huh Conduit for Sale! does sound like a PKD title
― Οὖτις, Friday, 29 July 2016 20:41 (seven years ago) link
I already posted this in the clickhole thread, but I liked the result I got:
You’re A True Philip K. Addickt!Lord alive, but when it comes to Philip K. Dick, you’re unstoppable! From the beginningless daymares of Runcifer Cale to the unforgettable twist of Blind, Underwater! (it’s apples), you’ve experienced just about everything his tortured mind had to offer! And now he’s dead, and each re-read milks a little less magic out of his words, and bit by bit, the spark behind them will fade and flicker out, until you’re left in a colder, darker world, a prisoner of an empty future! Wow!
Lord alive, but when it comes to Philip K. Dick, you’re unstoppable! From the beginningless daymares of Runcifer Cale to the unforgettable twist of Blind, Underwater! (it’s apples), you’ve experienced just about everything his tortured mind had to offer! And now he’s dead, and each re-read milks a little less magic out of his words, and bit by bit, the spark behind them will fade and flicker out, until you’re left in a colder, darker world, a prisoner of an empty future! Wow!
accurate!
― silverfish, Friday, 29 July 2016 20:43 (seven years ago) link
Not a prob, I still haven't read nearly everything, incl. most of his non-SF novels. They're all towering here and there, in this room and the next, not really waiting.
― dow, Friday, 29 July 2016 21:27 (seven years ago) link
You’re A Dick Disdainer!
It looks like you haven’t read a word of Philip K. Dick! You couldn’t know less about how our reality actually exists only in the mind of a young girl trapped in perpetual cryogenesis to halt the spread of her genetically engineered cancer! You have just no idea that that’s what reality actually is! Get out there and read more, for Phil’s sake!
You’re A Bit Of A Phil-O-Phile!
Hey, all right! You’ve read your fair share of Phil Dick! You’re probably plenty familiar with concepts like the Twin Planes of Electrific Dissonance, the Klein-Byrne device, and meta-anamnetic counter-remembrance, and if you found out that you were just a shell persona engineered by chess-playing androids from outside of linear time, you wouldn’t be all that surprised. That is a good and healthy way for your brain to be!
You’re A True Philip K. Addickt!
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Friday, 29 July 2016 21:42 (seven years ago) link
"Father Of Plasma, Mother Of Centipedes!"
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 9 August 2016 03:51 (seven years ago) link
lmao @ 'And the Plexi-Bishop Played Dice'
i just finished The Divine invasion, really good, but fuck i'm gonna need to read that one again.
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 9 August 2016 04:47 (seven years ago) link
Silverbob argues in one of his essays that all fictional stories follow a single template: protagonist -> conflict -> transformation. Made me think that Dick's rather unique contribution to this paradigm was to constantly undermine the reader's certainty that any of this does, in fact, happen in his stories. So many instances where these various elements are put into doubt (is the protagonist really transformed, or is he just crazy? Was the conflict illusory? etc)
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 24 January 2017 20:16 (seven years ago) link
I read a version of that argument in Silverberg's anthology Worlds of Wonder quite recently. He doesn't quite say that "all fictional stories follow a single template", rather that the protagonist>conflict>transformation formula (which is also the Syd Field three act screenwriting formula) was especially well suited to producing consistently saleable science fiction short stories in the 1950s (and even then, he acknowledges that certain writers didn't follow the formula, or successfully inverted or subverted it).
― Bongo Herbert (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 25 January 2017 16:23 (seven years ago) link
^Highly recommend that anthology.
― In Walked Bodhisattva (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 25 January 2017 16:25 (seven years ago) link
I can't remember the specific essay I was thinking of - I think it was in this: http://nonstoppress.com/2010/12/silverbergs-musings-meditations/. I don't disagree that there are nuances to this theory but I do recall him literally saying "really, there's only ONE story, and it goes like this..."
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 16:34 (seven years ago) link
Didn't attend but found out about a Spanish PKD adaptation through this post: https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/back-to-the-future-androids-dream-and-el-futuro
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 19 February 2017 15:06 (seven years ago) link
Late but wow, I'd like to see that.
