Philip K Dick discussion

What do you think about his short stories ? Do you like him in his shorter format ? Equally good as his mature novels ?

This topic is to talk about the short stories you liked and the ones you disliked.

Pre-Persons - what an amazing story concept and delivery.

Pre-Persons.

I have not heard about that story, dont even know if its in the collection i added to currently reading.

The title sounds interesting.

I have not read too much. I was impressed by Second Variety alot, Terminator and all the wannabes owed that story alot. Great SF/horror type story.

Pre Persons is about a tyrannical redefinition of the term ABORTION. You really have to read this, Mohammed, it's a scorchin' civil rights story along the lines of the political machinations in Flow My Tears...

Ah that sounds too good, i must look up which collection its in.

gotta say, i'm a pretty huge proponent of dick's short stories. they are distilled dick, if you will. you won't find anything on the scale or power of the more mature dick novels, but in terms of pure inspiration, for a voyeuristic pleasure in the unfolding of his cosmology, i don't think they can be beaten.

i'd say that the five book collection of short stories is really worth it. of the five, the collection entitled "the eye of the sibyl" pleased me least, but the ones found in collected short are excellent if you're looking for a starting point.

Mohammed, here's a list of books containing The Pre-Persons: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cg...

nice one, Michael, now even I can go back in and find a book containing PKD's PRE PERSONS and read that amazing 'novelette' again.

:)

Thanks Michael for that link.


By the way i read last night Fall Upon Dull Earth short story. I was very impressed by how PKD changed his prose style and wrote a Gothic fantasy,horror story. He could have done well in Matheson,Bradbury,Shirley Jackson fields too.

http://www.subterraneanpress.com/Merc...

That is fine news if you want complete collections of his short stories. He is one of few authors worth Hardcover cost for me.

Mohammed wrote: "I was impressed by Second Variety alot, Terminator and all the wannabes owed that story alot. Great SF/horror type story. "

I'll second that. A really bleak short story.


I also read "The Defenders" but wasn't impressed. Some interesting ideas but it was too much of a dated 50's sci-fi story for me.


I definetely got to read some more of his short stories.

I’ve read Preserving Machine And Other Stories ,which apparently is a good anthology of his short-stories, and I liked it but I don’t think this compares to his best novels.

He obviously had plenty of interesting ideas and he created very intriguing stories from there. I also like the fact that instead of those daring and overconfident spacemen and scientist (and frankly a bit irritating) that are in every sci-fi short from that time, Dick’s characters are usually unassuming and regular people – I think this helped the stories to age well. But unfortunately you can’t develop a character in a short story the same way you can in a novel.

So I’ll rather continue exploring his novels instead but I think he’s definitely an above average writer of sci-fi short stories.

This topic reminds me i should stop seeing PKD so much as novelist and get more complete stories collection. I have read less than 15 Dick short stories and that is way too little.

I enjoy his novels quite a bit but he was extremely good in the shorter length. Some of his stories are fantastic. Many of his short stories are in fact.

I rec the Selected stories single volume collection Selected Stories though if you can afford it there is a five volume collection that has everything I think.

I have seen his more imaginative, weird in choosing story types like you had to be in mag market. Most of his mature novels he has themes,type social realism he deals with.

You cant say Second Variety, Adjustment Team, King of Elves is similar stories to his novels.

Ive not read many of his short stories but my favourites are:

Unreconstructed M
Waterspider
What Dead Men Say
Orpheus with Clay Feet

I've read all of his short stories and can't think of any off hand that I didn't like. Some are better than others, of course, but I think that they all have some merit.

My all-time favorite is "Beyond Lies the Wub". One of the best science fiction stories ever written. In terms of its approach and surprise twist, this story was inspiration for some of Rod Serling's classic Twilight Zone stories a few years later.

I enjoy PDK's short stories. thy are a little less daunting than his novels which require more of your attention and focus to to get the full flavor of what he is trying to say. the short stories, for the most part, are interesting snippets of individual pieces of PDK's themes.

"the Father Thing" is an excellent example of PDK taking his themes of paranoia and and reality and telling it through the eyes of some young boys.

Another great example is "The Hanging Stranger" using a unique picture to setup a story about paranoia where aliens are the stand-in for the "Red Scare" or the potential government oppression that PDK worries about in his fiction.