6 ms·

Ubik was still the most wild story I’ve read from Phillip K. Dick, more than his usual reality-bending stuff like Scanner or Three Stigmata.

erwincoumans 5y ago
Ubik is a good read, while dining at the restaurant at the end of the galaxy.
codezero 5y ago
I was very very into PKD at one point, so much so that I had been in correspondence with his wife about rare books. I say this to convey ersatz authority on the subject, and I 100% agree with this comment. Ubik is fantastic, and quite hard to read. I’ll add a few more bangers, Flow My Tears, Radio Free Albemuth, Dr. Bloodmoney, and The Zap Gun.
- zabzonk 5y ago
  Zap Gun is a great title, and a pretty good idea, but IMHO one of PKD's poorer novels.
  - codezero 5y ago
    As most of PKD’s best novels are.
- ncmncm 5y ago
  I persist in remembering The Zap Gun as being about a gun that, when the trigger is pulled, makes whatever it points at never to have existed. No one ever knows why they just used it. But I also believe that isn't what it was at all, but cannot bring to mind what it really did.
  - sooheon 5y ago
    I'd read a story with that premise. Reminds me of Eternal Sunshine.
    - robocat 5y ago
      Maybe: https://english.lem.pl/works/novels/the-cyberiad/146-how-the-world-was-saved https://english.lem.pl/works/novels/the-cyberiad/146-how-the...
      - Finnucane 5y ago
        Once i was talking with Michael Kandel how he translated that passage, particularly the list of nonexisting things that begin with N. "I just made that up," he said.
      - sooheon 5y ago
        That was great, thanks.
    - ncmncm 5y ago
      After it was used on certain objects, enough of the past would change that it wouldn't have been invented anymore. In the extreme case, the Earth, moon, or sun, but likewise many antique artifacts. It is similar to the reasoning about unstable existence of any time machine that can send you back to before it was made.
    - ncmncm 5y ago
      Also: after you use it, you are not even holding it anymore, and don't know you used it. You most likely have no reason anymore to want to use it, so it is in a drawer sonewhere.
  - bryanrasmussen 5y ago
    Obviously if you cannot remember what the Zap gun does, you must have used it. That said what I recall was that the main character was a weapons designer for coalition of western countries that had some name to signify they were an amalgamation of the US and Western Europe. Weapons were designed but never used, they were designed to be destroyed thereby keeping the peace. There was also a similar designer for the communist bloc of countries, old USSR China amalgamation. It turns out there is a comic book writer / artist in some African country that has been producing comics with their designs before even done. This threatens to collapse the whole clown show. I think there is a comic with the Zap Gun, nobody knows what it does, and neither of the weapons designers have thought it up on their own. Don't remember much else.
    - bryanrasmussen 5y ago
      Wikipedia agrees with most of my description - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zap_Gun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zap_Gun however the Comic artist is a mad Italian, and it says that they draw the weapons designs telepathically from the comic book, which is true but is not known at the beginning. An alien invasion is involved evidently, which I still have not memory of. The probably brainwiped me, darn aliens, when they took over the Earth.
  - KineticLensman 5y ago
