Conference noted::sf

    I can mostly take or leave Dick. I really liked THE MAN IN THE
    HIGH CASTLE, FLOW MY TEARS THE POLICEMAN SAID, WE CAN BUILD
    YOU, and a few others. The bulk of his work I'm indifferent to.
    
    DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?, though, I'm sorry to say
    I found unreadable. The first time I tried to read it way back
    when, I didn't make it past the first chapter. The second time
    I tried it --- shortly after seeing BLADE RUNNER --- I actually
    got as far as the third chapter before giving up.
    
    No, I'm not just a reader of unchallenging space opera. I've just
    come to the conclusion, that with some exceptions listed above,
    Dick just isn't for me.
    
    --- jerry

	I have almost every novel and short story ever published
	by Dick (except, I think, "The Crack in Space"). I have
	always found his ideas vastly entertaining, if his delivery
	was somewhat crude. A self-admitted Berkeley burn-out case
	and anti-establishment paranoid, he nevertheless always
	managed to write lucidly enough to draw me into his unreal,
	yet very appealing schizoid worlds. Even after his anti-hero-
	based, multi-sub-plot techniques became very predictable, I
	still continued to read his brand of insanity. I was even
	enticed into reading some of his non-SF, which I must admit I
	did not enjoy as much. My favorite novel by Dick is "Ubik",
	followed by "Eye in the Sky" and "Solar Lottery". My least
	favorites are "The World Jones Made" and "Do Androids..."
	but I did like the movie, which was inventive in it's
	(i.e. Hampton Fancher's) own way.

	I understand Dick has always been generally underrated in
	most SF-reading societies, but for some reason is almost a
	demi-god in France...

	bob

I've been reading the posthumous Dick novels as they've appeared over here.
I'd recommend any of them to a Dick fan. They're obviously not lost MitHCs
or they'd probably have been published earlier, but they demonstrate just
what a rare grasp of character Dick had (rare even by the standards of better
'mainstream' fiction). As you suggest there is something ghoulish at first
glance about all this literary grave-robbing, but the quality of the books
gives this the lie. In fact it is more like the final restitution for a
writer who was shamefully neglected even at the height of his popularity.
(The UK paperback edition of DADoES is graced with a cover painting of Harrison
Ford, a hugely blazoned BLADE RUNNER, and the actual title and author in
barely legible small print.)

The only one I have genuine reservations about is LIES, INC., the restored
version of THE UNTELEPORTED MAN. TUM was far from one of my favourite Dick
novels, but I'd say its better than the restored original! The extra material
is extremely confused, and to make things difficult, is weaved in amongst
the second half of TUM, although it clearly follows chronologically on from
the end of that book. This for no reason I could fathom.

RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH, the early version of VALIS, is a completely different
case. It stands as a novel in its own right, and an extremely good one,
and the ideas it shares with VALIS are more interesting for being explored
in a diferent way, rather than stale and familiar. I am one of those few
who consider VALIS to be Dick's greatest novel, but I can well understand
those who find it's experiments and its deep theology and philosophy
uninteresting. RFA is a much more straightforward novel, with much less
of the intellectual weight, and with a thriller-like plot. It's related
to the strange film Horselover Fat and his friends see in VALIS. Philip
Dick and another Dick alter ego are the main characters, but there's no
Horselover Fat, and the alter ego character remains comfortably distinct.
Ferris Fremont, an alternative Nixon, succeeds in turning the USA into a
dictatorship, and Dick and his friends are forced to become agents of VALIS
and take part in a lot against Fremont. This one is the most recognisable
of the posthumous book, the one that has most in common with the likes of
TMitHC and DADoES.

The mainstream works are novels Dick wrote in the late fifties, but which his
publishers at the time wouldn't take. One of these has already been published,
'Confessions of a Crap Artist' (in 1976). At the time Dick wrote to a friend
claiming to have given up science fiction altogether. He presumably became
disheartened by his difficulties in getting them published. At least one
immediate good result of this work is that Dick's grasp of character improved
dramatically. He returned to sf from these books in the early sixties to embark
on the most productive and brilliant period of his career, with 'The Man in the
High Castle', 'Martian Time-slip', 'The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch'. The
most immeiately striking aspect of all these books is their hallucinatory
imagination, but without their very fallible characters I don't think any of
them would have succeeded.

