6 ms·

Being a child of the 80s, I was first introduced to PKD through Total Recall - the original, good one with Schwarzenegger in it. The mix of sci-fi, paranoia, an

by dcw303 10y ago

Being a child of the 80s, I was first introduced to PKD through Total Recall - the original, good one with Schwarzenegger in it. The mix of sci-fi, paranoia, and reality bending was mesmerising. Verhoeven is the only director who really got to the essence of what Philip K Dick was about. With the exception of the occasional episode of Star Trek TNG, I didn't have much access to much mindfuck sci-fi, so whatever I could get would leave pretty deep impression on me. I didn't immediately read through his stuff, though. I wouldn't really be reminded of it until I got into Sonic Youth in my late teens and found out that the Sister LP was a loose biography. Sonic Youth's guitar rock/pop mixed with discordant feedback was basically the musical equivalent of PKD's paranoia. After that I spent years going through a big chunk of his catalog. Obviously, a classic like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is worth your time. The Man in the High Castle is alternate history, and features what I still consider to be the best execution of a things-are-not-what-you-think-they-are ever. I've also been thinking of The Game Players of Titan recently, but that's probably because of the talking self driving car. Ubik is also really, really good, but I can't explain it to you at all. If you want some fiction that will make you question your grip on reality, I highly recommend reading through his stuff. Just don't wait until you're too old - once your ideals are firmly set in place it gets a lot harder to get into it.

SideburnsOfDoom 10y ago
> Total Recall - the original, good one with Schwarzenegger in it. it wasn't really considered "the good one" until a worse one was made.
- retox 10y ago
  Like how 'lethal weapon' wasn't referred to as 'lethal weapon one' until the sequels. It has always been regarded as a gem by many people. First use of CGI in a film too, I believe. For the x-ray scene at the Mars port.
  - samatman 10y ago
    Early use, sure, but hardly the first. The owl in Labyrinth was 1986, and I'm certain there are earlier examples.
    - amag 10y ago
      Tron (1982) Star Wars (1977)
    - blakeyrat 10y ago
      Star Wars, 1977 (the Death Star diagram), The Black Hole, 1979 (the wireframe model of the titular black hole-- drawn on a plotter!), etc. By 1986 we'd already had two entire films based around CGI-- Tron (1982) and The Last Starfighter (1984).
  - SideburnsOfDoom 10y ago
    I thought it was a gem at the time ... a gem of b-movie bad sci-fi.
DonHopkins 10y ago
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is also a total mind fuck.
- 13of40 10y ago
  Wow - I just ordered a copy after reading the first part of the plot summary on Wikipedia. (Those things can be a little spoilery...) It's interesting to see someone talking about global warming that early, and I want to try to find out how far back the notice of it goes. I don't recall anyone talking about it before the late 80's.
  - spc476 10y ago
    If you want ecology apocalypse, check out John Brunner's _The Sheep Look Up_ (written in the early 70s). No other book I've read scared me as much as that one. I think what did it was the utter normalcy with which everything was just accepted as is.
    - lobster_johnson 10y ago
      It's a great book, unfortunately few of its environmental predictions are very valid today. Brunner missed the greenhouse gas problem and focused on things like air quality, garbage, sonic booms (!), poisoned drinking water and overpopulation. One thing he does get right is the need to develop new agricultural tech -- a core subplot is about a company that uses a new hydroponics system to grow cassava at a large scale, for distribution to impoverished third-world countries. The real impact, for me, was twofold: First, the idea that someone could develop a simulation of modern society to the point where it could make a recommendation about how to make a course correction (which turns out to provide the books its deliciously tragicomic ending), and second, the idea that society's collapse will prevent a technological solution to envionmental disaster. The latter is implied rather than spelled out.
  - ci5er 10y ago
