jazzbo Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 I've never had a chance to read "Gather Yourselves Together," and who knows, that may turn out to be my favorite, and it really really really is hard to choose a favorite. Mine by a HAIR, at this time, is "The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike." It's moved up past "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" in my estimation lately. . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harold_Z Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 I read a bunch of Phillip K Dick's work about 10 or so years ago and really enjoyed them. The title's I remember are SOLAR LOTTERY, DO ANDROIDS DREAM, although I must have read another two at least. They were all good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Much better than the Harrison Ford movie. Eldritch, Flow My Tears, Martian Time Slip, and Ubik are all up there though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted October 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 They are ALL worth a mention. I've read them all over the years. Some four or five times! His non science fiction books were a pure joy for me when these began to appear in the eighties. These are magnificent works, not that his science fiction titles aren't! But it's great to read what HE wished he could have made a living writing. . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maren Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Reminds me of the time I had to explain to my Italian boss -- an immunologist devising a computer model of the immune system -- why a popular press news story about his research was headlined: "Do Immunologists Dream of Electric Mice?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted October 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 (edited) I'll bet that was an interesting conversation! I love Dick's titles. He had a real sense of the consumer scieity and the advertising words and rhythms. And just how to come up with a hook for a title. "We Can Remember it for You Wholesale." "The Maze of Death." "Solar Lottery." "Clans of the Alphane Moon." "Puttering About in a Strange Land." "In Milton Lumpkin Territory." "Mary and the Giant." "The Broken Bubble of Thisbe Holt." "The Crack in Space." So many more. . . . Edited October 9, 2003 by jazzbo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quincy Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 Probably A Scanner Darkly. I love how he imagined a shopping mall that wouldn't let people in who had no (or was it poor?) credit. As it happens Ubik is near the top of books to read piled up in the back room. Here's a gallery of Philip K. Dick covers from various parts of the world. The artwork on the cover below almost makes the guy look like the dad from The Brady Bunch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jad Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 Martian Time Slip, Time Out Of Joint, Man in the High Castle all are high on the list, but Confessions of a Crap Artist probably tops them all. Then there's all his short stories. One of my favorites was the one about the man who invents a machine that transmorgrifies(sp?) sheet music into animals. There was a Wagner bug, a Bach beetle, etc. Great concepts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted October 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 You are right, his stories have many fantastic ideas, but somehow I prefer his novels because the characters he develops and how they develop in the storylines are a huge draw for me. . . . Confessions of a Crap Artist is a wonderful book! Dark, funny, on target in many ways. . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 I've read plenty of his books, and enjoyed all but one (can't remember the title of the one; it was one of his last if I remember right), but the one that stands out for me is A Scanner Darkly. A very inventive writer, to be sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted October 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 Mark, "The Transformation of Timothy Archer" perhaps? I can see not enjoying that one. . . unless you knew that this was about Bishop Pike and knew a bit about Pike. . . ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted October 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted October 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 Leave it to the Italians. . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted October 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted October 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 The cover image of the first PKD novel I ever bought and read, bought in 1968 in the Gianopolis Bookstore, Addis Abab. Still have it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 I used to be a huge fan of his writing. I still enjoy his books, but I don't as many opportunities to read (since I'm a parent now). That biography, Divine Invasions, is pretty interesting. He really seemed to crack up at the end. Believing he was receiving transmission from Sirius, etc... I've tried reading his last book, I believe it is VALIS, but it's pretty out there. I do have the volumes of his short stories, which I really love to read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 Mark, "The Transformation of Timothy Archer" perhaps? I can see not enjoying that one. . . unless you knew that this was about Bishop Pike and knew a bit about Pike. . . ! I'm not sure, but you're probably right. I know it was the one that, if you know me at all, it would be the one you'd pick, and I'm unfamiliar with this Bishop Pike you mention. I guess I should do a little research and try it again, if I can find it. I got rid of my Dick novels during a jobless stretch (they're just so easy to sell compared to most books, if you find the right place!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 I used to have all the Ace Doubles that had his stuff. I know I'll never have those editions again; I'm just too darned cheap! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted October 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 Yes, something definitely happened to Phil in the middle of the seventies and he spent a large part of the rest of his life trying to decide what it was. He was a huge speculator, and this was the ultimate speculatory vehicle for him! I find it fascinating many of the possibilities he explored! His final three books, "VALIS," followed by "The Divine Invasion" and the "The Transmigration of Timothy Archer" were very different from the earlier works, and an attempt on his part to come to grips with the experience. I think they are excellent books. . . they draw on some subjects that fascinated me throughout the eighties and into the nineties such as gnosticism and mystery religions and the earliest christianity. . . . I finally wrote to Philip K. Dick about three months before he died. I told him of my finding the Zap Gun in an Ethiopian bookstore, of my search for all his books (a lot harder to find then than now) and how much they meant to me. I hesitated for a long time to send it, but eventually did. I was astonished to get a rather speedy reply back, thanking me for my letter and telling me how much letters like that meant to him, and telling me of his impending trip to France, and of the upcoming publication of his final novel. I was shocked and very happy, and I was in fact in the middle of sending him a reply on the day that I learned he had died of a stroke. . . . You're right Mark, his books can definitely be sold easily, and if I weren't working . . . well I would sell quite a few other things first because his books have been a big part of my life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 Lon, I was interested in the same subjects in the late 80's through the mid-nineties. Did you reach much of Robert Anton Wilson's writings? He seemed to have a similar experience as Philip K. Dick in the seventies. I went pretty crazy myself studying these things, but thats another story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted October 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 Yes, Robert Anton Wilson. . . read those indeed. I think rather than going crazy, my research made me saner! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 (edited) Yes, Robert Anton Wilson. . . read those indeed. I think rather than going crazy, my research made me saner! Actually I was pretty crazy to start with Edit: To clarify what I said before. I took Wilson's approach of not believing in anything to a very extreme place. Studying Crowley didn't help me much either. Edited October 9, 2003 by AfricaBrass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 (edited) Okay, I'll confess to reading Wilson's stuff as well. As far as Crowley, the closest I came was reading The Illuminati Trilogy while listening to Jimmy Page guitar solos... The only lasting effect I've noticed is that I still see the number 23 everywhere... Edited October 9, 2003 by Jazzmoose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted October 9, 2003 Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 (edited) Okay, I'll confess to reading Wilson's stuff as well. As far as Crowley, the closest I came was reading The Illuminati Trilogy while listening to Jimmy Page guitar solos... The only lasting effect I've noticed is that I still see the number 23 everywhere... I wish I would have done that! The Illuminatus Trilogy was good readin' Edit: You too with 23. It seems to really be taking off. I started paying attention to it about 15 years ago. Now, it's everywhere. Edited October 9, 2003 by AfricaBrass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted October 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2003 Hmmm. . . I didn't read Crowley. I read all the documents found at Nag Hammadi instead, for example, and everything I could find on the Dead Sea Scrolls and gonsticism, hermeticism, etc. It was a trip. I especially enjoyed when my dad came to visit (he was a minister for 45 years, now retired) and he surveyed all the books I had read and said "Man, you've done far more studying on the origins of Christianity than is required of seminary students!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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