Comments on: Happy birthday, Philip K Dick

By: frank 2u

frank 2u — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:04:24 +0000

thanks for this, found the website while googling ‘consumer fascism’
~from ’strength through unity’ search
~as i saw this phrase on a company business card
~left by a mobile access work platform sales rep
…now this really is sloppy exploration!!!

curious to me, i ended up at this specific article, almost directly without a tangible lead & find my favouite author, Kafka, as a sub-centre!?

thanks for this, i haven’t read for c.20 yrs but will now look at Dick’s & Ballard’s books recommended here.

By: Rod Kierkegaard Jr

Rod Kierkegaard Jr — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:41:21 +0000

I’ve spent a long life doing little but reading. I first read PKD in the ’50s, when his short stories first started appearing in SF magazines; JGB when his first novels started coming out a few years later (though his first exposure to most of his public was on British TV). I’ve read all but a handful of the novels, short stories, interviews &tc that both men have published and feel qualified to correct some of the assertions above. They are arguments over personal taste and, as in music or the other arts, there can be no debate in such matters. I am a devotee of both writers and believe that they share many similarities–as well as major differences. Both are frustratingly unpolished stylists (the tone of Ballard’s prose in “The Kindness of Women”, for example, is cringe-inducing; some of Dick’s unedited DAW rush-jobs make one’s eyes water), yet both are writers of genius, regardless of the condescension, or even contempt, usually afforded their genre. Raw genius, in fact–so raw, so overwhelming, that these days neither man would be likely to be published at all if he was just starting out. Instead, each would probably be condemned by the times to fritter away the fruits of his talent (and madness) by blogging. Or Twittering.

By: Vincent

Vincent — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:23:03 +0000

Some consider the novels
Counter-clock world, A maze of death, Dies irae and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch to be some of its best works.
Someone not satisfied with its current Dick’s readings can try these.

By: George

George — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:05:51 +0000

Re: the PKD as sloppy writer argument, I remember reading a theory about there being two basic types of writer: those who have their stories well worked out in advance and who can therefore concentrate on their prose style, and those who don’t know where they’re going but are fascinated by certain possibilities and just want to see where these will lead. They may set up an intriguing idea or they may embody different philosophies in different characters. In any case – these latter writers set up their stories like experiments and then “stand back” to see how it turns out.

Of course this is a simplification but I think that sometimes it does apply. e.g. a writer like Thomas Ligotti is of the first type (and Ligotti said he couldn’t stomach Dick’s “pulp style”). PKD is definitely one of the second type. This may explain why his prose style was simply serviceable (to be polite). You might say he really doesn’t care about the writing itself. He just wants to see where it will lead.

By: Danny

Danny — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:45:48 +0000

I’m a big fan of both, read everything, and I would say Dick has more heart than Ballard, it’s that simple. True, Dick’s writing is often sloppy, but I’ve found it’s kind of engaging, as if he’s thinking with you: ‘oh dear, what next?’
And nobody does slapstick metaphysics like Dick.

By: Simon Sellars

Simon Sellars — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 08:34:20 +0000

Are you in the US, Palski? In that case, you absolutely need to get the word out. Ballard does not even have a current publishing deal in the US — it’s an absolute travesty.

By: Palski

Palski — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:22:41 +0000

You’re all right and all interesting. It seems we each have a special place for him. I wanted to let you know that I never would have found Ballard when I was young if someone hadn’t turned me on to him. Let’s make sure the next generation knows who is. I can always enjoy lending a starter book. Especially in the USA where some people think we’re losing him.

By: Peter H

Peter H — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 22:11:11 +0000

Some random reactive spewing on the comments above…
Thanks for the link to the radio show.
I was a teenage fan of Ballard and Dick, just as they started to be considered respectable in the early 1980s, and I have unashamed affection for both. What I think they have in common is that they are each revered more for the sum of their works, their overall visions, rather than for individual novels. Any given Dick novel can seem, in itself, insubstantial, but it always adds another layer or another angle to his universe. Ballard’s novels are all, ahem, “Ballardian” and we seem to celebrate their common themes rather than any individual exellence.
Someone mentioned above that Dick’s novels were pounded out in a hurry for cash: all the more wondrous that he could produce highlights like The Man In The High Castle, Flow My Tears the Policeman Said, and A Scanner Darkly.
A big difference for me between the two authors is that Dick is totally within the individual skins of his characters – their hopes, anxieties, and petty frustrations – while Ballard’s read more to me like cyphers for different states of mind.
Regarding the Dick films, only A Scanner Darkly can really be treated as an adaptation. The others were filleted for alternative-reality plot twists, and even the milestone Blade Runner (although Dick-ian in spirit) left a lot of the book behind. It’s worth seeking out Linklater’s earlier, rotoscoped Waking Life: a very personal meditation on dreams and consciousness. It’s clear that Linklater really understands Dick and specifically wanted to make a faithful A Scanner Darkly. At first I thought that the rotoscoping would be used only for the scramble suits, but it does make some kind of sense. Keanu Reeves (I’m no fan of his) was the name whose appeal got the film made at all. The film is pretty good, and its one real flaw is that most of Arctor’s downward cognitive in NewPath is not shown, so that the sense of uplift that comes from his keeping the Substance D flowers (showing that some of his memory and therefore identity is still intact) is greatly diminished.
I’m intrigued by the idea of a Radio Free Albemuth film…