    User spc476's recommendation, Brunner's "The Sheep Look Up", isn't really a sequel, but appears to take place in the world of "Stand on Zanzibar", which I (personally) thought was better written. Having been influenced by Alvin Toffler's "Future Shock", he (Brunner) also wrote a novel called "Shockwave Rider". People of that era appear to have been worried more about "The Population Bomb" scenarios than "Global Ecosystem Collapse" scenarios. That said - the underlying driver of ecosystem collapse is overpopulation, so there is a fair amount of thematic overlap. 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson comes to mind, but that might just be my broken brain talking nonsense...
wiredfool 10y ago
I read a lot of PKD when I was in my 20's. It all started with Ubik. Then Androids. A Scanner Darkly. And about 10 other novels. The early Total Recall is one of the better movie adaptations wrt covering the core concepts of the story. Waves and Waves of revelations about the nature of reality. Minority Report, not so much. And of course, Blade Runner is tangentially related to the book. (It's a masterpiece, but it's not Androids) Once I started getting into the short stories, I started getting pretty paranoid. There's one theme that repeats throughout that reality is not your perception of it, to your eventual downfall. Repeated over and over, across post apocalyptic wastelands, it leads to a somewhat bleak view of the future. (One in particular, I think it's The Fifth Variety, seems to be tailor made to describe computer security from here on out. Spoiler: _Everything_ is a trojan)
- paol 10y ago
  In his own words "Reality is made of cardboard and if you push too hard, you fall through." Describes his stories perfectly.
- eivarv 10y ago
  I think you mean Second Variety [1], which is really great in my opinion as well. It, like many of PKD's works, was also made into a movie (Screamers). Second Variety is freely available [2] on the Internet Archive, via Project Gutenberg. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Variety https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Variety [2]: https://archive.org/details/secondvariety32032gut https://archive.org/details/secondvariety32032gut
  - wiredfool 10y ago
    Yep. Lost track of the number of Varieties.
    - maffydub 10y ago
      Yes, there were more than 2 varieties - it's kind of key to the story! ;) I think (or at least hope) that's not a spoiler for anyone who hasn't read it yet - it's worth reading!
signa11 10y ago
> Verhoeven is the only director who really got to the essence of what Philip K Dick was about. maybe, but he totally destroyed "the starship troopers".
- barrkel 10y ago
  I think he captured Heinlein's fascist streak quite well, albeit while poking fun at it. Starship Troopers is a very well made movie, quite cleverly constructed. For people without a sense of humour, it appeals to their own militaristic tendencies; it hits two audiences at once.
  - douche 10y ago
    It's an even better book - especially if you have any familiarity with the genre of soldier's memoirs, which often follow a very similar trajectory, from pre-military life to boot camp to the first brush with combat, to the climactic battle. The philosophy is somewhat different, but the spiritual and thematic successor to Starship Troopers, Armor by John Steakley[1], which I think is an underappreciated classic. [1] http://amzn.to/2bNDHMB http://amzn.to/2bNDHMB
    - david-given 10y ago
      I'd also recommend you read Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, which is very much a response to Starship Troopers: while Heinlein was writing from the perspective of WW2, Haldeman was writing from the perspective of Vietnam, and it shows. I haven't read Armor. I should check it out.
      - jholman 10y ago
        Haldeman has said on many occasions (like nearly every interview with him) that The Forever War was absolutely not a response to Starship Troopers. He oughtta know, right? I strongly support the recommendation to read both of them, though.
  - signa11 10y ago
BurningFrog 10y ago
Another PKD fandom perk is you get to call yourself a Dickhead.
InclinedPlane 10y ago
You should read "Only Forward" by Michael Marshall Smith. He seems to be fairly unknown, but I love his work. Based on your descriptions I think you would too.
di4na 10y ago
I highly advise the original Twilight Zone. This show was miles ahead...

