4 ms·

Speaking of, I was quite disappointed with the new "Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams" show, now on Amazon. They are decidedly not faithful to the short stories

Speaking of, I was quite disappointed with the new "Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams" show, now on Amazon. They are decidedly not faithful to the short stories they're based on, and in several cases choose a conclusion that is diametrically opposite to what PKD intended. In "Impossible Planet" they go for a weirdly romantic ending that is the opposite of the story, and turns it into some kind of wish fulfillment fantasy. "Autofac" starts great, but then introduces a twist that makes no sense. Dick's story is extremely dark (taking the automatic, unstoppable factory idea to its logical next step), and the final ending essentially makes the whole premise pointless, turning a smart comment on runaway consumerism and automation into a cheap thriller about love conquering all. Film adaptations have generally been unable to make something faithful to PKD. I just wish someone would have the balls to do it, because it could be fantastic.

jandrese 9y ago
See, I had a very different reading of the end of the Impossible Planet. The old lady and the guy died but in their dying brains they finally "went to Earth", the imperfectly remembered yet angelic place of her rose tinted memories. The one I didn't like was the one where the smartphone helpdesk gaslights the teenager. I'm willing to suspend disbelief a bit that the teenager won't recognise what's happening, but the end didn't work. She should have died! Every day that she's alive is another day where she might talk about her experience and have someone else go "Wait, that doesn't make sense..." Instead she's doing presentations and inviting people to hear her story! My only minor quibble is that the ending is a little too easy to guess on most of them. The Lesbian Space Cop/Distraught CEO episode was the best for this, it kept you guessing for a right long time.
- madaxe_again 9y ago
  Yeah, but in the short story the dead planet actually was earth - ends with him finding a copper disk and going “e pluribus unum? What does that mean?” before throwing it away and getting back on ship. Very definitely not the same as the garbage TV series. I recommend reading the short stories - the series absolutely lost the meaning of every single one of them.
  - jandrese 9y ago
    I have to admit this is what I thought was going to happen once the old android started messing with the navigational controls. The twist being that he was telling the truth at the end when he was talking about Earth being hit by some gobbldygook that messed it up.
kurthr 9y ago
Although they were developed (and some directed) by Moore and Dinner, who seem to have some artistic control, and the US and UK production staff also seem to be consistent (to maintain the look?), they're all different. Since the writers change every episode I wouldn't expect more than half to really be "faithful" to Dick. I'm not sure he'd appreciate fidelity, but I agree the writing could be better (I like that it's not consistently _Dark_ like a _Mirror_ clone). Maybe I'm jist not a DickHead, but I didn't find all of his original shorts great (or necessarily original).
- lobster_johnson 9y ago
  Fidelity to the plot isn't paramount, but I'd want fidelity to the essence of the story. Both were violated in the aforementioned episodes. It's worth pointing out that Dick's stories are dark. Autofac has one of the most apocalyptically pessimistic endings ever written (though his seminal "Second Variety" manages to be even darker). I can't think of many that are in some way uplifting. Most of his best stories — "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon", "Impostor", "The Electric Ant", "A Little Something for Us Tempunauts", "Second Variety", "Explorers We" and "Colony", to name a few — are end on a dark, often depressing note. Of the few classics that aren't, such as "Paycheck" and "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale", would probably not lend themselves to Black Mirror-style stories, although I'd love to see faithful adaptations of these. (By the way, if you don't find these stories great or original, I don't know what to tell you. They are masterpieces!) If the producers didn't want dark stories, it's strange that they would choose Philip K. Dick.
  - kurthr 9y ago
    I guess that's what I'm saying. You may not like any of the adaptations (BladeRunner, MinorityReport, TotalRecall, or the HighCastle series), because none are faithful and most only tangentially cover the idea... but they've almost universally been successful. I think that's why they chose him (and I think some love his work) even if they're not at all like him.
new299 9y ago
PKD very much liked what he saw of Blade Runner though: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/09/blade-runner-will-prove-invincible.html http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/09/blade-runner-will-prove... I'm not sure what the purpose of faithful adaptations is really. Better to capture the spirit of the original and make something new (something the new Amazon series doesn't do either as it totally lacks the emotional/somewhat mystical side of PKDs writing).
- lobster_johnson 9y ago
  PKD only saw a 20-minute effects reel set to some pre-existing Vangelis music that they liked, not any assembled scenes. He was amazed by it, but it's worth pointing out that he did not like the script, and disagreed with most of the changes. Blade Runner is the rare adaptation that is pretty faithful to the essence of the original material (which is what you'd hope for), although by making Deckard a replicant it changes the point of the novel, which is to show a man's disillusionment with a world that has become itself an illusion, a fake reality that lacks meaning. The androids in DADOES are sociopaths who can't feel anything, whereas the film portrays them as full of empathy and deserving of love. The film turns it into a story about a hunter who learns how he's wrong to hunt brings that can feel as much as he does, which is an altogether different and rather more mundane concept than what the novel strives to tell us.
  - new299 9y ago
    Do you have a reference to his comments on the other changes? I would be most interested in reading them. Personally, I feel analyzing PKDs books as if they were written with a clear point in mind doesn't work well. PKD, was a heavy drug user (in fact he's quoted as saying all his books were written while on amphetamines). He claimed to have paranormal experiences. And claimed to have had a parallel life where he lived as "Thomas", a Christian persecuted by Romans in the first century AD. I think he was heavy interested in Christian mysticism. It's his questioning of reality, and his visions of other worlds, and the idea of a shifting, unstable reality that come across in his work for me. I think Blade Runner the film, is an interesting take on this. It's certainly a very vivid vision of a different, confusing and mysterious world, and it's my guess that this is what he liked in what he saw. I also also surprised to hear he liked it, given how different a world it is to what he wrote.

