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/lit/ - Literature

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14037280 No.14037280 [Reply] [Original]

Thoughts on this? Thoughts on Philip K Dick in general? What's your favourite of his? What should i read next by him?

>> No.14037298

>>14037280
oh boi here we go

>> No.14037304

>>14037280
I love Dick

>> No.14037314

>>14037280
I like him. Ubik is one of my favorite sci fi books ever, and I very much enjoy his theme of “what is real?”. VALIS was a miss for me, but all the others were good.

>> No.14037447

Dick was a wonky dude. I wonder if he was crazy or was actually seeing alternate reality

>> No.14037456

you can't really go wrong

His short story collections are great, if you like stuff like ray bradbury: minority report, blade runner, the second variety, we can remember it for you wholesale etc

personally, i love the paranoia of UBIK and the three stigmata of palmer eldritch

if you like his weirdness/probable mental illness then give VALIS and flow my tears the policeman said, though i liked them less, felt like too much of a step in the wrong direction.

>> No.14037620
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14037620

I can't believe I'm the first to post this, pkd threads feel empty without it

>> No.14037628
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>> No.14037632
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>> No.14038364

>>14037280
PKD was a child of his time. He wrote stories like pic related that convey his own contempt for hierarchical control/politics. He's also a self-avowed leftist, which shouldn't come as a surprise. Aside from this his dialogues suck. He moves his stories through dialogue in a way that discredits his ability to narrate. He also lacks concept, which is detrimental for a sci-fi author.

The shame of it all is that I wanted to love PKD, especially because of his shared interest in sapiential texts, ancient works, theology, etc. However he doesn't do a great job of exploring these things in his works either. His supposed masterpiece, VALIS, completely fell flat for me and was boring. Overall I think PKD sucks.

>> No.14038511

I read Man In The High Castle 10 years ago and was underwhelmed. Took me 10 years to have another go at PKD and just recently read Flow My Tears The Policeman Said. Thought it was fantastic. That 3 Stigmata one is next on my list. Listened to a podcast called Weird Studies today which compared PKD to Lovecraft. Quite a lot of interesting overlap

>> No.14038551

>>14037280
PKD is generally garbage. I've noticed most of his work revolves around climactic twists, and when said twists are boringly predictable, there's not much. His short stories are garbage. His novels are mostly shallow. However, I thoroughly enjoyed "A Scanner Darkly," if only for sentimentalism.

>> No.14038782
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>>14037280
>implying Americans would have collaborated with the Nazis or that the Nazis did not see Americans as subhuman mongrelized vermin, to be exterminated
>implying Nazi Germany ever stood a chance at winning the war when America was going to beat them to the atomic bomb no matter what
>no pregnant Anne Frank

It’s absolute shit

>> No.14038898

I've read Man in the High Castle, 3 Stigmata, Do Androids Dream, and Ubik. Overall, I've been underwhelmed. They all had interesting concepts, but his actual prose fluctuates between average and bad. Dialogue is often poor. I may try some of his other so called classics, but probably not terribly soon.

>> No.14039047

>>14037280
Absolute crap. How the hell is this book, or Dick in general, ever recommended? You should read something written by literally anyone else.

>> No.14039491

Flow my tears made no sense. A scanner darkly was interesting. Man in the high castle was boring.

>> No.14039507

>>14037280
this might be the best book ever written by him or the human race as a whole. Literally any other book is utterly minute compared in its radiance.

>> No.14039524

>>14038364
>He's also a self-avowed leftist
>implying that's bad
Opinion discarded

>> No.14039609

>>14039507
You're a damn retard.

>> No.14039621

>>14039047
you are a en fired dotard

>> No.14039692

>>14039621
yeah ok bro

>> No.14039781

>>14037280
Not a fan of man in the high castle.
The world he created in it is fantastic, but I feel like its wasted.
Operation Dandelion is mentioned but we never see what happens.
Nazis space program is mentioned but not much other than that and a rocket or two is seen.
We never find out if the coup against Goebbles worked
All of the neat stuff in it is ignored in favor of some dude tryin to win his wife back who is going to go meet the author of a book and how this affects some other people
Then theres some retarded timeline merging that takes place
Why did he waste everything he wrote here?

>> No.14041133

PKD was a great ideas man, but most of his books read like first drafts. Man in the High Castle is an example of a book that has a great central idea, but then goes nowhere with it. Too many of his books are like that. I found A Scanner Darkly really good, though - it read like some care had actually been taken over it.

For a PKD-like story but better writing quality than you usually get with Dick, try The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin.

>> No.14041256

>>14037280
It's good. Not as good as some of his other stuff, but still among his better works. The world is very interesting, and the whole Man in the High Castle twist is pretty fun. Could be a lot better though. The big hook is the world, and it's more suited to stuff like a TV show or maybe even a videogame. If you want better PKD read his masterpiece, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, or one of his other bests like Ubik, Valis, or a Scanner Darkly.

>> No.14041439

>>14037280
Man in high castle is really bad. But dick wrote some good things.
Ubik is usually recognized as the best, and it's the most refined, and the most coherent. I prefer a skanner darkly and do android dream though.
If you are here for muh psychedelics, there is always the three stigmata. Avoid the space opera novels, you're better off watching a 50s sci-fi movie.
Then there is the valis trilogy which is an unidentified literary object.

>> No.14041729

>>14039781
I never saw the focus of the book as actually being about the alt universe , and more about the nature of writing itself what with him talking about whether Sci-Fi can even be literature and what qualifies as Sci-Fi, and the inaccuracies of even trying to predict future events

>> No.14042051

>>14037314
Seconded Ubik, though >>14037280 The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch is my fave and you should read that next, OP, then The Divine Invasion, Flow My Tears and I have a soft spot for We Can Build You, even though nothing really happens in it, but I love that kind of stuff. And you should definitely read Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep.

>> No.14042072

>>14038364
I don't think Man In The High Castle is about hierarchical control. Although that was undoubtedly a theme he returned to quite often.
Now, someone like W.S. Burroughs, ALL his books rail against and drip with utter contempt for every form of control.
>>14038511
Three Stigmata is amazing, probably my fave Dick along with Ubik.
>>14038898
Lol, you read PKD for his concepts, not for his dialogue or prose.
>>14041133
>Ursula K. Le Guin
Based and breadpilled