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Philip K. Dick was vindictive, continually broke, terrible at titles, unlucky, and a wonderful writer. He never had a happy ending.
by philistine 2y ago
Philip K. Dick was vindictive, continually broke, terrible at titles, unlucky, and a wonderful writer. He never had a happy ending.
- bookofjoe 2y ago>... terrible at titles... I disagree. Here are some that retain their power all these decades later and will likely do so for the foreseeable future: Time Out of Joint The Man in the High Castle Martian Time-Slip The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch Clans of the Alphane Moon The Simulacra Now Wait for Last Year Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)/Blade Runner (1982) Ubik We Can Build You Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said A Scanner Darkly The Transmigration of Timothy Archer Radio Free Albemuth
- 0_____0 2y agoThey do retain their power because of the notoriety of the stories they head. It's a matter of taste and thus hard to argue, but I do think his titles were kind of clunky. Can you imagine if Blade Runner retained the title of the work it was derived from?
- nottorp 2y ago> Can you imagine if Blade Runner retained the title of the work it was derived from? ... or even some parts of the plot ... It would have been more interesting than the shooting based thriller we got instead.
- to11mtm 2y agoFWIW the Adventure game adaptation, is -really- interesting from everything I've seen on Youtube, especially because it's apparently randomized in various ways on each play-through...
- ndsipa_pomu 2y agoI'm a big fan of PKD and also Blade Runner. You've got a point about the film being so very different, but I think it's subsequent success (it wasn't that successful at the time) justifies the approach to the subject matter. However I do wish that Mercerism (the religion in the book) was included in the film. Maybe someone should attempt to film a more literal adaptation. Edit: thinking about the difference between the novel and the film makes me think of The Shining and I'm very much in the Kubrick camp - the film being a work of art by itself and so doesn't have to follow the source material. However, I also really like A Scanner Darkly which is arguably the closest PKD adaptation.
- nottorp 2y agoI'd rather have the obsession everyone has for the few remaining animals on earth, and the race to own at least a replica. Electric sheep are just a background detail in the movie, while they're as central as hunting the replicants in the book... I'd also like the scene where Deckard runs into another blade runner agency, further complicating the question if he's a replicant or not :)
- ndsipa_pomu 2y agoYeah, the film could have had more content about the real/artificial animals though it did feature a bit with the snake scales and the owl. Also agree about meeting the other agency though I can imagine that would have complicated the plot a bit (disclaimer - I haven't read Androids for many years and can't remember the details of that scene). I just think that Mercerism was a superb concept - a participatory religion. I suppose it wouldn't have really driven the story forwards in the film whereas almost every scene in the film was doing that. Incidentally, here's PKD's short story about Mercerism: https://sickmyduck.narod.ru/pkd092-0.html https://sickmyduck.narod.ru/pkd092-0.html
- nottorp 2y ago> can't remember the details of that scene Deckard gets arrested by a different police agency - they think they're the only ones, just like Deckard's agency. He gets accused of being an android with implanted memories. They administer Voigt-Kampf tests to each other and while everyone ends up as human, the scene serves to make who's human and who isn't even more of a question. What really ticks me off about all movies made from Dick's writings is that they cut off most of the ambiguity. I shudder to think what they'd make of Ubik or A Maze of Death...
- ahazred8ta 2y agoIrony: the original bladerunner novel was about a courier carrying surgical instruments so that the doctor would not be arrested for black market medical treatment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bladerunner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bladerunner FWIW I was a Galactic Pot-Healer fan.
- mcv 2y agoI did not know that. And running scalpels makes a lot more sense for that title. Because as cool as the title sounds, it doesn't make any sense for the movie. Nobody is running blades there.
- coldtea 2y agoCops aren't made of copper either (nor do they belong to the Sus domesticus species), but still...
- mcv 2y ago> Cops aren't made of copper No, but their badges are. Or were. I guess it's a pars pro toto thing.
- DonHopkins 2y agoAnd people don't eat Cheez-Its when they spot cops, either!
