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Phillip K. Dick is one of the greatest sci-fi authors ever. Probably most famous for Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which was turned into Blade Runner, and The Man in the High Tower, that’s just scratching the surface of his oeuvre. I’m currently reading The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and it is some trippy poo poo. The guy can write some really weird poo poo and I’ve only read a few of his, but I’m intending to read a lot more after Palmer Eldritch. Then I’m going to post about it.
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Apr 21, 2023 10:52
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| # ? May 9, 2024 08:58 |
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I’ve read a few of his. He’s very, very, very much an “ideas guy”, whoch is why I think his books turn into movies so well. They’re packed with innovative ideas (overpacked, really, often with two or three things that should be the “main thing making this sci-fi” all at once with no discernible congruent theme) with garbage characters, dialogue, and journeyman writing ability in general. Pacing is all off, etc. but still, just great ideas in those weird books. My favorite, which I never see anyone talk about, is Martian Time Slip. It revolves around a dinner/meeting that goes terribly wrong, as seen through sketchy premonitions and distorted memories; but the actual night of the event itself is skipped over. It’s a great conceit and works really well. The looming malice and strangeness of the world is palpable.
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Apr 21, 2023 13:35
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I think a sense of looming malice and desperation is a big thing for PKD generally. He does not write pleasant worlds.
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Apr 21, 2023 13:43
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I got copy of The Hanging Stranger for free and that originally caught my interest. I had heard of "Do Androids Dream..." but wasn't ware of the author. A Scanner Darkly was really outstanding. I think his writing style really helped with the juxtaposition of the protagonists sort of... "dual life" (tough to explain without spoilers) and the descent into a sort of fugue before the end.
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Apr 21, 2023 15:58
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Ubik was pretty effective at screwing with my expectations. There's so much going on which doesn't ring alarms at first read and then it clicks and snaps shut on you. And A Scanner Darkly's protag could speak with a self-aware voice which fit regardless of the role they were in. Their constant questioning of their own directives made them both reliable and unreliable. I love the section in the driveway, where he realizes the insanity/inanity of the argument he's having but continues talking.
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Apr 21, 2023 18:15
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Ubik kicks rear end. probably my favorite of his.
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Apr 22, 2023 23:21
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Last PKD book I read was Dr. Futurity which went some fairly wild places, definitely feels like he loses interest in one sci fi concept halfway through and just plows headfirst into a different one.
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Apr 23, 2023 00:48
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Plebian Parasite posted:Last PKD book I read was Dr. Futurity which went some fairly wild places, definitely feels like he loses interest in one sci fi concept halfway through and just plows headfirst into a different one. That's our Crap Artist PKD
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Apr 24, 2023 02:15
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Grassy Knowles posted:That's our Crap Artist PKD iirc the opening concept of the book is "This society has a set amount of people alive and no one new can be born until someone dies so they hate doctors and curing people" and the book ends with Time traveling native americans going back in time to kill Columbus and make sure the new world is never discovered
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Apr 24, 2023 05:36
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Plebian Parasite posted:Last PKD book I read was Dr. Futurity which went some fairly wild places, definitely feels like he loses interest in one sci fi concept halfway through and just plows headfirst into a different one. I read that for a time PKD would use meth and go on these 24-hour writing binges, and several of his earlier works were basically written in two or three of these meth-fueled sessions. He'd go over the whole work once for revisions, then submit. If you read enough of his books you learn to identify when exactly one meth session ended and another began.
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Apr 24, 2023 20:05
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Plebian Parasite posted:iirc the opening concept of the book is "This society has a set amount of people alive and no one new can be born until someone dies so they hate doctors and curing people" and the book ends with Time traveling native americans going back in time to kill Columbus and make sure the new world is never discovered lmao this was not a twist I was expecting
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Apr 24, 2023 20:35
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Judgy Fucker posted:I read that for a time PKD would use meth and go on these 24-hour writing binges, and several of his earlier works were basically written in two or three of these meth-fueled sessions. He'd go over the whole work once for revisions, then submit. Absolutely this I read Electric Sheep and Man in the High Castle as a kid before I knew anything about Dick's background or what stimulants are and it was really apparent that something weird happened to the author between pages. IIRC there is that one sections in Androids where the protagonist just fucks off into the desert and talks to an electric toad and cries. Or that scene in High Castle where the protagonist is suddenly attacked by her Italian lover(?) in the bathroom and these scenes still stick out in my mind after all those years. After I read Scanner Darkly everything made so much sense.
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Apr 25, 2023 20:37
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I really liked Counter-Clock World where time goes backward and it's just weird as hell. Instead of failing to recall the plot, I'll just post a blurb from Wikipedia and say it would make a super cool movie and maybe what TeneT should have been? Maybe it was, I only saw part of it on tv in a hotel.wikipedia posted:The Hobart Phase is the new order of life where people rise from the dead and are rejuvenated. Time reversal apparently began in 1986. Other than aging, Hobart Phase resurrection has changed nutritional and excretion processes and associated social taboos. People do not eat, but instead consume "Sogum" anally through a pipe, and later "plop" out food orally, which is done in private, due to its 'shameful' nature. As for smoking, cigarettes are no longer smoked, but the smoke instead blown back into them, making them grow back to normal size (this also clears and freshens the air). "Goodbye" and "hello" have reversed their order within standard greetings, and "food" is used as a drop-in replacement for the expletive "poo poo"
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Apr 25, 2023 21:46
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I do not have schizophrenia (as fas as I know) but reading Valis seems to give a pretty good first-person impression of the condition to those without it I also could never get over "Horselover Fat" lol
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Apr 25, 2023 22:40
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Judgy Fucker posted:I do not have schizophrenia (as fas as I know) but reading Valis seems to give a pretty good first-person impression of the condition to those without it Best self insert name ever
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Apr 26, 2023 01:20
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I think about how Ubik was made into a squad based tactics game maybe once a month. I'm not convinced it really exists.
