Philip K Dick discussion

The group read will be the short stories in . These stories are available in many other story collections.

Here are the stories, and other short story collections they are available in:

"The Preserving Machine" Collected Volume I, aka Beyond Lies the Wub A Handful of Darkness // Robots, Androids, and Mechanical Oddities // Beyond Lies the Wub

"War Game" Collected Volume IV, aka The Days of Perky Pat // Robots, Androids, and Mechanical Oddities // The Days of Perky Pat // Minority Report

"Upon the Dull Earth" Collected Volume III, aka The Father-Thing // A Handful of Darkness // The Father-Thing // The Philip K. Dick Reader // Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick

"Roog" Collected Volume I aka Beyond Lies the Wub // Beyond Lies the Wub // Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick

"War Veteran" Collected Volume III, aka The Father-Thing // The Father-Thing // The Philip K. Dick Reader

"Top Stand-By Job" aka "Stand By" Collected Volume IV, aka The Days of Perky Pat

"Beyond Lies the Wub" Collected Volume I aka Beyond Lies the Wub // The Best of Philip K. Dick // Beyond Lies the Wub // Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick

"We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (Collected Volume II, aka We Can Remember It for You Wholesale -OR- Collected Volume V, aka The Little Black Box
[depending on which published version] ) // The Little Black Box // The Philip K. Dick Reader // Minority Report // Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick

"Captive Market" Collected Volume IV, aka The Days of Perky Pat // The Days of Perky Pat

"If There Were No Benny Cemoli" Collected Volume IV, aka The Days of Perky Pat // The Best of Philip K. Dick // The Days of Perky Pat

"Retreat Syndrome" Collected Volume V, aka The Little Black Box // The Little Black Box

"The Crawlers" Collected Volume III, aka The Father-Thing // The Father-Thing // The Philip K. Dick Reader

"Oh, to be a Blobel!" Collected Volume IV, aka The Days of Perky Pat // The Best of Philip K. Dick // The Days of Perky Pat // Minority Report

"What the Dead Men Say" Collected Volume IV, aka The Days of Perky Pat // The Days of Perky Pat // Minority Report

"Pay for the Printer" Collected Volume III, aka The Father-Thing // The Father-Thing // The Philip K. Dick Reader

Great! When does it start?

"The Preserving Machine" - first published in 1953 in the magazine F&SF
"War Game" - first published in the magazine Galaxy Science Fiction, in 1959
"Upon the Dull Earth" - first published in November 1954 in Beyond Fantasy Fiction.
"Roog" "Roog" - first sale but not his first published story, written in November 1951 and appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction November 1953
"War Veteran" - first published in If magazine in March 1955.
"Beyond Lies the Wub" - first published story, originally appearing in Planet Stories in July, 1952
"We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" - first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in April 1966, and is the basis for the two TOTAL RECALL movies
"If There Were No Benny Cemoli" - first published in the December, 1963 issue of Galaxy magazine
"Retreat Syndrome" - first published in Worlds of Tomorrow Science Fiction in 1965
"The Crawlers" - first published in Imagination magazine, July 1954 under the title "Foundling Home"
"Oh, to be a Blobel!" - first published in Galaxy magazine, February 1964
"What the Dead Men Say" - first published in Worlds of Tomorrow magazine in June 1964, PKD expanded on this story in the novel UBIK
"Pay for the Printer" - first published in Satellite Science Fiction, October 1956

Beyond Lies The Wub may be downloaded for free as an audiobook, PDF, Text, Html, or all the popular ebook formats here: http://manybooks.net/titles/dickp2855...

There are some good stories here. My favorite is "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," but "War Game" is certainly interesting, as are others. I never did care for "Roog" though....

"We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" was the first PKD story I ever read; it was the story that made me a fan.

Most of my PKD reading has been spent on his mayor novels only (about 12). So I'm looking forward to reading this collection of short stories!


Some links from LibriVox.org

I only have the first 3 volumes, because I read the other ones from the library, so I probably won't read all of these (again).

Ah, googling 'stand-by', all I remember is the news clown. Captive Market was pretty creepy, almost Kafka-esque really.

I think War game might have one of my favourite twists in a PKD story. And '... Wholesale' is just really silly. '... Benny Cemoli' is interesting, because of the ambiguity. And 'Upon The Dull Earth' is one of the most disturbing examples of "came back wrong".

List of stories by volume:
(view spoiler)[I
The Preserving Machine
Roog
Beyond Lies The Wub

II
We Can Remember It For You Wholesale

III
War Veteran
Upon the Dull Earth
The Crawlers
Pay For The Printer

IV
War Game
Top Stand-By Job/ Stand By
Captive Market
If There Were No Benny Cemoli
Oh, To Be A Blobel!
What The Dead Men Say

V
Retreat Syndrome (hide spoiler)]

John wrote: "'Upon The Dull Earth' is one of the most disturbing examples of "came back wrong"."

Just read this one and like it quite a bit. I found it reminded me of the style of many modern horror short stories. When a typically sci-fi writer creates this, we call it a sci-fi story, but if a typically horror writer had created it, I'm sure we'd all call it a great horror story - and I don't think people would be arguing it was really science fiction. They are just labels, but I found that interesting as I completed reading.

"The Preserving Machine" - I love this one, especially because of the way Dick creatively uses his love of classical music in it.

"War Game" - Very clever and intriguing. This, like a lot of other stories here has a very obvious cold-war vibe to it.

"Upon the Dull Earth" - Very weird horror story, enjoyed it but not sure what it was about.

"Roog" - ok stuff

"War Veteran" - Very interesting thriller type story, also with a strong Cold War vibe.

"Beyond Lies the Wub" - Didn't like it much, kind of mediocre.

"We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" - Fun, absurd story.

Captive Market – Another ok twilight zone type story.

Retreat Syndrome – Well, Dick must have been going through a really bad divorce while writing this story (this definitely doesn't only happen here though). One of those I-hate-my-wife-and-I want-to-kill-her sort of stories. Still, it has some interesting concepts.

The Crawlers – Probably my least favorite in this collection. I remember it being really generic.

Oh, to Be a Blobel! – The funniest story here.

What the Dead Men Say – Kind of a mess, he would make more interesting stories with the same concepts in his masterpiece Ubik.

Pay for the Printer - I loved the absurdity in this one, like when everything is crumbling around them and people are still trying to get random stuff like lawnmowers working.

I read all of them. Here is how I would rank them in order, but many are so close I'd come up with a different ranking on another day I'm sure.


War Game
Pay for the Printer
What the Dead Men Say
We Can Remember It for You Wholesale
Upon The Dull Earth


Retreat Syndrome
Oh, to be a Blobel!
War Veteran
Captive Market
Beyond Lies the Wub


Top Stand-By Job
The Crawlers
If There Were No Benny Cemoli
Preserving Machine
Roog