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- cjbgkagh 2y ago"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" - Shakespeare It’s hard for me to dissociate my impression of the name from context of learning the name, but I do remember learning about ‘do androids dream of electric sheep’ at a very young age without knowing any context and I did think that was an interesting name.
- yazantapuz 2y agoThat was similar to my experience too. I discovered "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" in a pop-science magazine article about science fiction novels in the nineties, along with Foundation. Both titles resonated with me and ignited my imagination. Years later, I was finally able to read both and was amazed.
- evbogue 2y agoVast Active Living Intelligence System (VALIS) might not be PKD's best title, but it's arguably his best book.
- TeaBrain 2y agoArguably according to whom?
- y1n0 2y agoThe parent. Look up the definition of arguably.
- TeaBrain 2y agoSure, if you are reading the word "arguably" completely literally, but that's not the colloquially understood implication of the term when used to describe a work. Obviously the author of the parent comment is implying they they would possibly consider it the best PKD novel, but the colloquial meaning implied when someone uses the word arguably, generally isn't just to describe one's own opinion, but a significant portion of the popular or critical consensus. One person could take a position opposed to the general held consensus on any topic, but if one person is the only one to hold this opinion, in english, it would generally not be described as a position that is "arguably" the case, even though if you read the word literally, one person is technically arguing it. Also, I asked because I wanted to get the above user's opinion on the matter, not your dismissive comment which isn't contributing anything. I've read the VALIS trilogy, but I've never heard any of VALIS trilogy novels described as possibly PKD's best work.
- abcd_f 2y ago> Also, I asked because I wanted to get the above user's opinion on the matter And you could've done just that without being passive-aggressively dismissive.
- 2y ago
- DonHopkins 2y agoIn case you were curious, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch: 1) A mechanical right hand 2) Artificial steel teeth 3) Electronic, glowing eyes The Android Sisters answer the question "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP8bOqTAco0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP8bOqTAco0
- noisefridge 2y agoI'm curious why you like these so much as titles. Tastes differ, but in my opinion, "A Scanner Darkly" is the only standout winner here. Without knowing anything of what the story was about, would "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" convey anything important to the reader? Even as a standalone metaphor it's confused: humans don't dream about sheep! There is an old trope of counting sheep to fall asleep, but that's not a dream. In any case, we're now thinking about sheep, not a noir detective story set in a declining post-biosphere world.
- hx8 2y agoI think Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said is a great title. It sets up the narrative style and loads the gun for a incoming tragedy.
- parineum 2y agoIsn't the point of a title to get someone to read the book (and not be disappointed by it's contents)? I get you don't want to name a crime novel like a self help book but the title of the book is really just going to get me to pick it up off the shelf and read the back, not assume the narrative style and complete plot of the book. Book titles are click bait and always have been.
- coldtea 2y ago>Isn't the point of a title to get someone to read the book (and not be disappointed by it's contents)? For marketing departments maybe. For authors it's supposed to be a fitting name for their novel.
- parineum 2y agoAuthors want to sell books too. They'd, by and large, rather the title that sells more books as long as it's not totally off the mark.
- jzb 2y agoA title doesn’t have to do anything other than draw the reader’s attention to the work. “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” is, IMO a great title — and it does relate to the humanity of the androids. It’s a far superior title compared to “Blade Runner,” which is actually better than the book. Anyway, I’d say that the fact we’re still talking about his work nearly 50 years after his death suggests he might not have sucked at titles…
- Gud 2y agoThanks for the reminder that I still have more PKD to read.
- ascagnel_ 2y ago"Blade Runner" was taken from a 1974 Alan E. Nourse novel called "The Bladerunner"; the name's relation to PKD is tangential at best.
- CalChris 2y agoThe name was taken from Nourse but via ER Burroughs’ script/book. The name was bought actually. But the plot, that came from PK Dick’s novel.
- cratermoon 2y agoThere's also a 1979 science fiction novella by William S. Burroughs titled Blade Runner (a movie)
- cyberax 2y agoI grew up in the USSR and then Russia, so I was exposed to Stanislaw Lem's books and I loved them. Much later, I tried reading Ubik and I just couldn't get into it. What's the point of the story? It feels like it's written under the influence of heavy drugs. Yeah, it's absurdist but somehow far less fun than the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Another thing that really grated on my nerves, is that women are barely more than cardboard cutouts in his stories.
