago) link
goes without saying
― kamerad, Friday, 30 April 2010 20:00 (fourteen years ago) link
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Friday, April 30, 2010 3:49 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
d-d-d-dang... thats cold bro...
― max, Friday, 30 April 2010 23:08 (fourteen years ago) link
lol I'm sure Jonothan Lethem is crying all the way to bank.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Friday, 30 April 2010 23:08 (fourteen years ago) link
he is :(
― max, Friday, 30 April 2010 23:25 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm getting onto a PKD roll, finally starting to splurge on all the books of his that I have been meaning to get to for years. Up to now I had only read the easy famous ones - Do Androids and Man In The High Castle, but now I have just finished Flow My Tears (after rereading Do Androids for SF book club) and am planning to read Dr Bloodmoney and VALIS soon (mainly because they are the ones lying around at home). I am open to recommendations for future reads.
Has anyone tried his non-SF books? I found myself imagining that I was getting an inkling of what they are like from some of the dialogue and situations in Flow My Tears - people moaning about their lives and being dissatisfied and stuff.
― The New Dirty Vicar, Friday, 19 August 2011 12:23 (twelve years ago) link
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer is the best of the non-sci-fi in my opinion. The rest are just okay.
I'm assuming even though you haven't mentioned it, you've read A Scanner Darkly. If not that's definitely a must read. Martian Time-Slip, Now Wait For Last Year, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch are all amazing. I think there is a thread for POX PKD novels. I'll find that and link to it.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Friday, 19 August 2011 12:30 (twelve years ago) link