All the novels are about small businessmen, - an estate agent, travelling
salesmen, a TV shop owner and a used car salesman - in California struggling to
make a living but dreaming of success, struggling with their wives, but
deriving great satisfaction from their work. It's easy to read the main
characters of the books as alter egos for Dick himself. Writers are fond of
main characters who are painters, musicians, or writers, and describing their
own process of creation through these characters. But when humble people in
commercial activities are portrayed they are rarely given such a sympathetic
treatment. Dick describes his characters doing their business they do so with
the same feeling that an artist has for his work. In 'The Man Whose Teeth Were
All Exactly Alike' the feelings of an estate agent making a sale is described
in the way another writer might describe Michaelangelo working on the Sistine
chapel roof. There's nothing ridiculous. Rather, Dick brings dignity to these
characters without ever patronising them. 

Like the characters of his sf novels, they find themsleves mixed up in
situations much greater than they can control, but it is their struggles
and their humanity that are important.

		Steve Higgins

My favourites are :

"The Man in the High Castle" -  The best alternative history novel ever
				bar none !

"Ubik"			     -  Mind blowing warping of reality with a twist
				at the end that certainly caught me out.And
				laughs as well.

"Do Androids ...."	     -  Far superior to BLADE RUNNER. The very fact
				that the title was altered means you have
				to treat them as separate animals completely.

"Time Out Of Joint"	     -  Reality being twisted (again) but with a 
				(semi)rational reason.

"A Glass Darkly"	     -  A work of real maturity probably based around
				PKD's own problems with drugs.

One aspect of PKD's work a lot of readers seem to miss is his black sense
of humour and the ridiculous (just look at some of his characters names and
jobs).

As for the posthumous output I'm not impressed with what I've seen. Seems
to mostly be a case of scaping the bottom of the barrel. The only ones I've
read are LIES INC which seems to have none of the Dick trademarks whatsoever
and THE MAN WHO'S TEETH etc. The latter was one of Dick's rejected non-SF
novels and I can see why ! It reads like he's made a conscious effort to
turn his back on what he does best - ordinary small men caught up in
extraordinary situations. What he does is put these ordinary people in
very ORDINARY situations taking away any remaining interest in the story.
Characters in "mainstream" fiction have to able to stand up to closer
scrutiny which his do not - the women especially are badly treated (although
he does try very hard). Women were never his strong point , he was married
about 5 times.

But if anyone can recommend one of the others recently published I'm willing
to reconsider.

					Paul
					----

    re:.3    
    
    There was also an American paperback edition of DO ANDROIDS... that
    had BLADE RUNNER is big letters, with the actual title in small
    letters and in parentheses. I'd be willing to forgive the publisher,
    though, since it probably sold more copies that way than it would've
    under its own title.
    
    On the other hand, the movie people wanted Dick (or someone else,
    when Dick refused) to write a novelization of the film. Can you
    *believe* that?! Needless to say, Dick wouldn't do it, and wouldn't
    allow anyone else to do it. Now, I *loved* the movie (it's in my
    top ten sf film list), but let's get serious.
    
    re:.4
    
    THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE is certainly not "the best alternate
    history novel ever, bar none". I'm willing to entertain the idea
    that it is the best, but not "bar none", because there are enough
    other good ones out there to give it competition. Off-hand, I can
    think of Kinsgley Amis' THE ALTERATION and Keith Roberts' PAVANE
    (though admittedly, Amis' owes a lot to Dick's). Oh, and Peter
    Dickenson's KING AND JOKER, too, which is generally considered
    a mystery novel, but it's set in an alternate history.
    
    There's also Alan Moore & David Gibbons' WATCHMEN, which is more
    properly a graphic novel (comic book, if you prefer), but even
    disregarding the artwork, there's likely enough wordage to put it
    at least at the low end of the novel range (40,000 words, by Hugo
    rules).
    
    --- jerry

    	The 1982 film BLADE RUNNER is discussed in SF Topic 355.
    