Also I'm re-reading Confessions of a Crap Artist. Just so y'all know.
― The Man Who Saw The Midwife (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Monday, 14 August 2017 23:12 (six years ago) link
I thought Confessions was really good, and made me wonder about a world where he'd been a mainstream-only writer. A sadder, emptier world, obviously.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 00:14 (six years ago) link
I have been working through the Library of America collection of PK Dick on and off over the past year. Just recently finished reading Dr. Bloodmoney and Martian Time-Slip for the first time. Dr. Bloodmoney was pretty good. There is such a odd dreaminess to his stories. Most of the first volume I had read before except Ubik.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 15 August 2017 18:11 (six years ago) link
Bloodmoney's one of my favorites
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 15 August 2017 18:17 (six years ago) link
I love Bloodmoney, too, and Ubik.
I thought Confessions was really good, and made me wonder about a world where he'd been a mainstream-only writer.
I'm really enjoying it - I'd forgotten most of it so it's sort of fresh, it really has a unique feel. It's definitely making me want to check out what other non sci-fi stuff I can find by him.
― The Man Who Saw The Midwife (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Wednesday, 16 August 2017 11:17 (six years ago) link
I liked The Broken Bubble a lot
― harbinger of failure (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 16 August 2017 11:31 (six years ago) link
I've got The Exegesis Of but don't think I really give a toss about the endless gnostic / Manichean speculations except where distilled as metaphysical fiction.
― Noel Emits, Thursday, 17 August 2017 13:23 (six years ago) link
The Exegesis has value as an art object and as a grand publishing folly, rather than as a text to be read and deciphered, imho.
― Gulley Jimson (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 17 August 2017 13:26 (six years ago) link
great bathroom book
― flappy bird, Thursday, 17 August 2017 15:47 (six years ago) link
I've very gradually (as they come back into affordable print) accumulated all the non-SF PKD novels I know of, but so far have only read Mary and the Giant and The Broken Bubble, which is kind of a follow-up, though I guess several deal with Bay Area culture of the early 50s---not Beat (so far), but a different kind of realism anyway...I liked these two.
― dow, Thursday, 17 August 2017 16:30 (six years ago) link
Also ones finally in print, incl. Gather Yourselves Together (apparently completed in 1950, pub. '95) and Voices From The Street (1952/2007!)
― dow, Thursday, 17 August 2017 16:35 (six years ago) link
This looks like it might be legitimately amazing:
http://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/philip-k-dicks-electric-dreams
Also I clearly need to read more of his short stories - I only have vol 1 out of the collection of 5. Might now wait till after this airs though.
― angelo irishagreementi (ledge), Sunday, 20 August 2017 09:59 (six years ago) link
presumably this is channel 4's reaction to losing black mirror to netflix but either way i'm psyched to see more dick on teevee
― licking the yellow Toad next to the teleporter (bizarro gazzara), Sunday, 20 August 2017 10:43 (six years ago) link
don't see any dates on air time, any ideas?
― Ste, Sunday, 20 August 2017 12:38 (six years ago) link
to be announced - here as well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick%27s_Electric_Dreams
― StanM, Sunday, 20 August 2017 13:57 (six years ago) link
I visited PKD's grave in Fort Morgan, Colorado today. Someone had left a toy car on it, another had left a button with a vintage cartoon robot picture. Both had been there for a long time.
I'd post pictures right now but I'm drunk in a Nebraska cattle pasture awaiting the solar eclipse.
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 21 August 2017 03:51 (six years ago) link
Elvis appears to be having the best day ever
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Monday, 21 August 2017 05:55 (six years ago) link
lol
― Ste, Monday, 21 August 2017 08:46 (six years ago) link
Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award winner Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire, Boss Baby)
― The Adventures Of Whiteman (Bananaman Begins), Monday, 21 August 2017 09:00 (six years ago) link
The cat looks like him
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4425/36729235205_cee1c301b4_z.jpg
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 22 August 2017 06:35 (six years ago) link
9.00 on ch4 tonight, first of the Electric Dreams. Just a reminder for UKer's
― Ste, Sunday, 17 September 2017 19:12 (six years ago) link
eh
― conrad, Monday, 18 September 2017 08:57 (six years ago) link
is this any cop? The Graun seem to like it, but I have no faith in Ch4's ability to not make a dog's breakfast out of sci-fi dystopias.
