UBIK or Flow My Tears. otm about Timothy Archer being atypically low-key. Karl i'd recommend it only if you've read The Divine Invasion, which is somehow even wilder than VALIS and makes Timothy Archer seem even more straightforward. even though it's an unintended trilogy, I think it works- there are hints of mysticism/gnosticism in Timothy Archer that are explicit throughout the other two books. but its strongest suit is the voice: Ursula K. LeGuin criticized PKD's lack of well developed female characters, and he wrote Timothy Archer from the POV of a woman, and imo did a surprisingly good job.
as far as Scanner Darkly setting the bar high... I mean, that's bound to happen if you start with any of the books mentioned. like I wouldn't recommend Eye in the Sky (even though I love it) first over Flow My Tears.
Flow My Tears just has a classic, simple setup (famous person wakes up and no one knows who he is), and its peculiarity unfolds more gradually than other of the later works. like the whole first bit with the girl he's following around the city is paced very strangely, and then how it all ends up with the incest thing and the woman in bondage, and then she's a skeleton? that shit rules
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 17:59 (six years ago) link
I recall I was just constantly wtfing and pausing for mental breath reading Three Stigmata.
― In space, pizza sends out for YOU (Ste), Tuesday, 27 February 2018 18:19 (six years ago) link
I just mean that Ubik still has a somewhat unpolished and pulpy style to the writing (though it’s funny and fast-paced). It doesn’t bother me, but A Scanner Darkly stands apart in terms of his writing imo, and going from that to something like Three Stigmata (which I love) might be startling.
― JoeStork, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 18:19 (six years ago) link
Xp yeah Three Stigmata has like 15 insane plot twists in the last 50 pages I think.
― JoeStork, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 18:22 (six years ago) link
you've definitely gotta be primed for Three Stigmata, that was maybe the 10th novel of his that I read and honestly I missed a lot, and knowing its reputation, was let down when I finished it. I really need to revisit it. agree that UBIK is pulpy but it's probably the best work of that period of his writing.
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 18:35 (six years ago) link
I read “Faith of Our Fathers” recently. All-time line - “And I will tell you this: there are things worse than I. But you won't meet them because by then I will have killed you.”
― JoeStork, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 19:06 (six years ago) link
Dr. Bloodmoney for total insanity
― Lockhorn. Lockhorn breed-uh (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 28 February 2018 22:49 (six years ago) link
I read Martian Time-Slip today, not quite out there like most of his work but man I can't stop loving his books.
― In space, pizza sends out for YOU (Ste), Thursday, 1 March 2018 01:15 (six years ago) link
yea i wasn't keen on that one either, a lot of people like it
― flappy bird, Thursday, 1 March 2018 03:44 (six years ago) link
Electric dreams: Autofac was pretty good. Janelle Monae as a customer service bot!
― kinder, Tuesday, 13 March 2018 13:13 (six years ago) link
I would not start with UBIK but with the short stories.
This is madness
― blood, loud screaming and nudity (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Sunday, 17 March 2019 09:01 (five years ago) link
Just started Skull. Hurrah
― nathom, Sunday, 17 March 2019 09:44 (five years ago) link
PKD's widow Tessa has a youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/busby777/
― flappy bird, Sunday, 2 June 2019 05:52 (four years ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ee_H1VMX0AUzLRG?format=jpg&name=small
Schmowen@themoosemingles
Philip K. Dick, The Germs’ manager Nicole Panter, author KW Jeter, and artist Gary Panter at Philip K. Dick’s Santa Ana condo. Note poster of Fat Freddy of Freak Bros fame.
Marc ʄⁿ Laidlaw@marc_laidlaw·7h
Paul Mavrides tells an amazing story about how he was ghost-drawing a Fat Freddy poster for Shelton just when "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon" (which hinges on such a poster, and the possibility it's a forgery (in a forged reality)) appeared in Playboy.
Whole thread is worth reading, but got to go now.
― dow, Monday, 10 August 2020 03:21 (three years ago) link
Whole Twitter thread, that is (this one too o course)
― dow, Monday, 10 August 2020 03:25 (three years ago) link
Poster is the 'Keed Spills' Freddy anti-speed warning, appropriately/ironically.
― Ward Fowler, Monday, 10 August 2020 06:34 (three years ago) link
PDK seems to have been speed-dependent, to an extent, during extended bouts of writing---for reasons of inspiration, obsession, and/or financial desperation---think he acknowledged it in intro to at least one of his books (A Scanner Darkly, maybe?), and it may well have shortened his life---as William Burroughs observed, there were some old junkies, hardly any old speed freaks.
― dow, Monday, 10 August 2020 17:49 (three years ago) link
I think nearly every major work was written in a speed haze or post-74 theophany (tho he still used speed, like that speech in France 1977)
― flappy bird, Monday, 10 August 2020 17:55 (three years ago) link
"Non-woven masks better to stop Covid-19, says Japanese supercomputer."
― grebo shot first (Noel Emits), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 13:20 (three years ago) link