- selimthegrim 2y agoHe wrote Transmigration of Timothy Archer because Ursula LeGuin took him to task about this
- wcarss 2y agoIf you have any links or book recommendations to share on that history, I for one would love to know them. I find the history of the interactions of SF authors strangely compelling -- e.g. the book "Hell's Cartographers" is a personal favourite, and it's just a set of autobiographical essays from NY 40s-70s SF authors talking about their time in the scene.
- selimthegrim 2y agohttps://blog.loa.org/2010/12/what-philip-k-dick-learned-about-women.html https://blog.loa.org/2010/12/what-philip-k-dick-learned-abou...
- rasz 2y ago>women are barely more than cardboard cutouts in his stories Same as Lem. Reading Return from the Stars was physically panful.
- int_19h 2y ago> It feels like it's written under the influence of heavy drugs. That is broadly true with respect to PKD. Wait until you see VALIS...
- atombender 2y agoMinor point, but in most cases the title was made up by the editor, not Dick. For example, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? had several terrible tentative titles originally, including "The Electric Toad", "Do Androids Dream?", "The Electric Sheep", and, most improbably, "The Killers Are Among Us! Cried Rick Deckard to the Special Man". Dick's editor at Doubleday came up with the current title. Dick didn't like it and thought it was too long and unwieldy. Some more: * The Divine Invasion: "VALIS Regained" * The Transmigration of Timothy Archer: "Bishop Timothy Archer * Ubik: "Death of an Anti-Watcher" * Martian Time-Slip: "Goodmember Arnie Kott of Mars" (also serialized as "All We Marsmen" before getting its current title) * We Can Build You: "The First in Your Family" * A Maze of Death: "The Hour of the TENCH" * Counterclock World: "The Dead Grow Young" My main source here is Lawrence Sutin's excellent "Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick".
- philistine 2y agoAll those titles are unwieldy.
- csours 2y agoAre those even his titles? Authors generally don't make up the title themselves. Sometimes they can help pick one from a list created by a title editor.
- shervinafshar 2y agoMost of the above are his titles. Some which were published in serialized form before being published in a single volume (Martian Time-Slip and We Can Build You) had different titles. Letters, manuscripts, and publication notes are helpful to shed some light on this matter; e.g. The Transmigration of Timothy Archer was regularly referred to as the "Archer novel" or "Bishop Timothy Archer".
- atombender 2y agoMost of them aren't. I gave some examples here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43676737 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43676737
- shervinafshar 2y agoI think my definition of "most" (11 of 14) and your definition of "most" (4 of 14) differs here...which is fine. We live in the "days of Perky Pat" anyway.
- atombender 2y agoIn total, I count 14 books with titles chosen by the publisher/editor: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Dr. Bloodmoney The Simulacrum Ubik We Can Build You Martian Time-Slip The Transmigration of Timothy Archer The Divine Invasion A Maze of Death Counterclock World Radio Free Albemuth Solar Lottery The Zap Gun [1] The World Jones Made Among his notable works, the only titles PKD came up with were The Man in the High Castle, VALIS, Flow My Tears, Palmer Eldritch, and A Scanner Darkly. So. Yes, most. Editors changed his shorts, too. I love the title "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon", but PKD wanted to call it "Frozen Journey". [1] This one was unusual in that the editor gave PKD the title and asked him to write a plot around it.
- kimi 2y agoWonderful writer? let's face it: he was a mediocre writer, but had such powerful ideas/visions/themes (you name them) that you, as a reader, are hooked to his stuff.