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Apr 29, 2023 22:49
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haha. i wonder if you can get into an argument with a door.
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Apr 29, 2023 22:52
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I need to read ubik.
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Apr 29, 2023 23:05
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Lawman 0 posted:I need to read ubik. Yes, you do
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Apr 30, 2023 00:51
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Your Uncle Dracula posted:I think about how Ubik was made into a squad based tactics game maybe once a month. I'm not convinced it really exists. wtf
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Apr 30, 2023 00:55
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that's worse than the sequel to Groundhog Day being a VR game!
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Apr 30, 2023 03:08
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when you read Ubik, think about how "coin operated everything" is currently a serious idea being promoted by bitcoiners
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Apr 30, 2023 03:45
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When i was younger, i thought that "Blade Runner/Androids..." was a glimpse into some horrible future But every time i see anything new from Boston Dynamics, or like 4000 drones flying in perfect synchronicity, I become more and more convinced that Second Variety is exactly the future we have created.
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May 5, 2023 17:16
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Yeah. The future isn't cool cyberpunk poo poo like androids or flying cars. It's arguing with the coin-operated door to your own apartment in a Bezoschevka to let you in.
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May 5, 2023 17:24
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Judgy Fucker posted:Yeah. The future isn't cool cyberpunk poo poo like androids or flying cars. It's arguing with the coin-operated door to your own apartment in a Bezoschevka to let you in. How am I just now putting together that the Futurama writers room must've had some Dick laying around the breakroom
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May 5, 2023 17:25
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Just finished Stigmata. Very cool book, I enjoyed it a lot.
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May 5, 2023 17:51
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I read Do Androids Dream back in high school, circa 2006. A couple years later (2010 ish) I read Scanner Darkly. A year or so back I read High Castle. I'm actually rereading Androids now and it's a trip. I remember a lot actually but I appreciate it more now (as I probably appreciate everything more now). It's also funny because back then the book being set in the far-flung year 2021 seemed quaint and now that is actually the past so it's pretty funny and even more quaint. I'll probably read more Dick this year, way way back I bought almost all of his novels because Amazon had them all for $2 (except Androids but that was on sale a few years ago so I got it too). I think I'll do Ubik or maybe Flow My Tears because those interest me the most.
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May 6, 2023 14:38
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Joe Chip Money would be a good username
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May 7, 2023 12:34
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Just yesterday a friend mentioned Electric Sheep to me, first time I'd thought about it in a while. I haven't read it or any of his work but this thread is making me think I should put it on my list.
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May 7, 2023 20:32
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rear end-penny posted:Just yesterday a friend mentioned Electric Sheep to me, first time I'd thought about it in a while. I haven't read it or any of his work but this thread is making me think I should put it on my list. it's really different from Blade Runner so don't go into it expecting that.
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May 7, 2023 20:37
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I went through a really bad depression hole in my early 20s, stopped going to college, only left my room for work, and would lay around alternating between Terry Pratchet and PKD. UBIK sticks out in my mind as being the worst I’ve ever felt while reading. It’s so unrelentingly bleak. The hopelessness of the scene on the staircase sticks out to me. I got half-way through VALIS and sought out psychiatric help. I have not read any PKD since, but I really want to see if UBIK was that depressing or if my mental health was throwing off my perception.
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May 10, 2023 16:24
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Chimbley Sweep posted:I went through a really bad depression hole in my early 20s, stopped going to college, only left my room for work, and would lay around alternating between Terry Pratchet and PKD. UBIK sticks out in my mind as being the worst I’ve ever felt while reading. It’s so unrelentingly bleak. The hopelessness of the scene on the staircase sticks out to me. it was taught in my friends graduate level psychology class as an example of how psychosis changes the way people process information and think, so it probably was hitting way harder as a result.
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May 10, 2023 16:30
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I read flow my tears and scanner darkly. I really liked that film adaptation of scanner with Keanu and the squigglevison, the movie version gave me feels.
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May 14, 2023 21:49
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Decedent posted:I read flow my tears and scanner darkly. I really liked that film adaptation of scanner with Keanu and the squigglevison, the movie version gave me feels. "Because if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I do, then I'm cursed and cursed again. I'll only wind up dead this way, knowing very little, and getting that little fragment wrong too." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc03l3zt3t4
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May 14, 2023 22:00
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I saw this exchange about PKD online and lolquote:-I was a student of [Famous fiction author and contemporary of PKD who will remain unnamed because it could potentially dox me] who would tell us stories like “yeah me and Phil worked at a pizza place for a bit and we got fired because we made meat foam with the sausage grinder.” So you gotta understand that Phillip K. Dick was actually just like that all the time. VALIS is dope, but in terms of sci-fi-authors-cum-occultists prefer Robert Anton Wilson’s work.
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May 20, 2023 22:06
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