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I recently bought P. K. Dick’s “Complete Short Stories” published by Folio Society as a big box set. The stories are in chronological order, which is surprisin

by pavlov 5y ago

I recently bought P. K. Dick’s “Complete Short Stories” published by Folio Society as a big box set. The stories are in chronological order, which is surprisingly interesting because you get to trace Dick’s evolution as a writer. The first published stories are not very good by any standard, but he keeps gradually honing in on the concepts and atmospheres that eventually mark his work. As someone who has dabbled in SF writing, it feels like a consolation to see PKD’s humble beginnings laid bare. He never gave up on evolving his craft.

fallat 5y ago
I would have to say of all the writings, that compilation is the best. You get a taste of everything he had to offer. All his other books are based off of these stories IIRC.
- mypalmike 5y ago
  Where can you find it though? It's a sold out special edition with only 750 copies in print.
  - fallat 5y ago
    Ah, I thought the original comment was talking about this https://www.amazon.ca/Remember-Wholesale-Other-Classic-Stories/dp/0806537981/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=philip+k+dick+we+can+remember&qid=1622329764&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.ca/Remember-Wholesale-Other-Classic-Stori... but I was not aware there are many more!
    - csdvrx 5y ago
      Sorry to contact you there but I do not see an email in your profile. I just read your comment on derasterize: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25997236 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25997236 > Based on your project I inferred that adding more matches seems to add more resolution and yeah, outputs are looking even nicer now. I updated the repo! This is the right approach, but there's a combinatory explosion when computing the matches: you want to select a subset of shapes that in practice are more often right, to save on the matching computation time. Also, when you are operating with time constraints (ex: video to text), keeping the FPS rate is often more important that the accuracy, as the human eye does a lot of interpolation. Having different subsets of different sizes and a command-line toggle between them seems like the simpler approach to support multiple uses. > I also used shapes which are less sharp rather than "perfect match". Selecting some "less sharp" glyphs is a very daring and unique idea: in retrospect, it should help the bad cases by adding some "blur". I really like you idea! Would you be interested in a collaboration to inspect fonts and select glyphs based on 1) their availability (ascii>ansi>unicode) 2) their usefulness (by defining some subsets)
      - fallat 5y ago
        I saw your message but was hesitant to respond with disappointment. I'm sorry my interest in this is not as large as yours! I think the end result could be cool, but overall not very practical. I wrote my program to include "images" in my text-only articles (http://len.falken.ink/philosophy/is-privacy-in-all-our-interests.txt http://len.falken.ink/philosophy/is-privacy-in-all-our-inter...), but really I can't imagine a real useful application. We (the world) is much better off to adopt a real "images with text" format which works nicely with terminals (for now this appears to be sixel and the proposal by kiTTY). My email is inbox at lee <this username> dot ca :)
        csdvrx 5y ago
        > My email is inbox at lee <this username> dot ca :) Thanks, I will get in touch! I want to release a new version of tmux-sixel first. > really I can't imagine a real useful application Plots of datasets are extremely helpful! It is much faster to use gnuplot over ssh than to download a subset of data
V-2 5y ago
As far as I remember, Dick's writing was of mixed quality and it wasn't just linearly improving with experience. There were ups and downs. He wrote really a lot, often repeated concepts, and his weaker stuff was often a result of rushing and simply needing a quick buck.
- kevinmchugh 5y ago
  He had a rough life, and it's not hard to see that impact in his work. I read many of his novels, back to back, in the Library of America collections, and by Ubik (my favorite of the bunch) I had the sense that he was barely holding together something moving downhill very quickly. That energy suits his work in a lot of ways, though not universally, and can be monotonous sometimes.
  - pkdpic_y9k 5y ago
    I grew up in and around San Rafael where he did some of his most important writing and went through possibly the darkest chapters of his life. I always thought there should be a statue of him there... Also I just felt I should weigh in because of my username.
    - pmoriarty 5y ago
      I just found the Berkeley Historical Plaque Project entry for PKD: [1] Perhaps there could be something similar in San Rafel. [1] - https://berkeleyplaques.org/e-plaque/philip-k-dick/ https://berkeleyplaques.org/e-plaque/philip-k-dick/
      - pkdpic_y9k 5y ago
        Thats an excellent find, and an excellent idea! Id donate money to that gofundme. Also could have text from his scanner darkly afterword, gets me literally every time. Kindred... https://www.reddit.com/r/Frisson/comments/1hbexo/text_phillip_k_dicks_afterword_for_a_scanner/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=&utm_content=post_body https://www.reddit.com/r/Frisson/comments/1hbexo/text_philli...
pmoriarty 5y ago
"The first published stories are not very good by any standard" I loved PKD's Beyond Lies the Wub, which was his first published story (published in 1952). I also really liked the story he wrote the year before (but which didn't get published until the year after) called Roog.
- atombender 5y ago
  Make sure you also read "Not by Its Cover", a sort of sequel to "Beyond Lies the Wub".
  - pmoriarty 5y ago
    Thanks for the recommendation. I found a copy here: [1] I enjoyed the story, though the ending was a little weak. [1] - http://sickmyduck.narod.ru/pkd035-0.html http://sickmyduck.narod.ru/pkd035-0.html
azemetre 5y ago
I just looked up what the folio society is and that book set. Wow! It looks absolutely gorgeous. I really wish I found out about it, guessing they never do reprints?
- Finnucane 5y ago
  No, but this is like the third edition of the collected stories anyway. You should be able to find copies of the Citadel paperback at reasonable prices. I have the Underwood-Miller edition, but that is now fairly scarce.
  - azemetre 5y ago
    I don't think we are talking about the same thing at all. You are referring to a story I am referring to this: https://www.foliosociety.com/usa/the-complete-short-stories.html https://www.foliosociety.com/usa/the-complete-short-stories....
    - merlyn 5y ago
      Underwood-Miller put out a "The Collected Stories of Phillip K. Dick" 5 book collection in 1987. I have a first-edition set on my bookshelves back when I bought it back then. I assume the Folio Society collection is the same material, redone into 4 books and fancy covers and illustrations.
      - bsenftner 5y ago
        I have two copies of the '87 set, and have compared them to the Folio set and they are the same.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
mherdeg 5y ago
Dick is one of my go-to SF authors when I'm using the public library's book lending app (Hoopla) and want to type in a novelist name and read some completely random piece of their work. He was so incredibly prolific that there is always more to explore. It's … not always great, huh. One quiet theme I've seen in sampling his work at different stages is the evolution of San Francisco the city -- Dick has a bunch of stories which paint a particular picture of the mid 20th century Bay Area that of course feels very different from what the place is like today. It reminds me of the place we see in "The Crying of Lot 49". A few years back while visiting the city I tried to get something fixed at a repair shop in a small office suite in a very old building (I think probably https://www.yelp.com/biz/setraks-watch-repair-san-francisco https://www.yelp.com/biz/setraks-watch-repair-san-francisco ) and it looked and felt exactly like the older time SF of Dick's stories.
bsenftner 5y ago
I have this set, had to buy a 2nd because my first set became too dog-eared from re-reading. To say I read a lot is an understatement. PKD is the first author I "finished", as in having read everything published, and then some more. To me, he is one of the few, in the company of Huxley, Orwell, Burroughs and Joyce, to see the future not being some grand shiny existence, but a chaos of sophisticated manipulations the human race and God in all it's manifestations is lost and consumed by consumerism and commercialized branded religion. I found a Church of PKD in San Francisco once, a tiny space with whacked out meth addicts reading passages of PKD novels to one another. That was an interesting find, and gone when I tried to show some friends.

