Philip K Dick discussion

many of the members who've introduced themselves in the "introduce yourselves" thread have talked about their favourite Philip K Dick book... but (due to his uncanny powers of prophecy, or due to the horrific nature of his material or due to the "I wish my world was full of topless secretaries") which of his novels creeped you out the most?

My thesis is that because Philip K Dick wrote books from his heart (okay, he flavoured them for the sci-fi market that was paying his bills but) he was more able to get under the skin of the reader and expose them to THEIR OWN FEARS.

Which of your fears did Dick subject you to?

Mike,

What does "writing from the heart" mean to you. We all have our own ideas, i'm just curious to know what is yours. Vonnegut said that when he wrote he pretended he was writing for his sister, who happened to have died a long time ago, and if she liked it he would keep it.

On a side note,

Poor PKD. I feel like that was his torment. He worked himself up so much that he couldn't believe in anything, but at the end of his life he seemed to start believing in an END, like some sort of apocalyptic reality. Interesting.

James,
that's the beauty of being an individual in this confusing world, I don't have to define anything. "Writing from the heart" is like the arbitrary list of moral and judicial guidelines we've agreed to live our contemporary lives by. As long as each individual can come up with his own version of what "writing from the heart" means, isn't that like a bright new future waiting to be destroyed?

:)

Dick was an individual, and wrote about his fears of this life. We, as reader, can empathise with these themes - which theme did you empathise with as a reader, in which of Dick's books? This goes out to all the discussion group.

Writing from the heart - writing your own personal truth perhaps. I find some stories feel incredibly 'true' even though they are about fictional and fantastic things. The soul truth, heart truth of a story is far more important than its actuality.

"Bright new future waiting to be destroyed"

Yeah that sounds like a PKD lover alright. I would change the word "future" with "reality" and you'd have PKD's novels in a nutshell. I'd say I empathized with PKD's agoraphobia lol. His fear of what is "outside" as unknowable and what is tangible is actually deceiving. I don't share PKD's beliefs, but I empathize with that fear. It's an existential meltdown of sorts. I disagree with this idea of personally shaping reality..."truth is what you make of it" kind of philosophy. I think that's exactly what PKD was struggling with in his work, that the moral/judicial guidelines we live by may not be arbitrary. Anyway, it seems that he was coming to some sort of conclusion by the end of his life.

I haven't read a whole lot of Dick's novels, but I thought "Eye in the Sky" was pretty creepy. The mutability of reality freaked me out.

Re-reading it in the light of STATE SURVELILANCE and FINANCIAL CORRUPTION, maybe 'Flow My Tears The Policeman Said' has just been promoted to Dick's most horrific (in the sense of prophetic) novel yet.

Damn those global off-shore financial tyrants.

PS: does anyone know what happened to Tank Man of Tiananmen Square 'fame'?

Nice, I am excited for Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said. I love the creepy prophetic parts in Dick's novels and that one is second on my PKD list to-reads.

I have to go with The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. That book blew my mind to pieces and in the creepiest way possible! I read that last summer and it is still on my mind all the time, ha.

THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ERDRITCH was my first PKD...definitely weird....EYE IN THE SKY..the same. I don't think any of his books are CREEPY, per se....as in "chills down the spine" they were too prescient for that. Real Life is plenty creepy, right? And PKD foresaw this world of our way too soon..so, his books are more "I Told You So"s than CreepShows..

Eye in the Sky and Flow My Tears... are both pretty creepy. However, the way things end in V.A.L.I.S., the situation with Sophia... for me, that was some of the saddest/creepiest stuff of all time.

pkd is a free flow thought based in a carbon bipedal body: his origins are universal his thoughts pure beauty even in the visceral, read on to Charles bukowski , forget the sci fi dressings , Palmer erdritch is and will remain a addicts diary ,

thanks ned

:)

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is the creepiest so far to me. By the end i didnt know what was going on. A feeling being lost.

One of few books i have read i thought and thought over again what happened in some parts of the book, specially regarding that "being".

I got so wierded out while reading Valis four or so years ago that I had to put it down and avoid reading Philip K Dick books for almost 2 years. It was one of those late night everything making so much sense that nothing made sense anymore things.

Once I got enough courage to pick up another one of his novels I read Three Stigmata and it produced quite a terrifying effect. If this ever becomes a movie I'd like to see a James Cameron/Guillermo Del Toro collaboration.

@Christopher: "Palmer Eldritch" is the ultimate Unfilmable Book!
Having said that, have you seen "Videodrome", "Existenz" (aka Videodrome Lite) or (yes) "Trop Belle Pour Toi"?

I'm reading through VALIS right now, and it's creeping the hell out of me. I've had so many of the same thoughts as Horselover Fat's supposed "insanity" so does this make me insane? :S

I haven't finished it yet so maybe everything will be okay.

I'd go with Flow My Tears for myself. I'd have the ultimate panic to wake up in that situation

I think Hoppy in Dr Bloodmoney is one of the creepiest characters he wrote. Brrrrr.

And I agree with Eye in the Sky - the bit with (view spoiler)[ the house that tries to eat them (hide spoiler)] is pretty creepy.

I found Hoppy creepy too. The main character of Deus Irae is a phocomelus as well. Haven't read it yet, but I thought that was also creepy

Yeah, I agree John. Hoppy is an extremely creepy character!

I agree that Hoppy is creepy. I have to vote for Palmer Eldritch and Flow My Tears. The only thing I can add is that it is pretty creepy in "Galactic Pot Healer". A small man waiting for work and playing a word game, he is fired. Everything is ordinary and then he gets messages from a god, the superior species of another planet that wants him to come to its planet to do a job pesters him into accepting the job. It would be creepier if it weren't presented in such a funny way.

I've only read four so far, but of those, The Penultimate Truth definitely. Being a person of a paranoid disposition anyway, it terrified me that it could actually happen.

Think I'll read Eye in the Sky next.

Siobhan,

it's great that people are STILL discovering PKD's books.

:)

Mike

Wow! not one mrmention of; " Comfessions of a crap artist." I feel like nobody else has read these books

I find "A Scanner Darkly" by far the most directly unnerving story of his, probably because so much is obviously based upon his own experiences.

Other of his stuff is clearly creepier in a *metaphysical sense*, though.

THREE STIGMATA made me feel physically and mentally ill ... ok, ok the former can be explained with the fact that I was suffering from stomach-flu :).. still, it's the most disturbing PKD book I've read so far, (Lies inc. being the most confusing and most incoherent)

Eye in the Sky....so far

No question for me - it's Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. You can't believe anything about the reality you're experiencing where Palmer Eldritch has become its permanent
God. All from taking the "wrong" drug.