Alex James's Blog: AlexJamesNovels Blog - Posts Tagged "philip-k-dick"

How I attained this book?
In HMV there was a sale. Dozens of dystopian books surrounded me, and I took time choosing which I wanted, to my family member’s chagrin. I thought I’d settle with a Philip K Dick book alongside another that had been recommended to me – Fahrenheit 451. I could trust Philip K Dick could write a good novel from when I read much of him in 2010 and 2011.

How does it start?
When Nick Appleton’s son, Bobby, finally takes the civil service test, and fails, as everybody told him he would because they’re biased, we don’t even know what he’s truly feeling, but he’s changed. His wife is now an agent of conformity bent on using Nick to perpetuate their family’s survival instead of the notion of real love.

Is OFFF8 typical Dick?
In some ways, yes, it’s typical of author Philip K Dick. Main protagonist Nick Appleton loses affection for his wife, distrusts her even, and then goes looking for a rebellious young female who can teach him something new about life, allow him to be a bit naughty, and explore his ‘human’ side and the revolution-in-works. In this sense it’s a bit like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

In other ways, it’s not so typical. There aren’t any conspiracy theories, and the tables don’t turn on the main protagonist in quite as dramatic a way as they do in Total Recall or Minority Report. We’re looking at a fight against a dystopian system, but it’s not one that can be sought from the protagonist searching for clues, as in Paycheck. Instead we’re anticipating news from the character Thors Provoni who had abandoned Earth on a ship and seeks to elude destruction, before deciding to make a return and change things for the better, this time accompanied by a giant protoplasmic slime alien. As far as the establishment is concerned, Thors Provoni is a villain, and I’m sure the medication-reliant majority on Earth agree, except those daring enough to sell rebel preacher material.

What flavour of dystopian are we in for?
Our Friends From Frolix 8 (OFFF8) shows what happens when those in power are victim to the fear and pressure they exert on the population on a daily basis, and likens those certain people to children in their eagerness to possess, and proclaim the absolute certainty of things.

Very much a vision of a future where population control, enforced conformity, ‘relocation camps’ as punishments, surveillance, and biased two-party political systems are the norm. It makes you appreciate that from a time long ago authors such as Philip K Dick could see disadvantages with the current political model. We see news broadcasters underplaying revolutionary events to support the system in power, and their paid positions, twisting fact with fiction in a way that’s reminiscent of every time there is a real election.

I was beginning to get the feeling I was reading the solution to a problem we’re seeing emerge in modern day of increased surveillance and infringement of privacy that comes with technological advancement, and of severe measures taken against minorities or any who don’t conform to the standard majority mode of living.

Is it good?
OFFF8 is possibly the best PKD book I’ve read, and the most relevant to read now. Though it bears similarity to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, there isn’t anything much more original than a protoplasmic slime alien, and it was fun reading how the tyranny struggles to react to this. I kept talking about the book. Must read!

A Scanner Darkly (ASD) by Philip K Dick is a book primarily about Substance D, its effects on those who take it and on those who wish to spy on and hunt down those who trade it. Substance D is a drug that causes brain damage and hallucinations, and according to the authorities, a set of thinking that’s not lateral between the two hemispheres of the brain – a view not shared from the perspective of those who take it.

The reader didn’t have the opportunity to get a good look at Substance D – may different drugs were referenced and consumed. The way the story was angled around it was superb, bringing out the role of the different characters: the under-cover Fred/Bob Arctor wearing a special scramble suit to hide his real identity, Donna his love interest and his key to the drug’s contacts, the untrusted and wily Barris, and the special case study of Jerry Fabin. First impressions had been that the characters were without personality and there was too much paranoia, when taken literally, but keep reading and you’re in for a rewarding, thoughtful read about the damage done to people’s lives by the drug, and the authorities.

The Game-Players of Titan (TGPOT) by Philip K Dick is purportedly a story about a game (not unlike Monopoly), played by humans to acquire property deeds and match with new partners in the hope of finding the right partner who has the ‘luck’: the right combination that would allow reproduction in a world we can only assume has a dwindling population after international accidents and a war against the telepathic slug-like vugs.

Pete Garden is one such Bindman, a status of game-player/property owner, who has lost his wife Freya and his important deed Berkeley to master game-player Luckman. And Pete’s not going to let his defeat go easily; he wants a rematch and it’s a question of whether to play alongside potential new wife Carol or old hand game-player Joe Schilling who also lost to Luckman in the past and may have a motive to get even.

TGPOT was more about the vugs themselves. Some of them were police officers, and we’re made aware there is a moderate faction that co-operates with humans while the extremist faction wants humanity’s population kept low and controlled so that it can be wiped out in a potential second war. One feature of the vugs and the game itself was the ban of telepathic powers that the vugs themselves possess alongside certain humans; otherwise the game could be weighed heavily on one side.

Some of the great things about TGPOT were the flying cars, talking machines (including cars) afflicted by the Rushmore Effect that caused them to talk, but not always to co-operate with owners in the way they’d hope. It’s a world of talking elevators, and kettles, but sometimes automation gets it wrong or disagrees, causing half a bucket of inconvenience, and stress, for every one of convenience.