by dcw303 10y ago

SideburnsOfDoom 10y ago

> Total Recall - the original, good one with Schwarzenegger in it. it wasn't really considered "the good one" until a worse one was made.

retox 10y ago
Like how 'lethal weapon' wasn't referred to as 'lethal weapon one' until the sequels. It has always been regarded as a gem by many people. First use of CGI in a film too, I believe. For the x-ray scene at the Mars port.
- samatman 10y ago
  Early use, sure, but hardly the first. The owl in Labyrinth was 1986, and I'm certain there are earlier examples.
  - amag 10y ago
    Tron (1982) Star Wars (1977)
  - blakeyrat 10y ago
    Star Wars, 1977 (the Death Star diagram), The Black Hole, 1979 (the wireframe model of the titular black hole-- drawn on a plotter!), etc. By 1986 we'd already had two entire films based around CGI-- Tron (1982) and The Last Starfighter (1984).
- SideburnsOfDoom 10y ago
  I thought it was a gem at the time ... a gem of b-movie bad sci-fi.

DonHopkins 10y ago

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is also a total mind fuck.

13of40 10y ago
Wow - I just ordered a copy after reading the first part of the plot summary on Wikipedia. (Those things can be a little spoilery...) It's interesting to see someone talking about global warming that early, and I want to try to find out how far back the notice of it goes. I don't recall anyone talking about it before the late 80's.
- spc476 10y ago
  If you want ecology apocalypse, check out John Brunner's _The Sheep Look Up_ (written in the early 70s). No other book I've read scared me as much as that one. I think what did it was the utter normalcy with which everything was just accepted as is.
  - lobster_johnson 10y ago
    It's a great book, unfortunately few of its environmental predictions are very valid today. Brunner missed the greenhouse gas problem and focused on things like air quality, garbage, sonic booms (!), poisoned drinking water and overpopulation. One thing he does get right is the need to develop new agricultural tech -- a core subplot is about a company that uses a new hydroponics system to grow cassava at a large scale, for distribution to impoverished third-world countries. The real impact, for me, was twofold: First, the idea that someone could develop a simulation of modern society to the point where it could make a recommendation about how to make a course correction (which turns out to provide the books its deliciously tragicomic ending), and second, the idea that society's collapse will prevent a technological solution to envionmental disaster. The latter is implied rather than spelled out.
- ci5er 10y ago
  User spc476's recommendation, Brunner's "The Sheep Look Up", isn't really a sequel, but appears to take place in the world of "Stand on Zanzibar", which I (personally) thought was better written. Having been influenced by Alvin Toffler's "Future Shock", he (Brunner) also wrote a novel called "Shockwave Rider". People of that era appear to have been worried more about "The Population Bomb" scenarios than "Global Ecosystem Collapse" scenarios. That said - the underlying driver of ecosystem collapse is overpopulation, so there is a fair amount of thematic overlap. 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson comes to mind, but that might just be my broken brain talking nonsense...

wiredfool 10y ago

I read a lot of PKD when I was in my 20's. It all started with Ubik. Then Androids. A Scanner Darkly. And about 10 other novels. The early Total Recall is one of the better movie adaptations wrt covering the core concepts of the story. Waves and Waves of revelations about the nature of reality. Minority Report, not so much. And of course, Blade Runner is tangentially related to the book. (It's a masterpiece, but it's not Androids) Once I started getting into the short stories, I started getting pretty paranoid. There's one theme that repeats throughout that reality is not your perception of it, to your eventual downfall. Repeated over and over, across post apocalyptic wastelands, it leads to a somewhat bleak view of the future. (One in particular, I think it's The Fifth Variety, seems to be tailor made to describe computer security from here on out. Spoiler: _Everything_ is a trojan)

paol 10y ago
In his own words "Reality is made of cardboard and if you push too hard, you fall through." Describes his stories perfectly.
eivarv 10y ago
I think you mean Second Variety [1], which is really great in my opinion as well. It, like many of PKD's works, was also made into a movie (Screamers). Second Variety is freely available [2] on the Internet Archive, via Project Gutenberg. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Variety https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Variety [2]: https://archive.org/details/secondvariety32032gut https://archive.org/details/secondvariety32032gut
- wiredfool 10y ago
  Yep. Lost track of the number of Varieties.
  - maffydub 10y ago
    Yes, there were more than 2 varieties - it's kind of key to the story! ;) I think (or at least hope) that's not a spoiler for anyone who hasn't read it yet - it's worth reading!

signa11 10y ago

> Verhoeven is the only director who really got to the essence of what Philip K Dick was about. maybe, but he totally destroyed "the starship troopers".

barrkel 10y ago
I think he captured Heinlein's fascist streak quite well, albeit while poking fun at it. Starship Troopers is a very well made movie, quite cleverly constructed. For people without a sense of humour, it appeals to their own militaristic tendencies; it hits two audiences at once.
- douche 10y ago
  It's an even better book - especially if you have any familiarity with the genre of soldier's memoirs, which often follow a very similar trajectory, from pre-military life to boot camp to the first brush with combat, to the climactic battle. The philosophy is somewhat different, but the spiritual and thematic successor to Starship Troopers, Armor by John Steakley[1], which I think is an underappreciated classic. [1] http://amzn.to/2bNDHMB http://amzn.to/2bNDHMB
  - david-given 10y ago
    I'd also recommend you read Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, which is very much a response to Starship Troopers: while Heinlein was writing from the perspective of WW2, Haldeman was writing from the perspective of Vietnam, and it shows. I haven't read Armor. I should check it out.
    - jholman 10y ago
      Haldeman has said on many occasions (like nearly every interview with him) that The Forever War was absolutely not a response to Starship Troopers. He oughtta know, right? I strongly support the recommendation to read both of them, though.
- signa11 10y ago

BurningFrog 10y ago

Another PKD fandom perk is you get to call yourself a Dickhead.

InclinedPlane 10y ago

You should read "Only Forward" by Michael Marshall Smith. He seems to be fairly unknown, but I love his work. Based on your descriptions I think you would too.

di4na 10y ago

I highly advise the original Twilight Zone. This show was miles ahead...