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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
by 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 agoZap Gun is a great title, and a pretty good idea, but IMHO one of PKD's poorer novels.
- codezero 5y agoAs most of PKD’s best novels are.
- ncmncm 5y agoI 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 agoI'd read a story with that premise. Reminds me of Eternal Sunshine.
- robocat 5y agoMaybe: 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...
- ncmncm 5y agoAfter 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 agoAlso: 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 agoObviously 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 agoWikipedia 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 agoWhilst 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 agoThis is a great anecdote! I think the same thing happened with me, possibly with another of his books.