Philip K. Dick thread

[Anonymous No.14694713]

>tfw reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
>have serious doubts whether I could pass the Voigt-Kampff empathy test
am i even human, bros

[Anonymous No.14694770]

Explain the Electric Ant to me. I don't think I understood what message was being conveyed, or was Dick just high when he wrote it?

[Anonymous No.14694777]

>>14694770
Is that a different story or is it from DADOES? Because I haven’t finished the latter yet, and I don’t recall any electric ants

[Anonymous No.14694790]

>>14694777
Yeah, its a short story he wrote. Electric ant refers to an android, dude opens himself up after finding out hes not human and messes with a film reel inside of him. He makes it so that time passes without him being present and other weird stuff

[Anonymous No.14695091]

>>14694713

are you a schizo OP?

as far as I can remember in the book only schizos/psychotic people had trouble passing

[Anonymous No.14695138]

>>14695091
GOD DAMNIT. WHY DID I HAVE TO TURN OUT THIS WAY. I JUST WANT TO BE A NORMAL HUMAN BEAN

[Anonymous No.14695166]

>>14695138
bros what if the normies started hunting us like they do androids in the book

[Anonymous No.14695257]

>>14694713
The point of the book: the thread

[Anonymous No.14695357]

I hate reading sci fi, can someone give me the gist/meaning of The Golden Man? I heard that was good

[Anonymous No.14695518]

>>14695138
tfw you check every box on the right

[Anonymous No.14695594]

OP here, I think I found a plot hole in DADOES, can someone confirm. i’ll spoiler it (but keep in mind i haven’t finished it yet, so maybe that will be cleared up)
Deckard says when he brings the goat back home that he collected bounties on three andy’s, but technically it should be only one (Polokov), since it turns out Phil Reisch isn’t an andy and therefore the other two bounties should actually go to him. Am I wrong here?[\spoiler]

[Anonymous No.14695660]

>>14694713
great book.

[Anonymous No.14695784]

>>14694713
the book is not about androids, its about humans. Thats what annoyed me about the movie, its so reddit "dude what if im a robot" no, the climax of the book is when deckard walks up mercer's hill

[Anonymous No.14696400]

>>14695357
ANSWER ME

[Anonymous No.14696438]

>>14696400
i love you anon

[Anonymous No.14697022]

Recently finished, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.

Everything is a side character's drug dream. I know PKD was a druggy, but really.

[Anonymous No.14697779]

bump j

[Anonymous No.14697836]

where my VALIS chads at

[Anonymous No.14698543]

>>14697836
Jason Reza Jorjani mentioned it in one of his New Thinking Allowed interview which got me really curious about it. Just starting on PKD and about to finish DODOES. Where do I go from here? Can I go straight to VALIS or is there something I should read inbetween?

[Anonymous No.14698670]

I only read Electric Dream so far.

The story about the woman wanting to see her home planet one last time before dying slapped me. Something about the way it ended was deeply beautiful and yet oh so tragic. Anyone know which one I mean?

[Anonymous No.14698727]

>>14698670
When you find out that the Android lifespan is only like 4 years it makes their desperate effort to escape and live out there lives in freedom pretty fuckin depressing to think about. But also they’re sociopaths lmao

[Anonymous No.14698745]

>>14698727
Is that from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Electric Dreams is a collection of short stories.

[Anonymous No.14698810]

>>14694713
>>14695138
Considering you care enough to make a post about it, I'd say you are very much a human bean anon

[Anonymous No.14698853]

>>14698745
yeah, got mixed up

[Anonymous No.14698898]

damn, i just finished it bros. why do so many people on this board give me the impression that he’s “just another mediocre sci fi writer”? DADOES was really good. ive put off reading him for years because people gave me the impression that it was nothing special (been on /lit/ since 2010). now i feel like a dumbass for believing the nay sayers

[Anonymous No.14699180]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD8zGnT2n_A&t=2s

[Anonymous No.14699197]

>>14699180
what's the tl;dr

[Anonymous No.14699218]

>>14694713
I dropped acid a week ago and decided to listen to the book. 9 hours. I listened to it completely, all night long. It absolutely changed my mind. Philip K. Dick's writing is absolutely influenced by LSD and it shows. I felt so humbled to be able to trip and enjoy it, on such a deeper level.

