If it's cheap, why not? I like his pulp books a lot tho
― sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Friday, 2 May 2014 11:38 (ten years ago) link
I'm reading the Simulacra now, which at about 1/3 through has yet to hit its stride.
Btw if you live in New York, most of his stuff is available as free e-book loans from the public library.
― calstars, Friday, 2 May 2014 11:39 (ten years ago) link
Hm. They all say "0 Availability on 0 Copies." Maybe the system is down.
― Bee Traven Thousand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 2 May 2014 12:56 (ten years ago) link
http://io9.com/last-nights-lego-simpsons-episode-was-filled-with-phili-1571977258
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 5 May 2014 19:11 (nine years ago) link
20 years ago I would have maybe thought that was funny
― PLATYPUS OF DOOM (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 5 May 2014 19:27 (nine years ago) link
lol at the absence of pun in 'we can build you'
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Tuesday, 6 May 2014 13:31 (nine years ago) link
The Simulacra not one of his strongest works. Bit of a hodgepodge of things from his other novels
― calstars, Tuesday, 13 May 2014 11:38 (nine years ago) link
Lies, inc. takes place in 2014, so it has that going for it
― calstars, Friday, 16 May 2014 21:44 (nine years ago) link
Man In the High Castle on Amazon?!?!?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RSI5EHQ/ref=dv_dp_ep1
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Thursday, 15 January 2015 22:23 (nine years ago) link
Apparently this just got released like five minutes ago or something....
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Thursday, 15 January 2015 22:26 (nine years ago) link
Talk about zero pre-release fanfare.
bodes well
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 15 January 2015 22:28 (nine years ago) link
Sounds awesome.
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Thursday, 15 January 2015 22:33 (nine years ago) link
Hopefully there's at least one entire episode devoted to a character trying to make sense of an I Ching reading
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 15 January 2015 22:37 (nine years ago) link
i've been on another PKD kick recently, but this time in combination with an emmanuel carrere kick. i read carrere's The Adversary (wonderful book) which led me to go ahead and check out his other stuff. currently reading the mustache, which is heavily influenced by PKD (a man shaves his mustache and then his wife claims that he never had a mustache, leading to mounting psychological agony, paranoid conspiracy theories, sleeping pills, identify confusion, mindwarping, etc), and then realized that carrere wrote a biography of PKD (I am alive and you are dead). i'm still in the first 1/3 of the biography but i love it so far. a lot of carrere's writing exists in a weird zone between fiction and nonfiction, and his biography is no exception. i could see how some people looking for a comprehensive factual account of his life wouldn't like it, but i think it's a fine way to approach a person like PKD - i feel like PKD would approve.
i also recently acquired the exegesis but it's gonna be a while before i get around to it and i'm not sure i'll ever even partly understand it anyway.
― ♪♫_\o/_♫♪ (Karl Malone), Thursday, 15 January 2015 23:02 (nine years ago) link
"I Am Alive and You Are Dead" is great, probably the best Dick "biography" there is. Although it does ultimately make him out to be a rather sad figure imo.
not really interested in the exegesis myself
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 15 January 2015 23:11 (nine years ago) link
Ditto on all three comments.
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Thursday, 15 January 2015 23:27 (nine years ago) link
anybody else watch it?
I'm fairly split. The visuals and world-building, top notch and no expenses spared -- the dialog and acting, almost unwatchably stiff, and the changes they've made to make sure the series can potentially keep going past the framework of the book are all painfully conventional. Watching this actively clouded my memories of the details in the book. But then I went online and saw 800+ four to five star reviews afterwards which was a very PKD kind of experience so it all worked out
― Milton Parker, Friday, 16 January 2015 19:48 (nine years ago) link
This weekend I will but not yet.
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Friday, 16 January 2015 20:00 (nine years ago) link
milton it's good to know which parts of my critical brain I need to tamp down in advance. I can just about get by on mere world-building I think.
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Friday, 16 January 2015 20:24 (nine years ago) link
I feel cheated when characters act contrary to their ultimate convictions WHEN ALONE
― calstars, Saturday, 17 January 2015 05:00 (nine years ago) link
This has been greenlit by Amazon for a full series.
― Spencer Chow, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 14:54 (nine years ago) link
I liked this. I probably should re-read the book now.
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 18 February 2015 15:36 (nine years ago) link
What if the show is the REAL 'Man in the High Castle'??
― Spencer Chow, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 15:58 (nine years ago) link
We'll know if Lady Stoneheart never appears oh wait
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 16:19 (nine years ago) link
only one way to find out - let's ask the i-ching xp
― bizarro gazzara, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 16:20 (nine years ago) link
i may come off as a total novice but ... what exactly happens at the end of The Man In The High Castle (the book)? I've always been confused (which may be part of the point).