    	Larry
    

    Damn right about the sense of humour! One of my favourite examples
    is in Counter-Clock World, in which time runs backwards. People
    have to regurgitate their food and, of course, re-incorporate their
    shit. The act of re-gurgitation becomes as shameful as going to
    the toilet is now, but the act of re-incorporation becomes a social
    activity like eating. People go to the equivalent of restaraunt
    and chatter away gaily. But none of this is described in any detail.
    Dick drops the occasional hint, but treats it as naturally as his
    characters do. I was half way through the book before I realised
    what was going on. As a result it's a lot funnier.
    
    I disagree with you about TMWTWEA. As far as I'm concerned his
    characters do stand up in their own right. However, if that's the
    way you feel I wouldn't bother with any of the other mainstream
    novels. Try RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH, however, which stands alongside
    MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, UBIK and MARTIAN TIME-SLIP as another visionary
    sf classic.
    
    		Steve

    Someone at MIT's Media Lab has written an opera based on Valis.  It
    premiered in Paris a couple of months ago to negative reviews, but
    a friend of mine who saw said that it was good.  Don't wait for it
    in the video stores.
    /jlr

    ...and if you want to find out more, much more, you can always join
    the ...
    
             Philip K. Dick Society
    	     Box 611
             Glen Ellen, CA  95442
    
    They'll send you free stuff (it's polite to include a SASE).  One
    copy of their newsletter is $2.50, four for $6.00 .
    
    Enjoy!
                                 
    

    I greatly enjoy much of Philip K. Dick's work, although my reading
    has so far been fairly limited. I think a lot of what he has to
    say is required reading for those of us (ie all of you out there)
    who work with computers and their related technologies. There is
    one short story especially (which unfortunately I cannot recall
    the title of) which is set in a future war when crude robots are
    developed by both sides to attack enemy positions. It is told in
    a very human way, yet is one of the most frightening stories I have
    read in a long time. Interestingly it is also seriously flawed as
    a piece of writting, but the idea he is expressing transcends the
    problems. I will try to get the title up here sometime. 
    
    Of course, Dick was a paranoid and some of his work is over the
    top, but I believe a lot of his paranoia is justified in a world
    where we are loosing control to the machines. Remember, many prophets
    of doom have been dismissed as madmen (or women) in the past, and
    we should all be wary of doing so again.
    
    (Gets off soapbox and goes back to gibbering in a corner)

    some pk not mentioned:
     we can rebuild you: strange combo of ai and insanity
    the prepersons: until children reach an age where they can do math
    the parents can have them taken to the local pound to be put to
    sleep, this story upset a few prochoice people.
    the moons of alpha-c: earth builds an insane aslum in a star system
    it loses political control to, the people are left to there own
    resources. interesting angles.
    
    my favorite will always be his the man in a high castle, i wish
    it could be made into a movie, it would be so cheap, you could
    break out all the old nazi uniforms.  i remember the lines where
    he mentioned the concentration camps that were on mars. really
    a great novel.
    pete
    

    Anyone ever see the comic book (oops, graphic novel) treatment (by R.
    Crumb, I think) of PKD's life and troubles? I didn't read the whole
    thing, but did see various panels on display at a gallery show on adult
    comics here in S.F.

    Vintage, an imprint of Random House has re-released these Dick novels:
    
    Confessions of a Crap Artist
    The Divine Invasion
    The Game-Players of Titan
    A Scanner Darkly
    The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrisch
    The Transmigration of Timothy Archer
    Ubik
    VALIS
    The Man in the High Castle

I loved his work when I was younger, and my 30+ old Philip K. Dick paperbacks 
and book club editions are among the relatively few sf books I brought with me
to my current apartment.  I've remained interested in him, read the 1st volume
of a biography by Gregg Rickman a couple of years ago, and continued to pick up
works I hadn't read when I happened to see them in stores.  I hadn't actually
read any for years, though, until this past weekend, when I decided to try 
"Mary and the Giant," one of the posthumously-published "mainstream" novels.

I was immediately grabbed by it, and ended up enjoying it very much.  It is the
story of a young woman in a small California town in the mid-50s, who is
finding her life intolerable.  She has been raised by an ignorant, small-minded 
couple, and abused by her father, and she sees the inadequacies of many of the
people around her. But she doesn't know how to cope with, or escape from, her
situation.  For a time she idolizes a black folksinger, who performs at a local
club; then she becomes involved with an older man who has opened a shop selling
classical records in the town.