by pavlov 5y ago

fallat 5y ago

I would have to say of all the writings, that compilation is the best. You get a taste of everything he had to offer. All his other books are based off of these stories IIRC.

mypalmike 5y ago
Where can you find it though? It's a sold out special edition with only 750 copies in print.
- fallat 5y ago
  Ah, I thought the original comment was talking about this https://www.amazon.ca/Remember-Wholesale-Other-Classic-Stories/dp/0806537981/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=philip+k+dick+we+can+remember&qid=1622329764&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.ca/Remember-Wholesale-Other-Classic-Stori... but I was not aware there are many more!
  - csdvrx 5y ago
    Sorry to contact you there but I do not see an email in your profile. I just read your comment on derasterize: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25997236 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25997236 > Based on your project I inferred that adding more matches seems to add more resolution and yeah, outputs are looking even nicer now. I updated the repo! This is the right approach, but there's a combinatory explosion when computing the matches: you want to select a subset of shapes that in practice are more often right, to save on the matching computation time. Also, when you are operating with time constraints (ex: video to text), keeping the FPS rate is often more important that the accuracy, as the human eye does a lot of interpolation. Having different subsets of different sizes and a command-line toggle between them seems like the simpler approach to support multiple uses. > I also used shapes which are less sharp rather than "perfect match". Selecting some "less sharp" glyphs is a very daring and unique idea: in retrospect, it should help the bad cases by adding some "blur". I really like you idea! Would you be interested in a collaboration to inspect fonts and select glyphs based on 1) their availability (ascii>ansi>unicode) 2) their usefulness (by defining some subsets)
    - fallat 5y ago
      I saw your message but was hesitant to respond with disappointment. I'm sorry my interest in this is not as large as yours! I think the end result could be cool, but overall not very practical. I wrote my program to include "images" in my text-only articles (http://len.falken.ink/philosophy/is-privacy-in-all-our-interests.txt http://len.falken.ink/philosophy/is-privacy-in-all-our-inter...), but really I can't imagine a real useful application. We (the world) is much better off to adopt a real "images with text" format which works nicely with terminals (for now this appears to be sixel and the proposal by kiTTY). My email is inbox at lee <this username> dot ca :)
      - csdvrx 5y ago
        > My email is inbox at lee <this username> dot ca :) Thanks, I will get in touch! I want to release a new version of tmux-sixel first. > really I can't imagine a real useful application Plots of datasets are extremely helpful! It is much faster to use gnuplot over ssh than to download a subset of data