    > The Zap Gun as being about a gun that, when the trigger is pulled, makes whatever it points at never to have existed. No one ever knows why they just used it. Like but not like Iain M. Banks' Lazy Guns [0]. When you pulled their triggers, literally anything could happen to the target, ranging IIRC from a cartoon anvil dropping on their head to a devastating volcanic eruption. Again IIRC, they weighed more when held upside down. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_a_Dark_Background https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_a_Dark_Background
- gidorah 5y ago
  Whilst reading Dr. Bloodmoney I had an eerie feeling that I had read some of those exact passages before. I was certain I had not read Dr. Bloodmoney. I had a true Dickian experience of questioning reality. It turns out I forgot I read A Terran Oddessy...
  - codezero 5y ago
    This is a great anecdote! I think the same thing happened with me, possibly with another of his books.
Trasmatta 5y ago
> He felt all at once like an ineffectual moth, fluttering at the windowpane of reality, dimly seeing it from outside. This quote from Ubik perfectly reflects how I feel on a regular basis. Reality is weird. What's even going on here, anyway? Perhaps we should just put our faith in Ubik. It's safe when taken as directed, of course.
squeaky-clean 5y ago
I really loved reading Ubik. I seriously had trouble putting it down. But when I got to the ending. Well... I don't want to spoil anything but, is it just me or does it not make any sense if you really think about it? I did some research into the ending and the most satisfying conclusion I found was that was just the PKD surrealist style? Ubik is the only book I've read by him.
- isoprophlex 5y ago
  It's a recurring theme, and IMO one of his strengths. Once the characters find out about the malleability and subjectivity of reality, or once they enter some drug trip, they are never again sure if they've properly returned. Dick was a fantastic writer. Noone can alienate me like he can.
- bryanrasmussen 5y ago
  >I don't want to spoil anything but, is it just me or does it not make any sense if you really think about it? Most fiction doesn't make any sense if you really think about it, much less Science Fiction, much less Science Fiction in which Reality mutates unrecognizably several times in the course of the book.
- Trasmatta 5y ago
  > Well... I don't want to spoil anything but, is it just me or does it not make any sense if you really think about it? That's essentially the point of the ending, yeah. Well, less so that "it doesn't make sense" and more "actually, it's entirely unclear what is even going on". Reality is slippery -- at the very moment you think you've got a grip on what's going on, it jumps out of your hands. You'll see this same theme reflected in many of his other books, if you end up reading and more.
  - squeaky-clean 5y ago
    > actually, it's entirely unclear what is even going on That's a good way of putting it and it does fit the theme of the book. I just spent a bit thinking about the ending again and while it's not any clearer I do like it more now.
rukuu001 5y ago
Yeah, most PKD stories have that ‘reality slipping sideways’ moment in them, but reality never settles at all in Ubik
finikytou 5y ago
I read ubik early in my science fiction journey and found it very bad. I read 200 sf books and then opened ubik again years later. This is the die hard of science fiction. a fantastic book like no other in SF but that takes all its greatness once you get to know better SF.
guareber8 5y ago
That's gotta be VALIS for me.