There's some great scenes with these '50s bohemians.  The characters of Mary
and Joseph Schilling, the record store owner, struck me as interesting and
well-drawn.  Unhappy Mary, in particular, seems to me quite credible, and
highly sympathetic.  There's a brief, ludicrous happy ending;  according to the
brief discussion at the end of Laurence Sutin's "Divine Invasions" (another 
biography, which I haven't read yet), this was inserted at the suggestion of a 
publisher or agent or somebody, and the original ending is lost.

-Stephen   

Article: 671
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews
From: [email protected] (Curt Wiederhoeft)
Subject: P. K. Dick's _Androids_, "The Defenders" and "Colony" audio tapes
Sender: [email protected] (Michael C. Berch)
Organization: The Internet
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 1994 23:21:54 GMT
 
Well, based on the synchronicity of the post from C-man, (who's
apparently Time-Warner AudioBooks' net rep), and somebody
mentioning the classic PKD story "The Defenders," I thought I'd
post a review  of the last three Dick stories that I've experienced.
I use the word "experienced" because I didn't read these, I listened
to them.  Everything listed here is available on cassette, either
from a friendly local retailer or from a friendly mail-order
house.  So here goes.
 
1. _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep_, from Time-Warner
AudioBooks.  Read by Matthew Modine with Calista Flockhart.
Abridged. Released Summer 1994. $17
 
All in all, an excellent adaptation of the novel that inspired
"Blade Runner."  The box contains the caption "Abridgement approved
by the author."  I'm not sure what to think of this.  Obviously, Phil
Dick didn't anticipate the popularity of books on tape, so I have to
assume that he signed a blanket release when he sold the film rights
to the Ladd Company.  Whatever, the script is very faithful to the
original novel.  The first chapter is lifted virtually intact from
the printed page, with only a few words and phrases omitted, so I
didn't bother to read along after that.  That's what books on tape
are about, isn't it?  The text is pure PKD, however they managed to
shorten it.
 
Modine and Flockhart do a good job of providing unique voices
for practically every character.  I read a comment somewhere that
a listener was having a hard time disconnecting this tape from the
film, but I didn't have that problem.  Modine's Deckard is a perfect
representation of Dick's existential protagonist.  He has very little
in common with Harrison Ford's film noir detective.  Eldon Rosen gets
the appropriate "mad scientist" treatment (as PKD wrote him), nothing
like the Tyrell character in the film.  The only resemblance between
tape and film that *struck* me was J.R. Isidore.  Modine reads these
lines in a very good imitation of Willim Sanderson's J.F. Sebastian.
One almost expects him to introduce "My other brother Darrell." (Daryl?)
The scene in which Pris systematically dismembers Isidore's spider
is chilling, through a combination of Dick's writing and Flockhart's
absolutely emotionless delivery of Pris' lines.
 
Now, on to the negative side.  Unfortunately, Modine either doesn't
understand the difference between "immigrate" and "emigrate," or
he pronounces the latter as the former.  Whatever, a sharp editor
("prooflistener?") should have caught this flub along with a short
list of other mispronunciations.  IMHO, flawless execution should
be the standard in this format. A mispronounced word that pops up a
dozen times is VERY grating, moreso than the occasional printed typo.
 
The recording itself is excellent.  The box says it's a digital
recording, so if it becomes immensely popular among the Blade Runner
cult, it'll be possible to see a CD release someday.  The recording
contains some very appropriate music, apparently composed just for
this tape.  It fades in at a few rather unexpected moments, but never
becomes intrusive.
 
Final rating:   Adaptation 9, Performance 8, Technical 9
Thumbs-up for:  Any SF fan, maybe a few non-genre listeners
 
________________________________________________________________
 
2. "The Defenders," presented by the *X Minus One* radio series
on May 22, 1956. Full cast recording.  Unabridged. Released by the
Radio Yesteryear Company. $4.98 (tape also includes "Hallucination
Orbit" by J.T. McIntosh)
 
This is pure fun!  The short story that inspired Dick's novel _The
Penultimate Truth_ gets a new treatment, and a new approach here.
For those who haven't read the story or the novel, it concerns the
misadventures of a group of Americans living far underground, with
robots or "leadies" sent up to carry on the nuclear war with the
Soviets.  As you might expect from Dick, the reality of the above-
ground situation isn't exactly what the characters have been led to
believe.
 
