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/lit/ - Literature

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[ERROR] No.2159847 [Reply] [Original]

Let's talk about Philip K. Dick.

I just got his Library of America collection and don't know where to start. I've read some of his short stories and the entirety of The Man in the High Castle but I don't know where to go from here. I'm afraid that if I just read all of the books people consider his best that I won't enjoy the others but at the same time that just seems silly. Since High Castle is the first book of the collection chronologically I can still read the books in order and I'm leaning that direction. Any advice /lit/?

>> No.2159852

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

>> No.2159863

>>2159852

Again, I don't really want to just wade through the mediocre/less known stuff and never read it. What are some of the best and what are some that I can read to work up to the best?

>> No.2159913

One he wrote that was good but not near his best was 'Martian Time Slip', 'Now Wait for Last Year' wasn't near his best either. I'd recommend those if you're not looking for amazing, if you're looking for amazing by Philip K. Dick, 'A Scanner Darkly' or 'Flow My Tear The Policeman Said'.

>> No.2159928

Ubik and Valis are frequently recommended on this board

>> No.2159966

Ubik and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? are generally considered good introductions to Dick's work. IMO Ubik is the better of the two by a fairly long way so maybe give that a crack next.

>> No.2159997

Ubik, Palmer Eldritch, Timothy Archer, and Valis are my favorites.

>> No.2160007

>>2159847
Whether you read his crap stories first or last wont matter, they will still be crap. I suggest you just read the best ones first, then if your still itchin for his style of writing go on to his other stuff. I wouldn't suggest reading everything all at once read what you find interesting and come back to him from time to time for the other stuff.

>> No.2160044

I just finished reading "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" today and I fucking loved it.

The way he wrote about what it is to be human and the feelings of a post-apocalyptic population. What other books are as good as that one?

>> No.2160178

A Maze of Death is one of my favorites. It may be too long to be in there, but maybe not considering it contains the entirety of TMitHC.

>> No.2160361

Just picked up three stigmata palmer eldritch and the crack in space. hope they're more valis and less ubik

>> No.2160392

Over rated
proof: someone who used to promote him looks back and asks "what were we thinking?"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2003/mar/15/sciencefictionfantasyandhorror.philipkdick

>> No.2160397

I read one of the short story collections
it was awful
1) the same damn dull dreary post nuclear fallout landscape in every story
2) he had some serious misogyny going on: all the women are shrill harpies dependent on their men, the men all cynically loath their wives and cant even bring themselves to have sex with them, the one woman who appears in it that is independent starts out in the story as a drug addict and by the end is revealed to be schizophrenic murderer
3) two of stories also had ugly caricatures of jews

>> No.2160893
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>>2160392
>>2160397