― tylerw, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 16:30 (nine years ago) link
it's been a while, but don't the main characters get confirmation from the i-ching that they're living in a false/parallel universe and the universe from the book-within-a-book is the real one?
― bizarro gazzara, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 16:32 (nine years ago) link
yeahhh, i guess that is my takeaway from it
― tylerw, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 16:36 (nine years ago) link
I think that's implied but it's ambiguous
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 16:45 (nine years ago) link
PKD not great on endings on the whole anyway, ambiguity was a good move for him
― めんどくさかった (Matt #2), Wednesday, 18 February 2015 16:49 (nine years ago) link
his best endings are full of dread and ambiguity - Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, UBIK, Valis. Scanner Darkly not v ambiguous but maybe his best ending.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 16:54 (nine years ago) link
yeah i like the feeling of the ending of man in the high castle, but i guess i've always been unclear as to whether it's quite as ambiguous as it seems? something like that.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 16:55 (nine years ago) link
i haven't seen the show yet. is it meant to be an ongoing series, or just a single run, covering the events in the book?
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 17:23 (nine years ago) link
as long as the book is a general premise, and the show develops its own sense of being shortly... this feels like it could be another fringe.
― the captain beefheart of personal hygiene (soda), Wednesday, 18 February 2015 17:24 (nine years ago) link
each episode they discover yet another alternate reality
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 17:27 (nine years ago) link
am i misremembering, or did pkd do a kinda/sorta sequel to High Castle?
― tylerw, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 17:29 (nine years ago) link
The whole concept of an alternate universe is expanded upon in the chapters Dick wrote for a proposed sequel to TMITHC. Told from a Nazi perspective, these chapters examine the existence of the Nebenwelt, the alternate reality wherein the Allies won the war. Just in these chapters, it becomes clear that the science fiction element is much stronger in his unfinished sequel. It’s been said that Dick was unable to finish this novel due to his inability to deal and write about the Nazi mentality. For a look at these chapters and a revealing essay by Dick entitled “Nazism and The Man In The High Castle” take a look at The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick – Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 17:33 (nine years ago) link
ah ok, that must be what i'm thinking of.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 17:34 (nine years ago) link
Also, there is the implication that our own universe is also false.
― Spencer Chow, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 23:05 (nine years ago) link
This thing
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 26 September 2015 19:55 (eight years ago) link
Will def have to grok that when more time (R. Crumb X PKD!), but yes there was the vision of our universe as a false one too--- at least partially inspired by a dark-haired girl, delivering pizza while wearing a fish Xtian symbol--thing I started seeing in the 70s---our universe is a defective copy, which began to be revealed as such via Watergate, when the continuum of deception cracked or stumbled for a moment: we're really living in the early First Century AD, There's much more, but think this is what I read in The Dark-Haired Girl, which I got from Mark Zeising in the early 90s (think he published it, as well as selling it via mailorder)--mainly letters(?), notes, not really presented as a novel---probably included in The Exegesis.
― dow, Saturday, 26 September 2015 21:07 (eight years ago) link
Looks like that girl or her successor is in Crumb's version.
― dow, Saturday, 26 September 2015 21:09 (eight years ago) link
So cool!
― calstars, Saturday, 26 September 2015 21:15 (eight years ago) link
That Crumb comic was linked above 13 years ago. :D It's great!
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Saturday, 26 September 2015 21:30 (eight years ago) link
"Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to"
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 26 September 2015 22:32 (eight years ago) link
Dick & lizard conspirary theorists otm re: third panel from the end.
― steppenwolf in white van speaker scam (ledge), Saturday, 26 September 2015 23:06 (eight years ago) link
First two eps of Man In The Castle up on Amazon. Remainder coming on 11/20.
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Saturday, 24 October 2015 14:04 (eight years ago) link
best american author of the 20th century or unable to write a decent sentence?
A couple of years ago I decided to see what the fuss was about and I read three of his most admired novels. I am perfectly willing to accept the idea that PK Dick is the greatest writer of sci-fi, if only because so many sci-fi enthusiasts would say the same. Unfortunately, we didn't play well together.
I won't deny that his inventiveness was of a very high order and his themes were far-reaching and challenging, but my pleasure in his inventiveness was greatly impaired by his sloppiness of execution, his disinterest in his characters as people, his stale dialogue and perfunctory plotting. I may read him again, but I'm in no hurry.
― Aimless, Saturday, 24 October 2015 16:53 (eight years ago) link
a scanner darkly is his best prose imo
― flappy bird, Saturday, 24 October 2015 17:13 (eight years ago) link