[Anonymous No.14699224]

>>14697022
Can you explain the squid in the beginning? I felt like it was something PKD introduced and then just immediately dropped.

[Anonymous No.14699404]

>>14699197
AI is something to be seriously considered
very few people are observing this consideration

[Anonymous No.14699420]

>>14699404
not just AI, also the prospect of consciousness and our place in a spiritual world.

[Anonymous No.14699565]

>>14698898
You shouldn't trust what the people on here say

[Anonymous No.14699581]

http://www.technoccult.net/2010/02/17/philip-k-dicks-fbi-file-and-the-bizarre-story-of-a-neo-nazi-plot-to-start-a-third-world-war/

how deep does the pkd rabbit hole go, lads? any other conspiracy type stuff tied to his life?

[Anonymous No.14699637]

>>14698898
Remember, popular + good = bad

[Anonymous No.14700734]

Any secondary literature readers here?

[Anonymous No.14700742]

What am I in for?

[Anonymous No.14700746]

>>14699637
Looks interesting. Can you give us the tl;dr? I haven't read Bergson before, should I read him first, or could this be a good intro to his work?

[Anonymous No.14700754]

>>14695138
i feel attacked

[Anonymous No.14700755]

>>14700746
meant for
>>14700734

>>14700742
what program is that? what types of files does it read?

[Anonymous No.14701146]

>>14698543
VALIS is basically an introduction to his exegesis. So if those topics or learning more about PKD and his life, ideas, and mindset interest you then go for it.

Otherwise I think UBIK and the three stigmata of palmer eldritch are an awesome place to start and both are great stories.

[Anonymous No.14701426]

>>14700755
https://calibre-ebook.com/

[Anonymous No.14701574]

of the three stories i've read
Ubik > DADoES? > the three stigmata of palmer eldritch

[Anonymous No.14701824]

>>14701426
thanks!

[Anonymous No.14701944]

Ive read some of his Short Stories.
Really liked Minority Report and Second Variety.

Man in the High Castle is extremely overrated though, I did not care for it. I get that our world and theres are "merging" but its just dumb and he doesn't take operation dandelion anywhere nor the coup in German, just keeps on with the I ching
Just dumb, was disappointed after reading his short stories.

[Anonymous No.14702228]

Currently watching Blade Runner for the first time after reading the book, and i gotta say the movie is pretty shit. they are getting everything wrong, like they missed the point of the book. A part of me suspects it's deliberate since the book was so strongly thematically christian, jewlywood can't handle it

[Anonymous No.14702329]

>>14702228
about halfway through the movie now. so there's literally nothing in the movie about mercerism, huh? lmao imagine leaving out one of the most interesting aspects of the book because christianity triggers you

[Anonymous No.14702352]

>>14695594
No.
He outright explains to Reisch that he (Phil) can't collect bounties since he doesn't work at a department anymore - and his (Deckard's) has already filled its bounty hunters spots. It's the conversation before they go out for the female droid.

[Anonymous No.14702354]

>>14702352
thanks

[Anonymous No.14702364]

>>14702329
ok seriously, this movie is so far off the mark it has to be on purpose. they're actually trying to distort the idea of the novel

[Anonymous No.14702442]

is no one else disturbed by how distorted the film version is? why does hollywood hate mercer so much bros

[Anonymous No.14702537]

please, someone tell me im not the only one who finds the movie subversive

[Anonymous No.14703499]

>>14702228
>jewlywood
Back to your containment board, bug.
>>>/pol/

[Anonymous No.14703640]

>>14702537
The movie was made by Scott, a fedoraic hack (the movie is good because of other people). I wouldn't blame the Hollyjew on this one.
You came in expecting an adaptation, that was your mistake. The movie is excellent as a noir film going all in on the future porn esthetic.

[Anonymous No.14704817]

bump

[Anonymous No.14704837]

>>14694713
Psst... the answer is “c.”

[Anonymous No.14704922]

>>14704837
Cheating on a test is a violation of Mercerism. Android detected.

