I wasn't gong to post this here, as I didn't think it would be of interest, but having just seen the thread on Blade Runner, I thought I might as well.
The Essential Philip K. Dick
A nuclear-strength imagination powered his stupendous output. Here’s where to start.
By Molly Young
Perhaps you’ve nurtured a suspicion that you have the makings of a Dick fan. The writer’s influence is everywhere, though mainstream acknowledgment of his talents arrived belatedly. (His obituary in this newspaper is under 200 words and lists his age of death incorrectly. He was 53, not 54.)
The question is where to start. Dick’s published output — at least 35 novels and countless short stories — ranges from sublime to inscrutable, which is partly a result of volume. His book advances were skimpy and there was a family to support, so he wrote quickly, often fueled by amphetamine tablets. (Dick’s typing speed: 120 words per minute.) If you’re a stickler for prose style and hold a zero-tolerance policy toward the word “boobies,” this is not your fellow.
The best of his work is fueled by nuclear-strength imagination, grand metaphysical and theological explorations, and prescience in matters of technology, marketing, consumerism, media and ecological catastrophe. Dick picked up on sinister cultural undercurrents the way a cat senses a can of tuna being opened six rooms away.
In an excellent biography, “Divine Invasions,” Lawrence Sutin characterized Dick’s style as “wayward and sprawling, in the spirit of a new Orange County shopping mall.” Indeed. Dick’s endings tend toward ambiguity. Sometimes you wonder whether he mashed his hands across the typewriter for the last 10 pages of a manuscript, dropped it off at the post office and went for a beer.
Stanislaw Lem considered Dick’s ambiguity — when it was successful — to be a strategy for generating rapture. Insisting on precise conclusions from the author, Lem wrote, would be like demanding that Kafka produce an entomological justification in “The Metamorphosis” stating when and under what circumstances a guy might wake up as a bug.
-Where should I begin if I’m totally new to Philip K. Dick’s work?
If you like political thrillers but are sci-fi-curious, “The Man in the High Castle” (1962) is an appropriate launchpad.
-I simply want to read his best — even if it is challenging.
Do you feel paranoid and distracted? Do you suspect that death is nibbling away at your form, even as you walk and breathe? Try “Ubik.” In this 1969 book, my favorite of Dick’s novels, a group of co-workers is sent on a mission to another planet. But the assignment is a setup.
-I hate authority.
If you hate authority so much, why are you reading an article in which someone tells you what to do? Wait, don’t leave! Dick loathed authority, too, and since much of his work was “palpably autobiographical” (his words), you, my disobedient friend, can select anything on this list. But for uncut rage against the machine, try “A Scanner Darkly” (1977). One of the main characters is an undercover narcotics agent who wears a “scramble suit” that transforms him into an unidentifiable blur. His task is to eradicate a drug known as “Substance D” from the neon hellscape of a near-future Orange County. The job is complicated when he gets addicted to the drug and is then assigned to narc on himself.
-I love drugs.
“The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch” (1965), would resemble the Knossos labyrinth if you tried to diagram it. For density of ideas and sheer trippiness, this one is hard to beat.
-A.I. worries and/or intrigues me.
What does it mean to be a human? Philip K. Dick is glad you asked, and he has written hundreds of thousands of words on the topic. The clearest distillation can be found in “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” (1968).
-I’m having an identity crisis.
Try “Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said” (1974). A celebrity named Jason Taverner draws 30 million viewers on his TV show. He has a hot girlfriend who tells him how beautiful he is and a heavily perspiring agent who tells him how powerful he is — what more could a guy want? But then, the thinkable happens (nothing is “unthinkable” in Dick’s world): Jason wakes up one day in a crummy hotel room without an identity.
-Sometimes I feel like a nut.
The one that best replicates the feeling of lunacy is “Martian Time-Slip” (1964). The novel is both disorienting and addictive; you’ll be left with the sense that something terrifying has wandered into your mind, looked around and set up permanent camp.
-I always feel like a nut.
The question Dick sets up in “Clans of the Alphane Moon” (1964) is this: If everyone is insane, does that mean nobody is insane?
-I am now prepared to merge, body and soul, with Philip K. Dick.
One of Dick’s go-to characters is the Relatable Everyman: a guy who has the goods but not the guts, or vice versa. In “VALIS” (1981), we get a man with neither goods nor guts. The novel is autobiography gone mad, with a version of Dick narrating an alternative version of Dick.
For the whole piece:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/26/books/best-philip-k-dick-novels.html
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The Essential Philip K. Dick
MsAmerica · 12/03/2024 01:48
Sausagenbacon · 12/03/2024 06:56
I love pkd, but I think his strength lies in his short stories. He had brilliant ideas, but was not good at characterisation, which doesn't matter too much in a short story, but grates in a novel.
It's interesting that so many of his novels were adapted for the screen, but utterly changed in the process.
I must admit that I've never seen 'boobies' in his work, but he was so prolific that I'm sure it's there somewhere. But he is rubbish at women.
Sausagenbacon · 12/03/2024 06:56
I love pkd, but I think his strength lies in his short stories. He had brilliant ideas, but was not good at characterisation, which doesn't matter too much in a short story, but grates in a novel.
It's interesting that so many of his novels were adapted for the screen, but utterly changed in the process.
I must admit that I've never seen 'boobies' in his work, but he was so prolific that I'm sure it's there somewhere. But he is rubbish at women.
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Sausagenbacon · 16/04/2024 18:39
There's lots on kindle
cassiatwenty · 18/04/2024 10:26
@MsAmerica Although Kindle can be very practical, I prefer hardcover and paperback books much more. Especially if they are well preserved editions of books that are older.
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