erwincoumans 5y ago

Ubik is a good read, while dining at the restaurant at the end of the galaxy.

codezero 5y ago

I was very very into PKD at one point, so much so that I had been in correspondence with his wife about rare books. I say this to convey ersatz authority on the subject, and I 100% agree with this comment. Ubik is fantastic, and quite hard to read. I’ll add a few more bangers, Flow My Tears, Radio Free Albemuth, Dr. Bloodmoney, and The Zap Gun.

zabzonk 5y ago
Zap Gun is a great title, and a pretty good idea, but IMHO one of PKD's poorer novels.
- codezero 5y ago
  As most of PKD’s best novels are.
ncmncm 5y ago
I persist in remembering The Zap Gun as being about a gun that, when the trigger is pulled, makes whatever it points at never to have existed. No one ever knows why they just used it. But I also believe that isn't what it was at all, but cannot bring to mind what it really did.
- sooheon 5y ago
  I'd read a story with that premise. Reminds me of Eternal Sunshine.
  - robocat 5y ago
    Maybe: https://english.lem.pl/works/novels/the-cyberiad/146-how-the-world-was-saved https://english.lem.pl/works/novels/the-cyberiad/146-how-the...
    - Finnucane 5y ago
      Once i was talking with Michael Kandel how he translated that passage, particularly the list of nonexisting things that begin with N. "I just made that up," he said.
    - sooheon 5y ago
      That was great, thanks.
  - ncmncm 5y ago
    After it was used on certain objects, enough of the past would change that it wouldn't have been invented anymore. In the extreme case, the Earth, moon, or sun, but likewise many antique artifacts. It is similar to the reasoning about unstable existence of any time machine that can send you back to before it was made.
  - ncmncm 5y ago
    Also: after you use it, you are not even holding it anymore, and don't know you used it. You most likely have no reason anymore to want to use it, so it is in a drawer sonewhere.
- bryanrasmussen 5y ago
  Obviously if you cannot remember what the Zap gun does, you must have used it. That said what I recall was that the main character was a weapons designer for coalition of western countries that had some name to signify they were an amalgamation of the US and Western Europe. Weapons were designed but never used, they were designed to be destroyed thereby keeping the peace. There was also a similar designer for the communist bloc of countries, old USSR China amalgamation. It turns out there is a comic book writer / artist in some African country that has been producing comics with their designs before even done. This threatens to collapse the whole clown show. I think there is a comic with the Zap Gun, nobody knows what it does, and neither of the weapons designers have thought it up on their own. Don't remember much else.
  - bryanrasmussen 5y ago
    Wikipedia agrees with most of my description - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zap_Gun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zap_Gun however the Comic artist is a mad Italian, and it says that they draw the weapons designs telepathically from the comic book, which is true but is not known at the beginning. An alien invasion is involved evidently, which I still have not memory of. The probably brainwiped me, darn aliens, when they took over the Earth.
- KineticLensman 5y ago
  > The Zap Gun as being about a gun that, when the trigger is pulled, makes whatever it points at never to have existed. No one ever knows why they just used it. Like but not like Iain M. Banks' Lazy Guns [0]. When you pulled their triggers, literally anything could happen to the target, ranging IIRC from a cartoon anvil dropping on their head to a devastating volcanic eruption. Again IIRC, they weighed more when held upside down. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_a_Dark_Background https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_a_Dark_Background
gidorah 5y ago
Whilst reading Dr. Bloodmoney I had an eerie feeling that I had read some of those exact passages before. I was certain I had not read Dr. Bloodmoney. I had a true Dickian experience of questioning reality. It turns out I forgot I read A Terran Oddessy...
- codezero 5y ago
  This is a great anecdote! I think the same thing happened with me, possibly with another of his books.

Trasmatta 5y ago

> He felt all at once like an ineffectual moth, fluttering at the windowpane of reality, dimly seeing it from outside. This quote from Ubik perfectly reflects how I feel on a regular basis. Reality is weird. What's even going on here, anyway? Perhaps we should just put our faith in Ubik. It's safe when taken as directed, of course.

squeaky-clean 5y ago

I really loved reading Ubik. I seriously had trouble putting it down. But when I got to the ending. Well... I don't want to spoil anything but, is it just me or does it not make any sense if you really think about it? I did some research into the ending and the most satisfying conclusion I found was that was just the PKD surrealist style? Ubik is the only book I've read by him.

isoprophlex 5y ago
It's a recurring theme, and IMO one of his strengths. Once the characters find out about the malleability and subjectivity of reality, or once they enter some drug trip, they are never again sure if they've properly returned. Dick was a fantastic writer. Noone can alienate me like he can.
bryanrasmussen 5y ago
>I don't want to spoil anything but, is it just me or does it not make any sense if you really think about it? Most fiction doesn't make any sense if you really think about it, much less Science Fiction, much less Science Fiction in which Reality mutates unrecognizably several times in the course of the book.
Trasmatta 5y ago
> Well... I don't want to spoil anything but, is it just me or does it not make any sense if you really think about it? That's essentially the point of the ending, yeah. Well, less so that "it doesn't make sense" and more "actually, it's entirely unclear what is even going on". Reality is slippery -- at the very moment you think you've got a grip on what's going on, it jumps out of your hands. You'll see this same theme reflected in many of his other books, if you end up reading and more.
- squeaky-clean 5y ago
  > actually, it's entirely unclear what is even going on That's a good way of putting it and it does fit the theme of the book. I just spent a bit thinking about the ending again and while it's not any clearer I do like it more now.

rukuu001 5y ago

Yeah, most PKD stories have that ‘reality slipping sideways’ moment in them, but reality never settles at all in Ubik

finikytou 5y ago

I read ubik early in my science fiction journey and found it very bad. I read 200 sf books and then opened ubik again years later. This is the die hard of science fiction. a fantastic book like no other in SF but that takes all its greatness once you get to know better SF.

guareber8 5y ago

That's gotta be VALIS for me.