[Anonymous No.14705472]

>>14703640
>I wouldn't blame the Hollyjew on this one.
I dunno, man. I think I might have actually been onto something
>Blade Runner’s people were putting tremendous pressure on us to do the novelization — or to allow someone else to come in and do it, like Alan Dean Foster. But we felt that the original was a good novel. And also, I did not want to write what I call the “El Cheapo” novelization. I did want to do the Timothy Archer novel.
>So we stuck to our guns, and at one point Blade Runner became so cold-blooded they threatened to withdraw the logo rights. We wouldn’t be able to say, “The novel on which Blade Runner is based.” We’d be unable to use any stills from the film.
>Finally we came to an agreement with them. We are adamant about rereleasing the original novel
The Blade Runner people wanted to put out an edited, "new" edition of the novel itself, not just change stuff for the movie. It's pretty sketchy.

source: http://www.philipkdickfans.com/literary-criticism/frank-views-archive/philip-k-dicks-final-interview/

[Anonymous No.14705534]

This bit of the interview was also interesting

[Anonymous No.14705713]

>>14695138
Shit

[Anonymous No.14705747]

stop being an edgelord
lay off the tubes
grow up

[Anonymous No.14705765]

>>14705747
>lay off the tubes
the what

[Anonymous No.14705771]

>>14705765
do you even remember mission accomplished

[Anonymous No.14705776]

>>14705771
you mean the iraq war thing? why is that relevant?

[Anonymous No.14705806]

>>14702442
Blade Runner is its own beast but honestly I think it's spectacular. 2049 is even better, one reason being its added degree of separation from Do Androids. The book really is cool though, although PKD has way better books with way more fucked-up, mind-bending plots. Read UBIK and then read The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.

[Anonymous No.14705834]

>>14705806
But the movie took out everything about empathy, Mercerism, and tried to make the androids into the heroes. It's a total subversion of the meaning of the book. I personally did not find it enjoyable at all.

[Anonymous No.14706592]

>>14705834
You should read Man in the High Castle

[Anonymous No.14706596]

>>14706592
I'm currently reading it, actually. Just started it after finishing DADOES. But why do you say that?

[Anonymous No.14707045]

bump

[Anonymous No.14707059]

>>14695138
I'm pretty sure most people fall into the right. The list feels to accurate to be correct and not just another "OMG literally me"-esque image

[Anonymous No.14707111]

>>14707059
The list is meant to be taken in both right and left columns. It's divided into overt and covert features. If you don't have both columns you aren't schizoid.

[Anonymous No.14708010]

bump

[Anonymous No.14708089]

>>14699218
Based and blessed

[Anonymous No.14708098]

>>14699218
He did LSD like twice in his life, and he claims it had very little influence on him.

[Anonymous No.14708601]

anyone read this?

https://socialecologies.wordpress.com/2016/02/11/lee-braver-on-philip-k-dicks-ubik-as-postmodern-gnosticism/

[Anonymous No.14708737]

https://socialecologies.wordpress.com/2016/03/09/philip-k-dick-nick-land-escape-to-the-future/
>We will begin to rid ourselves of these dark histories and begin to reread these ancient stories as constructions, maps, exposes, as signposts in an ongoing time-war against the prison world we are entrapped within – a realm of time cut off from the flows, a circular realm of death and automation, a clock-work void. Someday we’ll see these ancient avatars as adventurers and fellow insurgents sent back in time to awaken us from our long sleep, to give us the keys to liberate ourselves and open up the future once again, to close down the death-machine that has captured our desires for so long within a civilization of nightmares and enslavement. The only problem with those who followed Marx and Engels was in believing we could build and construct this future in the present world of death. An impossible dream that led only into a totalitarian society that ultimately became the seedbed of a darker enslavement. Same for the utopias of capitalism which all end in fascism and spectacles of mass delusion. We can see it again in our current world wide return to populist thought, nothing but a reincarnation of fascism in our time: the dream of the Great Society, the Good Life, the perfect world…

>Instead all this should be put to an end… history must come to an end, time’s loop must open up once more to the future… the future is not a place, a site, but a flow, a movement, a becoming… the future is the form of time moving not in some linear fashion or progressively forward, but rather cyclic and within the ever accelerating difference machine of change without stop, a creative time of instants that slide within a slippage of alcoves and rhizomes that never end, but move into dimensions rather than labyrinths. Our war is against the Time-Lords who have built this Black Iron Prison (Dick), or as Land will fabulate:

>Carver has made her whole life out of hyperstition (even her name is a pseudonym). She continuously returns to the imperceptible crossing where fiction becomes time-travel, and the only patterns are coincidences. Her notes on the Sarkon meeting pulse with lemurian sorceries, demonic swarms, ageless time-wars, and searches for the Limbic-Key. She navigates Moebian circuits, feeling that a vaguely recollected rumour is still about to occur. (Land, KL 8086)

[Anonymous No.14709374]

bump

[Anonymous No.14709571]

>>14702364
The movie compliments the film. It's similar but different enough that it presents a novel interpretation of the books themes in cinematic form, heightening the message of the book. PKD himself acknowledged this.
>After I finished reading the screenplay, I got the novel out and looked through it. The two reinforce each other, so that someone who started with the novel would enjoy the movie and someone who started with the movie would enjoy the novel. I was amazed that Peoples could get some of those scenes to work. It taught me things about writing that I didn’t know.
>You read the screenplay and then you go to the novel, and it’s like they’re two halves to one meta-artwork, one meta-artifact. It’s just exciting.

[Anonymous No.14709626]

The only thing I feel compelled to write is sci fi. But I'll never come to the mastery of PKD. I've had to accept my comparative mediocrity, and the fact that everything I write feels slightly derivative of him, at least in my head. Anyone else feel this?

[Anonymous No.14711084]

bumping

[Anonymous No.14711110]

The first time I tried Dick was in college. It wasn't before long that I got hooked. I couldn't get enough. Dick has a spellbinding effect.
Every one of his books is a thought experiment, a philosophical idea packaged in a narrative form. Although his prose is not consistently beautiful, it is adequate, and it is really what is behind it that gives his writings a unique value all its own.

[Anonymous No.14711682]

Is hating on PKD unpopular opinion? I tried reading Ubik and quit because of all the mind numbing telekinesis stuff

I tried reading Flow, My Tears... and quit because of all the shitty dialogue and the poorly executed doppelganger theme

I tried reading Exegesis and quit because I actually like Theory of Knowledge and Logical Positivism; if I'm gonna listen to ramblings I'm gonna go with a random TempleOS video

I also tried reading Palmer Eldritch and I think I quit because of how boring the interplanetary travel seemed; not sure, it was boring so I don't remember much. The only thing I've read completely PKD related was Divine Invasions (it was more interesting than his books)

I mean, why read hundreds of pages just to get to the part with the fridge DLC? It's a small payoff

By the way I only now found out K stands for Kindred.

Oh and to add - I appreciate where he took sci fi, because boring Gibson technofetishism got outdated as soon as it arrived and PKD's ontological and epistemological struggle is far more interesting, but as soon as I start hearing about fucking new age bullshit and gnosticism I tune out

[Anonymous No.14711694]

>>14708737
Nick Land got a social sciences degree because his professors were too timid to flunk someone who bullshits so much.

[Anonymous No.14711721]

>>14711682
No, it's not unpopular. I see it all the time on this site. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I avoided Dick for a long time because people kept saying Dick was mediocre, not satisfying etc. I just tried Dick for the first time this week and I love Dick now. Just finished DADOES, and several chapters into TMITCH, I couldn't be happier with Dick. God, I just love Dick. Sorry, I know the Dick jokes are cheesy at this point. Basically, I think he's a great author (so far). I think the main reason he is disliked is because he is marketed toward a sci-fi audience (autists) and he's actually a very spiritual writer. We should be marketing him more toward people interested in philosophy and spirituality.

[Anonymous No.14711758]

>>14711721
There is a sharp discrepancy between Dick's interest in what is basically a Cartesian tradition and his Gnostic ramblings.

[Anonymous No.14711792]

>>14699218
He did mostly meth even if his writing seems more of an asid trip.

[Anonymous No.14711818]

>>14711758
I appreciate the gnostic side because I have a more open minded attitude than most to the paranormal and occult

[Anonymous No.14711860]

>>14711818
My favorite documentary is Richard Stanley's Secret Glory and it completely weaned me off any sort of mysticism; the messages always amount to some form of self-help narrative. I have also tried reading ye olde esoterics and 20th century magicians; there is nothing more embarrasing than reading Moore and Morrison present solipsism as some form of enlightement. Then discordianism gets thrown into the mix like so many I-Ching paraphernalia and I'm gone.