- mezentius 2y agoThis sentiment is often repeated by people who should know better (Adam Gopnik, no less) but it’s always seemed to me patently false. PKD was a highly skillful prose writer, but it’s often not entirely appreciated that he wrote to produce a deliberately comic and ironic effect. (Read Lem on PKD’s “transmutation of kitsch into art.”) This is what nearly all of the overly-serious film adaptations of his work miss: he was quite funny, and intended to be. You can argue that some of his books were written too quickly, or deploy his usual tricks less successfully, but that doesn’t qualify as mediocrity. For that, look to most “hard” sci-fi, Reddit fan-fiction, and LLM-generated slop.
- chrislongss 2y agoThat's an interesting insight, thank you. Are there any good articles about his deliberately comic / ironic approach, or his approach in general? His reliance on cliche story building troupes (like private detectives) can be off-putting at times, would love to understand better what was behind his choices.
- mezentius 2y agoA good starting point is Stanislaw Lem, “Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Among the Charlatans.” [1] For more recent analysis, read Jonathan Lethem: “My initial responsiveness to Dick’s work was to delight in his mordant surrealist onslaught against the drab prison of consensual reality… It took me a while to grasp how Dick’s novels, those of the early sixties especially, function as a superb lens for critiquing the collective psychological binds of the postwar embrace of consumer capitalism.” [2] You can also read PKD himself; he gave a few lectures that give some insight into his thinking and intentional process. [3] I’d also suggest that when talking about PKD, it’s especially important to distinguish between “cliché” and “trope,” since these two concepts are often improperly equated in popular TV-Trope-ified discourse. A cliché, e.g. “True love conquers all,” tends to lull the reader; it terminates further thought. But a trope is merely a familiar anchor point, an allusion to a literary tradition, and (potentially) an invitation to a dialogue between the current text and some previous work. (“The hero prepares by putting on his armor,” for example, is a trope that dates back to the Iliad.) Dick often begins with a character or situation anchored in a familiar setting (possibly for more mercenary than aesthetic reasons—he was after all scraping together a living in the context of pulp paperback novels) but step by step strips away the anchors, leaving the reader untethered to settled meaning or “consensual reality.” The undercover narcotics cop turns out to be a schismatic, unaware that he’s surveilling himself. The noir-like investigator gets arrested by another investigator who seems to be his double, pulled into another precinct identical to his own… etc. If the lack-of-respectability of his materials bothers you (as it seemed to bother Gopnik), it may be helpful to see PKD in the tradition of Kafka, and as a precursor to the post-modernists like Robert Coover, who gleefully and intentionally play games within familiar texts to comic and profound effect. But PKD really isn’t so far away from the most interesting of his much-maligned SF pulp colleagues. See A.E. van Vogt’s “The Weapon Shops of Isher,” where the author plays games with doubles, shifting narrators, and familiar pulp characters to intentionally strange and dislocating effect—although in his case, the kitsch never quite makes the transmuting leap into art. [1] https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/5/lem5art.htm https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/5/lem5art.htm [2] https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2024/11/14/multiple-worlds-vying-to-exist-philip-k-dick-and-palestine/ https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2024/11/14/multiple-worl... [3] https://californiarevealed.org/do/7622580c-be04-46d6-831c-fc56d2391b09 https://californiarevealed.org/do/7622580c-be04-46d6-831c-fc...
- cratermoon 2y agoCompared to Sue Grafton he was a genius at titles. Her Kinsey Millhone murder mystery series starts with "A" is for Alibi, followed by "B" Is for Burglar, and continuing to the final installment, "Y" is for Yesterday
- mcv 2y agoHe was very good at channeling his mental issues and insecurities into brilliant plots. I wonder if his books would have been as good if PKD hadn't been so fucked up as a person. Paranoia seems to be a surprisingly effective muse.
- Barrin92 2y ago>I wonder if his books would have been as good if PKD hadn't been so fucked up as a person I can't even see how most of them would've existed to be honest. Most of P.K. Dick's work is about his mental issues in particular in combination with the psychedelic culture he was surrounded by. Always loved the attribution in A Scanner Darkly: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8446272-this-has-been-a-novel-about-some-people-who-were https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8446272-this-has-been-a-nov...
- mistyvales 2y agoPretty sure his editor(s) created most of his titles, but could be wrong.
- tincholio 2y agoSeems like he honored his surname with his attitude :)