By: johnny strike

johnny strike — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:20:30 +0000

umberto,

re: your 12/23 post

why do you take opposing views as some kind of personal attack? as gary lee-nova so eloquently put it, ‘I do regard his contributions to literature as important, just not very important to me.’
i’m still curious about dick and plan on trying some books that were recommended, but so far he hasn’t worked for me. you mentioned jim thompson who i adore but i don’t see the connection yet. i don’t agree with your assessement of what the novel should and shouldn’t be, but having opposing views on anything is part of what makes life interesting. i agree with this short but sweet statement by paul bowles regarding novels, but i don’t expect others to agree.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzOD0yERQzg

By: Umberto Rossi

Umberto Rossi — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:12:49 +0000

I agree, Fred, many disliked Scanner just because there’s Reeves in it, but I didn’t find it that bad. The rotoscope was an interesting idea, and it’s point is to inject the element of pulpiness in the film, it almost turns it into a cartoon but not totally, and that’s a feeling which mirrors what you have in many novels by Dick (not necessarily in Scanner), of a pulp novel which unexpectedly turns into metaphysical horror or mystical enigma, or gritty realism. I am not one of those who watch a film just because there’s a good actor in it, and for the same reason I’m not ready to throw a movie into the trashcan just because there is a purportedly bad actor in it. There are scenes that have been edited out that I’d have liked to see in the movie, some odd choices, but the film has a strong Dickian flavor–stronger than BR, where Deckard is too tough-guyish to be a real Dickian protagonist…

By: Fred Friendly

Fred Friendly — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 03:46:44 +0000

I like “A Sacanner Darkly” a lot. It’s the most faithful of all the films made of Dick’s work and the small changes add rather than detract from the experience ['Next'!]. I’m also a fan of Keanu when he’s in down beat mode [this, Thumbsucker] or doofus [Bill n Ted]. The rotoscoping was an inspired choice. The look of the film drifts from quite realistic to altered state, and gave the director huge scope on a next-to-nothing budget. I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite of Dick’s books as a movie, but it has many fine qualities.

By: Umberto Rossi

Umberto Rossi — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:40:09 +0000

Hey, here it comes again, huh? Dick has a lot of interesting ideas but his writing is sloppy. Ok, sure. But let me remind ya that Dick is not a poet, he’s a novelist. And novels should be read as novels, not verse. A novelist is not a poet who happens to write in prose. We’re talking about a different match, a different ballpark, a different league, maybe a different sport. Surely Dick is no Ballard when it comes to metaphors and similes; he’s no DeLillo when it comes to finely crafted sentences and periods. He doesn’t have the rhythm of a Thomas Bernhard, nor the lush descriptions of a Thomas Hardy; he doesn’t have the verbal inventiveness of a Joyce, the bewildering verbal mix of a Céline or a Gadda. Sorry for the name-dropping, but it would like readers to understand that I’m no yahoo who has just read Dick and likes his stuff because he never tasted better food.

Having said all this, remember that a novel is not just finely crafted prose, or D’Annunzio would be the greatest novelist ever. Writing a novel is telling a story, recreating or creating a place, inventing people who you never met but which remain with you as if you had met them; it’s a matter of architecture, time, space, whatever. And when it comes to all the other skills, Dick had them like the Big Names. The tricks he plays with narrative times may be as subtle and beguiling as Proust’s; his characters are as imposing and memorable as Melville’s; and the architecture of his novels is sometime terribly complex and incredibly sophisticated… Try the Trasmigration of Timothy Archer, or VALIS, or Flow My Tears…

So we’re not dealing with a crap artist, and if he is (he told us, after all, ever read Dick’s Confessions of…), he’s one of those writers who can turn crap into gold–like Jim Thompson, for example. If I want prose, I go for Ballard; but if I want characters, I go for Dick any day of the week, any week of the month and any month of the year.

And since we’re at it, Buon Natale e Buon Anno Nuovo, gente!

