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the DEMONIC DREAMS of Philip K Dick

DancesWithGnostics said:
Roog is what THE DOG says in Dick 's first story. The dog sees - every Friday morning - the garbage truck coming to take away the valuable food his owners have carefully packed into metal cans. The dog eventually thinks the garbagemen will take away his owners themselves.

Ubik is a spray invented by Ella Runciter who is in Half-Life - in this world, once you die, you still have a certain number of minutes of Half-Life - wherein relatives can talk to you.

Vast Active Living Intelligence System - VALIS - aka ZEBRA - not for mortal understanding.
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I had no idea you were such a fan. People see things. It translates into song, lyrics, poetry, art, screen play.

And there is also a darker side.
 
The Darker side of Phillip K. Dick would still be BRIGHT - a beam of bright pink light - light full of information.
 
People see things - and so do dogs. PKD used to watch a real dog for ROOG, and try to get inside his head.
 
Of course it was drugs that were the DARK SIDE of PHILLIP K. DICK.

THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH was a classic LSD novel, but PKD only took it a few times. He mainly took speed, typing for hours at a time, and it may have contributed to his Pancreatic Cancer, which he died of in 1982.
 
Darkness definitely came from PKD 's relationship with Bishop Jim Pike. In a rented car in 1969 Pike and his third wife were lost in the desert, having only a couple of coca-colas. Mrs Pike went on alone, hoping to find help and come back for him, but all too late. She made it back OK
 
And then there is the Sergeant Schultz type character -> “I see nothing.”

I’ve never read anything written by Philip K. Dick. I’m not sure from what I’ve read in this thread that he is being recommended.
 
Mattathias said:
And then there is the Sergeant Schultz type character -> “I see nothing.”

I’ve never read anything written by Philip K. Dick. I’m not sure from what I’ve read in this thread that he is being recommended.
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-but you've heard of him right?

Orange County famous.... I think he wrote some 40 science fiction novels, many of which were turned into movies--- most notably Blade Runner.

It became a whole genre, from with classics like The Matrix were derived.

Here's a fun story---

On February 20, 1974, while recovering from the effects of sodium pentothal administered for the extraction of an impacted wisdom tooth, Dick received a home delivery of Darvon from a young woman. When he opened the door, he was struck by the dark-haired girl's beauty, and was especially drawn to her golden necklace. He asked her about its curious fish-shaped design. As she was leaving, she replied: "This is a sign used by the early Christians." Dick called the symbol the "vesicle pisces". This name seems to have been based on his conflation of two related symbols, the Christian ichthys symbol (two intersecting arcs delineating a fish in profile), which the woman was wearing.


How about the Netflix (Prime Video?) series-- The Man in the High Castle? Total Recall? The Minority Report?

Ring a bell?
 
Mr E said:
-but you've heard of him right?

Orange County famous.... I think he wrote some 40 science fiction novels, many of which were turned into movies--- most notably Blade Runner.

It became a whole genre, from with classics like The Matrix were derived.

Here's a fun story---

On February 20, 1974, while recovering from the effects of sodium pentothal administered for the extraction of an impacted wisdom tooth, Dick received a home delivery of Darvon from a young woman. When he opened the door, he was struck by the dark-haired girl's beauty, and was especially drawn to her golden necklace. He asked her about its curious fish-shaped design. As she was leaving, she replied: "This is a sign used by the early Christians." Dick called the symbol the "vesicle pisces". This name seems to have been based on his conflation of two related symbols, the Christian ichthys symbol (two intersecting arcs delineating a fish in profile), which the woman was wearing.


How about the Netflix (Prime Video?) series-- The Man in the High Castle? Total Recall? The Minority Report?

Ring a bell?
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No, never heard of him. I have heard of some of the movies but haven’t watched any of them.

Do you recommend reading what he wrote?
 
Mattathias said:
No, never heard of him. I have heard of some of the movies but haven’t watched any of them.

Do you recommend reading what he wrote?
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I've never read a single one, but I have seen the movies.

The term, or genre of note is called cyber-punk. It evolved into it's own in 1984-- coincidentally a flower that bloomed from the novel of that name by George Orwell, that itself imagined a dystopian future way back when it was written in 1948.

Orwell, now seen as having been somewhat of a future-looking prophet, was a thought leader for Dyck, who similarly imagined (saw?) a world where artificial intelligence, machine-learning and mutually-assured destruction would become the red pill that society must swallow.

It's all quite fascinating.... and from these, came The Matrix series-- a trilogy and a classic.
 
Here's what Orwell envisioned, all of which inspired Dyck....

An authoritarian society, a surveillance state- where people are fed a constant stream of propaganda. Blade Runner takes it a step beyond and the scene is set in an over-populated Los Angeles, while San Francisco is a mostly deserted cesspool.

You did remind me to order a book that I intended to read--- THE book that truly launched cyberpunk in 1984, a book called Neuromancer.
 
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