The radio play differs from both its source story and the later novel
in its "reason" to venture into the war-torn aboveground.  Without
spoiling too much of what happens, I'll just say that a pair of
young people find themselves willing to risk exposure to a radioactive
wastelend rather than keep their forbidden love a secret, adding an
element of suspense that just isn't there in the original story. (The
novel's another thing entirely.  If I recall correctly, an especially
altruistic character braves the trip in order to obtain an organ
transplant from another enclave).  I sincerely hope that PKD was involved
in this adaptation, as it seems like the kind of change he *would* have
made, having a year or so to reflect on the written story, and trying
to make it an effective dramatic presentation.  Another bonus is the
fact that the enemy is only referred to as exactly that, "The Enemy."
It's nice to see that the *X Minus One* folks didn't jump right on the
Red Scare bandwagon.  The acting isn't exactly award-winning caliber,
but it's better than the average episode of "Gunsmoke."
 
If you're under 40 (like I am), and you missed out on the Golden Age of
radio, this is a great way to experience nostalgia you never knew you
had!  I've always enjoyed reruns of old radio broadcasts (yes, even
Abbot and Costello's "Who's On First?" routine.  Call me a sap), and
it was great to find radio plays written when Dick was almost part
of the mainstream.
 
The sound is the best that can be realistically be expected from a 38-
year-old, possibly off-the-air tape.  The volume modulates at a few
points, but only enough to bother those who also can't tolerate
listening to greats like Billie Holiday because of bad source tapes.
 
Final rating:   Adaptation 9, Performance 7, Technical 5
Thumbs-up for:  Anybody who enjoys early Philip K. Dick
 
________________________________________________________________
 
3. "Colony," presented by the *X Minus One* radio series on October
10, 1956. Full cast recording.  Unabridged. Released by the Radio
Yesteryear Company.
 
This episode is an almost exact duplicate of the original story,
with only a little technobabble omitted.  It seems to have been
adapted for radio only for the purpose of the titillation provided
by the penultimate scene (gratuitous radio nudity!).  While the
acting and sound quality are uniformly good, the fact that there
were no changes to the script, and the fact that this tape must
be special-ordered and custom made (at a rate of $12 per hour of
tape and about a month to do the work) make me reluctant to
recommend it to anyone but the most rabid Dick fan.
 
It does, however, have one interesting aspect.  In the dozens of
*X Minus One* episodes that I've now listened to, this is the ONLY
one in which the commander/protagonist is female.  People talk a lot
about Dick's mysogyny, but the other SF pros writing radio plays
at the time (Silverberg, Bradbury, Simak, Siodmak, etc.) weren't
exactly providing a lot of opportunities for women in leadership
roles.  So there.
 
Final rating:   Adaptation 10, Performance 8, Technical 6
Thumbs-up for:  Die-hard Dick fans only
 
________________________________________________________________
 
Disclaimer: I have no connection with either Time-Warner or
Radio Yesteryear.  I'm only a satisfied customer.  I am, of
course, willing to discuss either of these companies or their
products with any interested netter.  Oh yeah, and NASA and
Lockheed don't endorse my opinions either.
 
Curt Wiederhoeft
 
[email protected]
WWW- http://l14ep.jsc.nasa.gov     Will design spacecraft for food.
 
%A   Dick, Philip K. 
%T   Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
%I   Time Warner AudioBooks
%C   Los Angeles, CA
%D   1994
%G   no ISBN
%O   2 cassettes, approx. 90 minutes, $17.00
%K   Cassette tape, books on tape
 
%A   Dick, Philip K. 
%T   The Defenders
%B   X Minus One
%I   Radio Yesteryear
%D   May 1956 (original broadcast)
%G   no ISBN
%O   Cassette, $4.95
%K   Radio broadcast, audio cassette tape
%S   The Best of Old Time Radio
%V   963
 
%A   Dick, Philip K. 
%T   Colony
%B   X Minus One
%I   Radio Yesteryear
%D   October 1956 (original broadcast)
%G   no ISBN
%O   Cassette, $12.00
%K   Radio broadcast, audio cassette tape
%S   The Best of Old Time Radio
%V   2180