[Anonymous No.14711884]

>>14711860
The I-Ching is great and it works. Sorry occultism didn't work out for you.

[Anonymous No.14711918]

>>14711884
It's just so boring, that's the thing. Like reading Land's obtuse prose. If PKD only wrote Exegesis and VALIS no one would remember him.

[Anonymous No.14711934]

>>14711918
Ok

[Anonymous No.14711942]

>>14711934
don't you ok me you condescending faggot

[Anonymous No.14711958]

>>14711942
We're all going to be ok, anon

[Anonymous No.14712207]

bump

[Anonymous No.14712228]

>>14695138
>>14695166
>>14695518
>>14700754
>>14705713
The DSM-V is just a series of statements producing a Barnum effect and you retards went and fell for it. Read Thomas Szasz.

[Anonymous No.14712246]

>>14702228
Imo the newer one channeled the themes of the book so much better. Still left out Mercerism, tho

[Anonymous No.14712305]

>>14712246
The newer one was very enjoyable cinematically (yeah I just made up that word, but you know what I mean), but it took the whole "androids dindu nuffin" angle and hopped it up on steroids. It was the diametric opposite of the book

[Anonymous No.14712902]

>>14711694
>he's unaware of the Lemurian Time War

[Anonymous No.14713484]

bump

[Anonymous No.14714115]

Not to get too off topic but I never watched the original movie; I read the book and then watched Bladerunner 2049. I like both a lot. They were so different that comparing them beyond their similarities was pointless because they were doing different things and telling a different story. It was nice seeing the homages the book, which were more likely just references to the first movie, but it was nice nonetheless.

[Anonymous No.14714128]

>>14714115
Yes, I agree. That’s why the newer film doesn’t really bother me very much. In fact, I’ve already seen a couple times, it was enjoyable. Look forward to his Dune adaptation.

[Anonymous No.14714251]

>>14714115
watch the original (director's cut) and then watch dangerous days

[Anonymous No.14714358]

>>14695138
>reads and misunderstands D&G once
im just a creative, politcally dangerous subjectivity and INSANE, also creative, way more creative than anyone, hardly can relate to you desu, but Ryan Gossling in br2049 that's me, but I'm so exempt from the rest of the shit god being schizo is so secretly cool but it's also a curse too you know? also, yes, I read Valis and maybe I'll be catholic once I'm done being schizo for the summer

[Anonymous No.14714376]

>>14714358
also fuck women for not navigating my anxiety and having sex in the mindfield that is my teenage mind

[Anonymous No.14714467]

>>14714358
>>14714376
Damn are you me?? This is crazy haha what a trip XD

[Anonymous No.14714905]

>>14714128
Should i finish Dune. I dropped it 120 pages or so because i just didn't find the protagonist very likable. Him being lorded as the messiah isn't the problem but everyone sucking him off like genius pointing how what "astute observations" he makes and how his pseudo mind reading is so much better than his mom's.

[Anonymous No.14714912]

>>14714905
he is literally a genius and a messiah what is your stupid brain's problem?

[Anonymous No.14714936]

>>14714912
No one likes hearing everyone suck off a Gary Stu. It's less so that he is one but rather how it's portrayed. He can pick up on something without another character or the narrator mention how effing epic and better they are every time they do it.

[Anonymous No.14714951]

>>14714905
He’s an aristocrat, so people sucking up to him is just protocol to an extent. But, imo, if you didn’t like it don’t finish it. It’s totally fine to give up on a book if you don’t really care for it. Not everyone likes Dune and I can sympathize with that. It’s a good book, but it has its flaws and a limited appeal. It’s not a monumental achievement of Western literature or anything.

