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I love Philip Dick but I wouldn't recommend emulating his writing style. None of his accomplishments are a result of his prose. His character/plot development,
by jdonaldson 8y ago
I love Philip Dick but I wouldn't recommend emulating his writing style. None of his accomplishments are a result of his prose. His character/plot development, dialog, scene... they're all just mediocre imho. However, his ability to touch a contemporary nerve with a concept or plot device is singular, although I think Mary Shelly comes close.
- xkcd-sucks 8y agoTry VALIS, it's totally different from his science fiction
- jdonaldson 8y agoSomehow I've missed this one. I always pick it up and check out the back cover. Then I put it back down when I read the name "horselover fat". I just can't get past that for some reason.
- pphysch 8y agoIf it helps, Horselover Fat is just a multi-lingual translation of Philip Dick
- slg 8y agoThere is a reason why Dick is one of the most adapted authors but almost none of those adaptions are particularly faithful. He was amazing at creating high concept ideas, but often the execution failed to fully capture the potential of those ideas. I wonder if he was some 20 or 30 years younger whether he might have spent his entire career in movies and TV which has a more collaborative creative environment that could have let his strengths really shine through while hiding some of his weaknesses as a storyteller.
- jdonaldson 8y agoI agree a modern day Philip Dick would be amazing. There was nowhere near the appetite for Sci Fiction back then as there is now. Dick churned out dos-a-dos bound pulp paperbacks, and most of his work is in short stories he published in magazines. He's a bit like Dickens in this way. All his ideas had to fit within pretty tight constraints, within crude mediums.