V-2 5y ago

As far as I remember, Dick's writing was of mixed quality and it wasn't just linearly improving with experience. There were ups and downs. He wrote really a lot, often repeated concepts, and his weaker stuff was often a result of rushing and simply needing a quick buck.

kevinmchugh 5y ago
He had a rough life, and it's not hard to see that impact in his work. I read many of his novels, back to back, in the Library of America collections, and by Ubik (my favorite of the bunch) I had the sense that he was barely holding together something moving downhill very quickly. That energy suits his work in a lot of ways, though not universally, and can be monotonous sometimes.
- pkdpic_y9k 5y ago
  I grew up in and around San Rafael where he did some of his most important writing and went through possibly the darkest chapters of his life. I always thought there should be a statue of him there... Also I just felt I should weigh in because of my username.
  - pmoriarty 5y ago
    I just found the Berkeley Historical Plaque Project entry for PKD: [1] Perhaps there could be something similar in San Rafel. [1] - https://berkeleyplaques.org/e-plaque/philip-k-dick/ https://berkeleyplaques.org/e-plaque/philip-k-dick/
    - pkdpic_y9k 5y ago
      Thats an excellent find, and an excellent idea! Id donate money to that gofundme. Also could have text from his scanner darkly afterword, gets me literally every time. Kindred... https://www.reddit.com/r/Frisson/comments/1hbexo/text_phillip_k_dicks_afterword_for_a_scanner/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=&utm_content=post_body https://www.reddit.com/r/Frisson/comments/1hbexo/text_philli...

pmoriarty 5y ago

"The first published stories are not very good by any standard" I loved PKD's Beyond Lies the Wub, which was his first published story (published in 1952). I also really liked the story he wrote the year before (but which didn't get published until the year after) called Roog.

atombender 5y ago
Make sure you also read "Not by Its Cover", a sort of sequel to "Beyond Lies the Wub".
- pmoriarty 5y ago
  Thanks for the recommendation. I found a copy here: [1] I enjoyed the story, though the ending was a little weak. [1] - http://sickmyduck.narod.ru/pkd035-0.html http://sickmyduck.narod.ru/pkd035-0.html

azemetre 5y ago

I just looked up what the folio society is and that book set. Wow! It looks absolutely gorgeous. I really wish I found out about it, guessing they never do reprints?

Finnucane 5y ago
No, but this is like the third edition of the collected stories anyway. You should be able to find copies of the Citadel paperback at reasonable prices. I have the Underwood-Miller edition, but that is now fairly scarce.
- azemetre 5y ago
  I don't think we are talking about the same thing at all. You are referring to a story I am referring to this: https://www.foliosociety.com/usa/the-complete-short-stories.html https://www.foliosociety.com/usa/the-complete-short-stories....
  - merlyn 5y ago
    Underwood-Miller put out a "The Collected Stories of Phillip K. Dick" 5 book collection in 1987. I have a first-edition set on my bookshelves back when I bought it back then. I assume the Folio Society collection is the same material, redone into 4 books and fancy covers and illustrations.
    - bsenftner 5y ago
      I have two copies of the '87 set, and have compared them to the Folio set and they are the same.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

mherdeg 5y ago

Dick is one of my go-to SF authors when I'm using the public library's book lending app (Hoopla) and want to type in a novelist name and read some completely random piece of their work. He was so incredibly prolific that there is always more to explore. It's … not always great, huh. One quiet theme I've seen in sampling his work at different stages is the evolution of San Francisco the city -- Dick has a bunch of stories which paint a particular picture of the mid 20th century Bay Area that of course feels very different from what the place is like today. It reminds me of the place we see in "The Crying of Lot 49". A few years back while visiting the city I tried to get something fixed at a repair shop in a small office suite in a very old building (I think probably https://www.yelp.com/biz/setraks-watch-repair-san-francisco https://www.yelp.com/biz/setraks-watch-repair-san-francisco ) and it looked and felt exactly like the older time SF of Dick's stories.

bsenftner 5y ago

I have this set, had to buy a 2nd because my first set became too dog-eared from re-reading. To say I read a lot is an understatement. PKD is the first author I "finished", as in having read everything published, and then some more. To me, he is one of the few, in the company of Huxley, Orwell, Burroughs and Joyce, to see the future not being some grand shiny existence, but a chaos of sophisticated manipulations the human race and God in all it's manifestations is lost and consumed by consumerism and commercialized branded religion. I found a Church of PKD in San Francisco once, a tiny space with whacked out meth addicts reading passages of PKD novels to one another. That was an interesting find, and gone when I tried to show some friends.