By: jason

jason — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:50:34 +0000

happy birthday to PKD indeed. to anyone else looking for the more extraordinary works, the VALIS trilogy is incredible, as is Radio Free Albemuth, which i believe was PKD’s first attempt at Valis before he wrote the titled novel. anyway, Valis is just as mindblowing as Scanner Darkly but more cautiously optimistic, imho.

By: Palski

Palski — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:56:46 +0000

Happy Birthday PKD. Love his books and wish there were more. An expert on tricks of the mind and psychosis….should be reqired reading for psychiatrists. Of course in Ballards universe the shrinks think they already know everything. “A refuge for bullies.”
Love them both but PKD is so underrated.

By: Mark Burgess

Mark Burgess — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:39:22 +0000

To me, PKD was first and foremost an ideas man. I think he could have just as easily written children’s books and conveyed his messages. There are so many wonderful ideas in his novels and stories, ways of making you look at the world a little differently than before you read them. In this respect he stands alone IMHO with JGB and WSB. I would add Martian Time-Slip as a cracking good read.

By: scot

scot — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:48:32 +0000

I though Linklater’s film ‘Scanner Darkly’ to be a perfectly good work. Sure Keanu is a bit naff, but given he’s playing a conflicted stoner-cop … I don’t think there’s any part more tailor-made for him. Downey Jnr is an excellent actor. As to the rotoscoping, it’s heavily criticised however I felt it added the necessary layer of unreality to the whole thing. I enjoyed it immensely.

By: Simon Sellars

Simon Sellars — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:10:36 +0000

Thanks for stopping by, Tessa — please understand it’s just honest criticism from the commentators. You can’t say Phil’s work is for all tastes; but even so, all people commenting here state that even if his writing is not to individual taste, there can be no denying his intellect, passion and strength of ideas. For what it’s worth, I’ll restate my admiration to you for Phil and the books of his I’ve mentioned above. And I enjoyed the radio show — and your contribution to it. This article would not have happened in the first place if I wasn’t coming from a place of admiration for Philip K Dick. I don’t as a rule write about authors whose work I dislike! As for the birthdate — that’s my mistake. The article was written a couple of days ago and only posted today, which is why it’s datestamped December 18.

By: Tessa Dick

Tessa Dick — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:02:44 +0000

I am not surprised to learn that you are not fans of PHil, since you seem to think that his brithday is Dec. 18. It is Dec. 16.
~~~

By: Simon Sellars

Simon Sellars — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:51:05 +0000

It annoys me how Keanu is the default cyberpunk/sci fi hero in films these days. He doesn’t have the range to change character. His voice and mannerisms are completely the same from film to film.

By: Gary Lee-Nova

Gary Lee-Nova — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:30:07 +0000

I read a few of PKD’s books in the 1970s and enjoyed a couple or more. Too long ago to remember the titles.

But similar to Johnny’s experience, the work didn’t impress me in the way that the work of WSB and JGB did; i.e., I didn’t make any commitment to reading everything I could find by him. The work was just some reading I did, looking for writers and writing I could perhaps become interested in.

But I do regard his contributions to literature as important, just not very important to me.

Much of it seems to adapt quite well to film though I am only familiar with Blade Runner and think it a masterpiece of film making.

By: johnny strike

johnny strike — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:59:33 +0000

i thought ’scanner’ was a dud as well, but ‘blade runner’ has yet to be topped.

By: Simon Sellars

Simon Sellars — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:37:37 +0000

I can see where you’re coming from, Johnny. I’m sure even hardcore Dick obsessives would agree that much of his writing is sloppy. He did churn out so many books to pay the rent and feed his family — and feed whatever it was that was eating away at him. I’m by no means obsessed with his work, but there are a few of his books that I can read over and over again. ‘High Castle’ is one. ‘A Scanner Darkly’ and ‘Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said’ are two more. The short story collection ‘I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon’ is stunning.

‘Scanner’ for me is the exemplar. Sad, pathetic, uncanny, alien, magical, spiritual, utterly banal, tragic and shocking all at the same time, in a way that the film just isn’t.

By: johnny strike

johnny strike — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:27:17 +0000

i’ve never been able to get into dick. i tried a couple of times, but for me the writing itself seemed mediocre. friends of mine though, dickheads all, say i just haven’t found the right book; but i can pick up anything by burroughs, ballard or kafka for that matter, and i’m right at home, and engaged in the writing. from what i can see dick was a great idea man, and i do appreciate a lot of the films based on his work. i asked burroughs about him, and he too said that he just didn’t care for him. for me the first thing is the language itself, the words and the sentences, and if that doesn’t grab me i’m sure to soon give up the read. i would be happy to try something else by him if anyone has a solid recommendation that they could place side by side with the other writers mentioned. simon you called the man in the high castle a masterpiece. that’s one i haven’t tried, so maybe i’ll give it a go.