― calzino, Monday, 18 September 2017 09:25 (six years ago) link
Den of Geek gave it a good right up too
― groovypanda, Monday, 18 September 2017 09:48 (six years ago) link
*write
have any of you watched it? what did you think?
― Karl Malone, Monday, 18 September 2017 16:48 (six years ago) link
Watched about 10 minutes earlier but then stopped as thought my wife might want to watch it too (she's not usually a big fan of sci-fi).Seemed pretty decent and well shot with a bit of a film noir vibe about it. As it's an anthology series I guess some episodes will be better than others.
― groovypanda, Monday, 18 September 2017 17:09 (six years ago) link
an hour - it's brief, almost like a short story, a sketch of a world and some characters, a situation
I didn't think much of last night's
― conrad, Monday, 18 September 2017 18:30 (six years ago) link
I thought it was pretty good.
Having around 50 minutes to create a world and characters is never going to be wholly satisfying but I thought they did pretty well and Grainger gave an excellent central performance.
― groovypanda, Tuesday, 19 September 2017 13:27 (six years ago) link
always thought they managed to pack a lot into e.g. 45 minutes of star trek or buffy, or even 25 of the simpsons.
this was ok, well constructed, strong echoes of blade runner. but i thought the story was a bit lacking, subsequently discovered it was basically cut from whole cloth and the only things taken from dick were the teeps & the hoods - which weren't even actual hoods in the original. they turned it from a story about a surveillance state and a totalitarian revolution into a will-they-won't-they romance. by making the teeps facially distinctive they completely removed the 'who can you trust' element, which was such a strong element of the handmaid's tale. what's the point in filming dick if you're not actually going to film dick?
― angelo irishagreementi (ledge), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 19:42 (six years ago) link
Found it quite disappointing.
― kinder, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 21:02 (six years ago) link
it's funny how hard his stuff is to adapt, 9 times out of 10 things just don't work on basic tonal or structural levels
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 21:16 (six years ago) link
I've never understood how in "A Little Something for Us Tempunauts" they are trapped in a time loop but there are periods that they can observe this from the outside and know what happened the previous loops and attend their own funerals. How can they do this? Is it supposed to make complete sense?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 21:29 (six years ago) link
Episode one had a very nothing plot, and shamelessly nicked most of its aesthetic from Bladerunner - don't have much hope for the rest of the series if this was its flagship.
― chap, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 22:05 (six years ago) link
I was hoping that they would maybe do some stories as multiple episodes to have room to adapt some of the novels.
After reading and re-reading quite a few PKD novels in the last year or so also while there was no indication in any of the novels, but so many of them circling around Mars and various views of the Bay area, one could almost envision them being put together as a tapestry kind of like how Cronenburg's Naked Lunch and the Kafka movie.
― earlnash, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 22:34 (six years ago) link
it seems like the perpetual problems with PKD adaptations is that people who don't understand his work always try to shoehorn the basic elements into some other kind of story/framework, and everything that makes the material unique or engaging gets muddled or stripped out. Really the only ones I think are successful are Bladerunner and A Scanner Darkly.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 22:38 (six years ago) link
Yup
Don't remember any problems with the time loop in Tempunauts apart from the usual. Do like the fact that it was inspired by a - somewhat similar?- Sladek story.
― Merry-Go-Sorry Somehow (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 22:41 (six years ago) link
I think Bladerunner and A Scanner Darkly both work in part because they fully embrace the sadness that is part of the core of PKD's work, these very empathetic evocations of loss, failure, sacrifice
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 22:47 (six years ago) link
It's going to be on Prime Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=470TG3AdA1A
― DJI, Friday, 6 October 2017 17:46 (six years ago) link