[Anonymous No.14715117]

>>14714951
Well no I'm referring to him being praised in the narration. Lines like these I found a little irksome. And these are just the ones I can remember on the spot
>Jessica nodded at the astuteness of the question.
>The Duke permitted himself a moment of grim satisfaction, looking at his son
and thinking how penetrating, how truly educated that observation had been.
>He's faking uncertainty! Jessica thought. With his deeper truthsense, Paul caught the underlying motive, had to use every ounce of his training to mask his excitement.
Maybe I'm just a bitter loser but something about Paul one-upping his parents at things they've spent their lives doing despite only being 15 is just eye roll inducing. It's not him being educated, or the messiah, or a tactical genius, or a psychic charisma machine, or tech fighting master, or being handsome, or having a heart of gold and silver tongue, or having nerves of steel, but it's being all of these things and it being jammed down our throats. It's hard to like or sympathize with this guy who's main character trait is being a walking god. It's made worse by each chapter starting with a excerpt of a future biography telling us how goddamn amazing Paul is by a princess, and how he BTFO'd his dad by being so much better than him. I'm only a fifth through the book but it became hard to sit through. I liked his dad and literally every other character more than Paul because they felt realistically flawed and still admirably competent. So hearing Paul think his dad's strategic moves are bad or wrong is annoying when he doesn't have a good reason to be so much better than his father at politics that he can instantly see a move as a misstep. Or that his mother, who has been trained in the truthsense her whole life and is the person who trained Paul in it, is btfo'd by Paul because at 15 he's so much better than her at it he can tell exactly what someone is thinking where she can't. If Dune were written in first person you could think it was Paul's arrogance and sense of grandiosity that cause such observations and you can actually enjoy getting a more subtle look into his psyche and see how is flawed in that way. It wouldn't be a stretch to think a 15 y/o noble who has his own private cock washer and is called Jesus the sequel would get a big head. But instead it's in third person and we have to sit through the narrator point out that Paul is indeed William James Sidis on steroids and that everyone is secretly creaming their jeans when they see him.

[Anonymous No.14715141]

>>14715117
>It's hard to like or sympathize with this guy who's main character trait is being a walking god.
This is perfectly fine as it is your taste, but this is not the book for you. And it isn't Frank Herbert purely sucking the dick of his character, it is part of a design and it has an arc throughout the series.

[Anonymous No.14715149]

>>14715117
>If Dune were written in first person you could think it was Paul's arrogance and sense of grandiosity that cause such observations and you can actually enjoy getting a more subtle look into his psyche and see how is flawed in that way. It wouldn't be a stretch to think a 15 y/o noble who has his own private cock washer and is called Jesus the sequel would get a big head. But instead it's in third person and we have to sit through the narrator point out that Paul is indeed William James Sidis on steroids and that everyone is secretly creaming their jeans when they see him.
Dune in first person would't reveal Paul to be an arrogant teenager because he isn't an arrogant teenager, he is a messiah.

[Anonymous No.14715186]

>>14715149
I wouldn't say reveal, but it would allow a reader to justify the extent of praise that Paul receives from the narration. Being chosen or talented are not bad things for a character to be but being both to such an overt and extraordinary extent is. I'd rather read a character who is an arrogant teenager because that is realistic and relatable. A 2000IQ political mastermind with a 12incher who gets called God is not so much. I know that's not Paul's character, but's my problem, I don't like his character, and I don't like how it's portrayed.
>>14715141
I don't think Dune is bad, it's an interesting world with interesting characters. But I just find it hard to enjoy with Paul being written the way he is. I think has to do with my headspace; maybe it'll bother me less in the future and I'll give it another crack.

[Anonymous No.14715197]

>>14715186
I think that's all a bit silly, but I understand. I love the books, hope you one day will but it's okay if you don't.

[Anonymous No.14715215]

>>14694770
I've read the comic adaptation more recently than the short story, which is different. But in short... people say that "all reality is subjective", but in The Electric Ant, it seems like it's really really really subjective.

[Anonymous No.14715218]

>>14695784
>Thats what annoyed me about the movie
I hated how they made Rachael a love interest in the movie when she was the exact inverse in the book.

[Anonymous No.14715246]

>>14715117
Yeah, I mean, I haven’t read the book in about a decade, so I don’t remember some things. It doesn’t strike me as that odd, though. There exist incredible people in history. People who were just extraordinary more or less from the get go. Needless to say, such people would be expected to surpass their parents. I can see why that might seem annoying, though, in this context. The Duke Leto, from what I recall, was a very sympathetic character.

[Anonymous No.14715253]

>>14715218
They genuinely inverted the book and its meaning. It’s almost goes to confirm PKD’s gnostic worldview, as if there really is some evil force out there seeking to distort everything.