jandrese 9y ago

See, I had a very different reading of the end of the Impossible Planet. The old lady and the guy died but in their dying brains they finally "went to Earth", the imperfectly remembered yet angelic place of her rose tinted memories. The one I didn't like was the one where the smartphone helpdesk gaslights the teenager. I'm willing to suspend disbelief a bit that the teenager won't recognise what's happening, but the end didn't work. She should have died! Every day that she's alive is another day where she might talk about her experience and have someone else go "Wait, that doesn't make sense..." Instead she's doing presentations and inviting people to hear her story! My only minor quibble is that the ending is a little too easy to guess on most of them. The Lesbian Space Cop/Distraught CEO episode was the best for this, it kept you guessing for a right long time.

madaxe_again 9y ago
Yeah, but in the short story the dead planet actually was earth - ends with him finding a copper disk and going “e pluribus unum? What does that mean?” before throwing it away and getting back on ship. Very definitely not the same as the garbage TV series. I recommend reading the short stories - the series absolutely lost the meaning of every single one of them.
- jandrese 9y ago
  I have to admit this is what I thought was going to happen once the old android started messing with the navigational controls. The twist being that he was telling the truth at the end when he was talking about Earth being hit by some gobbldygook that messed it up.

kurthr 9y ago

Although they were developed (and some directed) by Moore and Dinner, who seem to have some artistic control, and the US and UK production staff also seem to be consistent (to maintain the look?), they're all different. Since the writers change every episode I wouldn't expect more than half to really be "faithful" to Dick. I'm not sure he'd appreciate fidelity, but I agree the writing could be better (I like that it's not consistently _Dark_ like a _Mirror_ clone). Maybe I'm jist not a DickHead, but I didn't find all of his original shorts great (or necessarily original).

lobster_johnson 9y ago
Fidelity to the plot isn't paramount, but I'd want fidelity to the essence of the story. Both were violated in the aforementioned episodes. It's worth pointing out that Dick's stories are dark. Autofac has one of the most apocalyptically pessimistic endings ever written (though his seminal "Second Variety" manages to be even darker). I can't think of many that are in some way uplifting. Most of his best stories — "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon", "Impostor", "The Electric Ant", "A Little Something for Us Tempunauts", "Second Variety", "Explorers We" and "Colony", to name a few — are end on a dark, often depressing note. Of the few classics that aren't, such as "Paycheck" and "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale", would probably not lend themselves to Black Mirror-style stories, although I'd love to see faithful adaptations of these. (By the way, if you don't find these stories great or original, I don't know what to tell you. They are masterpieces!) If the producers didn't want dark stories, it's strange that they would choose Philip K. Dick.
- kurthr 9y ago
  I guess that's what I'm saying. You may not like any of the adaptations (BladeRunner, MinorityReport, TotalRecall, or the HighCastle series), because none are faithful and most only tangentially cover the idea... but they've almost universally been successful. I think that's why they chose him (and I think some love his work) even if they're not at all like him.

new299 9y ago

PKD very much liked what he saw of Blade Runner though: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/09/blade-runner-will-prove-invincible.html http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/09/blade-runner-will-prove... I'm not sure what the purpose of faithful adaptations is really. Better to capture the spirit of the original and make something new (something the new Amazon series doesn't do either as it totally lacks the emotional/somewhat mystical side of PKDs writing).

lobster_johnson 9y ago
PKD only saw a 20-minute effects reel set to some pre-existing Vangelis music that they liked, not any assembled scenes. He was amazed by it, but it's worth pointing out that he did not like the script, and disagreed with most of the changes. Blade Runner is the rare adaptation that is pretty faithful to the essence of the original material (which is what you'd hope for), although by making Deckard a replicant it changes the point of the novel, which is to show a man's disillusionment with a world that has become itself an illusion, a fake reality that lacks meaning. The androids in DADOES are sociopaths who can't feel anything, whereas the film portrays them as full of empathy and deserving of love. The film turns it into a story about a hunter who learns how he's wrong to hunt brings that can feel as much as he does, which is an altogether different and rather more mundane concept than what the novel strives to tell us.
- new299 9y ago
  Do you have a reference to his comments on the other changes? I would be most interested in reading them. Personally, I feel analyzing PKDs books as if they were written with a clear point in mind doesn't work well. PKD, was a heavy drug user (in fact he's quoted as saying all his books were written while on amphetamines). He claimed to have paranormal experiences. And claimed to have had a parallel life where he lived as "Thomas", a Christian persecuted by Romans in the first century AD. I think he was heavy interested in Christian mysticism. It's his questioning of reality, and his visions of other worlds, and the idea of a shifting, unstable reality that come across in his work for me. I think Blade Runner the film, is an interesting take on this. It's certainly a very vivid vision of a different, confusing and mysterious world, and it's my guess that this is what he liked in what he saw. I also also surprised to hear he liked it, given how different a world it is to what he wrote.