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Are 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.
by csours 1y ago
Are 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 1y 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 1y 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 1y 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 1y 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.
- shervinafshar 1y ago> Most of the above are his titles Back to original list from the parent comment that is the "above" in my comment. X denotes PKD title, O denotes otherwise: X Time Out of Joint X The Man in the High Castle O Martian Time-Slip X The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch X Clans of the Alphane Moon X The Simulacra X Now Wait for Last Year O Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)/Blade Runner (1982) O Ubik O We Can Build You X Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said X A Scanner Darkly O The Transmigration of Timothy Archer O Radio Free Albemuth So..."most" of what exactly?
- atombender 1y agoYou're being needlessly pedantic. But in the name of pedantry, you also have The Simulacra wrong. PKD's manuscript for The Simulacra was called "First Lady of Earth".
- shervinafshar 1y agoI'm just pointing out that my comment was about the list provided by the commenter above and "most" was about that list rather than all of PKD's work. What you refer to as "pedantic", I consider precision and talking about what's being discussed; someone asks "are these his titles", the answer was "yes. most of these are". Nothing more, nothing less.
- atombender 1y agoI'm not talking about the earlier comment at all, but rather about the entirety of PKD's output.
- shervinafshar 1y agoGreat. Good job doing your research, but your input and cross-link were not relevant to this thread focusing on that earlier comment.
- chipotle_coyote 1y agoIn the fiction publishing world, authors generally do make up their own titles. The editors at the publishing house might exercise veto power and/or make their own suggestions, but I don't think I've ever heard of novelists and short story authors not being allowed to title their own work, with the exception of work-for-hire jobs, e.g., writing a book in a series whose "author" is actually a pseudonym or writing for a book packager.
- bawolff 1y agoFor some of these, the title is very key to the theme of the book, and the characters reference it in the climax. At least i remember that happening in a scanner darkly and do androids dream of electric sheep.