Posted on 12/16/2014 2:51:19 PM PST by EveningStar
The late Philip K. Dick, born 86 years ago today in Chicago, is something of a cautionary figure in American literature: brilliant, prolific, often sloppy, and woefully underappreciated during his lifetime. It was only with the 1982 release of the film "Blade Runner" (loosely based on his 1968 novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?") that Dick's work truly began to saturate the mainstream; by that point, he had been dead for four months.
In the ensuing three decades, Dick's novels and stories have served as fodder for dozens of Hollywood movies; they have been reissued again and again. In 2007, he became the first (and remains the only) science fiction writer to be collected by the Library of America, although to call him a sci-fi writer is to miss at least half of the point.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Although Dick spent most of his career as a writer in near-poverty, eleven popular films based on his works have been produced, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, The Adjustment Bureau and Impostor.Wikipedia
ping
VALIS!
I always though he was over-rated. I did like what he wrote about Heinlein though:
“Several years ago, when I was ill, Robert Heinlein offered his help, anything he could do, and we had never met; he would phone me to cheer me up and see how I was doing. He wanted to buy me an electric typewriter, God bless him—one of the few true gentlemen in this world. I don’t agree with any ideas he puts forth in his writing, but that is neither here nor there. One time when I owed the IRS a lot of money and couldn’t raise it, Heinlein loaned the money to me. I think a great deal of him and his wife; I dedicated a book to them in appreciation. Robert Heinlein is a fine-looking man, very impressive and very military in stance; you can tell he has a military background, even to the haircut. He knows I’m a flipped-out freak and still he helped me and my wife when we were in trouble. That is the best in humanity, there; that is who and what I love.”
I’m fairly familiar with PKD, having read a bunch of his stuff and watching a number of interviews/specials on YouBoob, etc.
Now according to Ridley Scott, Dick actually watched a pre-screening (of a 15 minute piece) of Blade Runner and was flabbergasted that it matched his vision of the future.
Too bad he never got to see the whole thing. (Or one of the variations!)
He is simply put the most important science fiction writer of the 20th century. And yes, I know about Bradbury and Asimov etc.
His best is IMO Ubik. It’s ubiquitous.
Three Stigmata is also good.
He wrote a short story for Dangerous Visions called “Faith of our Fathers”. In it, you will question every single thing you think you know!
Now he gave and interview soon before his death at some French conference, where he talks about alternate realities and things like that. Many people call him nuts after the interview... but as I grow older and see the synchronicities, I wonder...
Alot!
Considering all the psychotropics prescribed nowadays, he wasn’t that far off.
Agreed. An absolute masterpiece.
That reminds me ... I love Blade Runner ... :-) ...
Thank you for posting that really wonderful insight into PKD, describing his impression of Heinlein!
Ludwig Van Beethoven would have been 244 years old today. Jane Austin’s b/day too, would have been 239 today.
I love it, and have watched it a number of times.
Ubik is indeed great.
For short stories, I have to say that “The Pre-Persons” made a big impression on me. It’s entirely against abortion and shows the fallacy of deciding that a person isn’t a person if they’re young.
Years ago I had a collection of his short stories called, of all things, The Best of Philip k. Dick
Ballantine books!
I had gotten a dog about a month earlier and it actually does happen, the dog ate the book!
Now I have a bunch of his stuff in paperback form... Man in the High Castle, Clans of the Alphane Moon, Ubik, Valis, various short stories, etc.
Some of the stuff is notoriously hard to find!
Even today!
I do know about Beethoven, of course, and I’ve been listening to my local classical music station (KUSC) playing his music today. :)
I’ve read Ubik and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and liked both of them. However, I found The Man in the High Castle uninteresting and couldn’t finish it.
They apparently never crossed paths with Harlan Ellison... a true lunatic!
Clans of the Alphane Moon.
Hattie called me when the Analog review of Dick's _Man in the High Castle_ came out, and he laughed when I told him the review's last sentence was "Buy this book!" That made it likely he'd get a Hugo for it as best SF novel of the year, and he did.
Dick's landlord was also on my paper route then. Growing up in West Marin dairy and fishing country was great.
I got interested in Science Fiction when I was a teenager. So I have first editions of all Philip K. Dick’s books.
One of my favorites.
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