[Anonymous No.14715255]

>>14698898
>why do so many people on this board give me the impression that he’s “just another mediocre sci fi writer”?
Because his prose is dogshit. Almost everyone misses the meaning of the abrupt ending in High Castle because they think that he ran out of steam and shit the ending. Accept that his prose is shit and you will enjoy the stories more. There is no use fighting it; the author is dead.

[Anonymous No.14715267]

>>14715255
I think his prose is fine. I consider the era of ornate prose to be more or less over. Whenever people try to write that kind of prose I find is really affected and artificial. And I’m currently reading High Castle and I find his dialogue to be excellent.

[Anonymous No.14715318]

>>14702364
>this movie is so far off the mark it has to be on purpose
I have always believed this. It would have been so easy to throw a rock at someone, yet it appears nowhere in the film. Instead of revealing the deep divergence between the androids and the humans, they reveal a convergence. Instead of killing Deckard's animal and fucking off, Rachael becomes his love interest.

[Anonymous No.14715327]

>Yeah, I bit of a Dickhead, how could you tell?

[Anonymous No.14715330]

>>14703499
Anyone that read Androids and did not find it antisemitic needs to read it again.

[Anonymous No.14715358]

>>14706596
Not him, but carefully read the abrupt ending of High Castle. He did not shit the ending. It is abrupt for a reason.

[Anonymous No.14715371]

>>14711110
>Although his prose is not consistently beautiful
It's generally shit. Voices from the Street is probably his best prose-wise.

[Anonymous No.14715378]

>>14715358
Thanks. I’ve seen so many posts by now about how “shit” it is, how the people hated the I-Ching stuff blah blah blah. I have to say, so far I’m enjoying it immensely. Even more than DADOES. Eight chapters in.

[Anonymous No.14715404]

>>14711792
Long term meth users will develop psychoactive responses that casual users will never experience.

[Anonymous No.14715443]

>>14715267
>I consider the era of ornate prose to be more or less over.
That is not what I wanted. I wanted prose that was not so clunky that it is distracting from the plot. (IIRC, I am thinking about Ubik in particular.) I set a very low bar and PKD fails miserably. His ideas carry his work. Without them, he would never have been worth reading.

[Anonymous No.14715470]

>>14715443
Haven’t read Ubik, so I can’t comment. I have no issues with either DADOES or High Castle so far.

[Anonymous No.14715480]

>>14715378
Read whatever you want from his catalog afterwards, but revisit Androids and High Castle. He does some very subtle insertions in both of them that you will likely miss on the first read. Both books are short and everything in each of them is important to the themes. If you see something that feels out of place then dwell on it a bit because he probably has a subtext. Once again, they are both so short that you will not bust your balls by taking the time to read them well.

[Anonymous No.14715506]

>>14715480
I’m sure I would enjoy reading them again. Thanks for the heads up.

[Anonymous No.14715534]

>>14715470
Neither of those had distracting prose for me. As I mentioned up the thread, Voices from the Street was probably his best prose-wise. He diverges from his metaphysical and scifi angles quite a bit in Voices. The characters, though very unreasonable, do not require a suspension of disbelief to accept. The stories are very basic (and sad), unlike Androids and High Castle where he buries little nuggets for you to find.

[Anonymous No.14715698]

>>14696400
>>14695357
It's about a world where mutants with special powers are rounded up and killed at very young ages. One makes it to adolescence by living protected by his family on a remote farm. He has Golden Skin and he can see into the future (indefinitely? I forget). He doesn't talk and doesn't seem to have any higher intelligence. They capture him to study him. They enclose around the farm in a circle so he can't escape. He allows himself to be captured, and they research his ability. He escapes by using a secret second power of his: the power to seduce any member of the opposite sex. Temporarily "hypnotized", a female government employee has sex with him and then frees him. She's horrified by what she did afterward. He impregnated her, and they end her pregnancy immediately (with an abortion or morning after pill, I don't know). The government knows that they'll never be able to capture or kill him. They resolve to follow him around and abort the children of any women he has sex with until he dies.

They know that if they screw up once, then the human race will end. The new race of non-sapient gold people, despite not being violent towards humans, would compete for the same resources as humans and drive the human race to extinction.

It's sort of like the species-ending capabilities of Xenomorphs or The Thing, but without any violence. Also without any sapience, like Xenomorphs and unlike The Thing.

[Anonymous No.14715815]

>>14701944
Well I like Man in the High Castle, but it's rather different from his sci-fi novels. So... there's a chance you might still like those, even though you didn't like MITHC.

DADOES
Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Dr Bloodmoney (underrated, should be talked about more)
Martian Time Skip was fun
A Scanner Darkly, of course.
UBIK was good, but it left me feeling empty compared to the rest. Not sure why.
VALIS is good but very different. I'd read it after you've read all the other greatest hits.
>>14712228
What does it mean if I saw that list of attributes and felt that it is no more applicable to me than it is to the average man, or thereabouts? It means I passed the test, doesn't it?

Also... I have never particularly cared for Blade Runner either,
>>14702228
The book is where it's at.

[Anonymous No.14716189]

Is this where the PKD threads go to die?

[Anonymous No.14716462]

>>14716189
No, that happens in an alternate universe. This is the universe where PKD threads live.

[Anonymous No.14716551]

>>14714376
So you're saying I am actually damaged and mysterious

[Anonymous No.14717930]

>>14694713
We don't even know the metrics.

[Anonymous No.14718377]

bump

[Anonymous No.14718720]

bump

[Anonymous No.14718925]

>>14718377
>>14718720
Great discussion bro. How about we talk about how Phil Resch is an android but Deckard didn't have the heart to say it. It makes the most sense. Why he was there, why he was without sympathy, unable to be controlled by Rachael.

[Anonymous No.14718972]

>>14718925
I considered that, but it would ruin the whole idea Resch is supposed to represent of human beings being able to also become cold and calculating like androids, of the “flattening of affect” caused by being a bounty hunter and such. It makes his ruthless killing of his boss and the opera singer not as meaningful. The fact that he is human is what makes him interesting.

[Anonymous No.14719073]

>>14718972
I thikn the possiblityof being an andorid is far more intertestingc because him representing humainity and human idleas despitebine a syntehic perons iis fancainting becuase he would be so delu

It also links back to human compassion which is an integral theme. Human compassion spans to even unconscious creature like ants and spiders and in extension androids; to be human is to feel empathy. Even Deckard feels a twinge of remorse when dealing with the androids like a real human should. Phil does not. Even something a chickenhead can feel, Phil does not. His lack of empathy is inhuman. However, revealing his lack of humanity to him would destroy his world and purpose. Deckard chooses to allow him his reality for he is a human who dislikes wanton destruction. Why else would Phil be working at an all android police station and also have no memory of Deckards station? He could also reflect how Deckard's rejection of mercerism will lead him to become like Phil: inhuman.

[Anonymous No.14719405]

>>14719073
>Phil Deck Phil Deck Phil Deck Phil Deck Phil Deck Phil Deck Phil Deck Phil Deck Phil Deck Phil Deck

>First attested 1908, from New Latin schizophrenia, from German Schizophrenie, coined by Eugen Bleuler, from Ancient Greek σχίζω (skhízō, “to split”) + φρήν (phrḗn, “mind, heart, diaphragm”) + -ia.

Humans are Androids and Androids are Humans. It literally does not matter which one is which.

[Anonymous No.14720296]

Mercer: "It's the wrong thing to do, but you should do it anyway."
That's actually a beautiful statement.

[Anonymous No.14720512]

>>14720296
Yes, it is. Kind of reminds me of Borges’ short story about Judas, how Judas was actually a martyr who took upon himself the task of “betraying” Jesus in order that Jesus’ might fulfill his task. Somebody had to do it. Someone has to take on themself the necessary burden of doing the “wrong” things, otherwise nothing would get done.

[Anonymous No.14721558]

>>14719405
But it does. Did you even read the book? They are markedly different.

[Anonymous No.14721572]

>>14715215
Thank you for answering anon, seems no one else has read it

[Anonymous No.14721594]

>>14721572
Do you have any more questions? He discovers that the tape in his belly isn't just altering his perceptions, it is all of his perceptions. And possibly all reality. Which is weird because it seems to be predetermined. Which doesn't make any sense, but that's what he observes.

[Anonymous No.14721626]