Posted on 05/17/2010 6:48:20 PM PDT by KevinDavis
Have you seen the trailer for The Adjustment Bureau yet (it's below)? That's the one starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt as two people—a candidate for the U.S. Senate and a ballerina—who meet, fall in love and run smack into a mysterious organization that controls the flow of history. Looks pretty trippy, right? Almost like a story by late science fiction legend Philip K. Dick. Well, that's because The Adjustment Bureau, which comes out Sept. 17, is loosely based on a Dick story called "Adjustment Team," although it seems little of his original story remains.
(Excerpt) Read more at scifiwire.com ...
“P.K. Dick was easily the weirdest of all the sci-fi writers”
J G Ballard? He was out there.
Kilgore Trout does not count.
Or maybe the earlier works of Philippe Jose Farmer, before Riverworld (which is pretty strange in a religious way).
Props for any of Heinlein’s “juveniles”.
I can’t recommend Heinlein’s later works unless a person has very flexible views of morality.
Depends on what you mean by 'flexible'. I, like Heinlein, think that sin lies only in deliberately hurting someone else unnecessarily.
L
Yes, Castle was probably the “straightest” story he wrote.
Ah if I had 50 million...
As for Blade Runner, someone above pointed out that if you did not read Androids first, Blade Runner was a pretty good movie. I’ll add, and you never read any PKD at all. Expectations.
That’s pretty much what I mean.
“P.K. Dick was easily the weirdest of all the sci-fi writers; his vision of reality could not easily be put on film.”
He was definitely weird. I’d add that he was extremely paranoid as well.
A Scanner Darkly stayed close to the books vision.
Blade Runner is great movie but nothing like the book. It should say inspired by PKD.
Blade Runner is one of the greatest movies of all time (not just sci-fi). I highly recommend seeing this movie. You will not be disappointed.
I’d like to see them do “Wired” by Walter Jon Williams. When Omni was still in print they’d have excellent short sci-fi stories and they ran an excerpt of “Wired” in it and I had to find out more about that weasel and found the book.
“Blade Runner is one of the greatest movies of all time (not just sci-fi).”
I recently saw The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. I urge you to see it too. Terry Gilliam has a masterpiece here.
Omni was a great mag in its day. G. Gordon Liddy wrote something for them that I’m still looking for.
I thought I was the only one. Loved the movie, but the book didn't do anything for me. I will say I didn't care for the Director's cut - I guess I just prefer it the way I originally saw it.
Philip K. Dick ranks with Mark Twain as a great American humorist.
Only seen bits and pieces of the films based on his work and detected little to no humor. His gnostic, Germanic theology is absent as well.
In fact, I have detected little PKD in any of the movies.
I'm not at all offended by the group marriage, etc, in his books. But I got so bored wading through all of it looking for actual stories that I gave up pretty quick.
There is something like 5 volumes of short stories, just visit the Philip K. Dick section of your local bookstore or library.
The book that turned me onto Phil was a story collection called The Best of Philip K. Dick but it is long since out of print. I think Father Thing was the first story I read.
The movie “Starship Troopers” was an utter abortion. Horrible, disgraceful and cynical manipulation of the point of the novel. The book isn’t perfect (far too preachy, as much of Heinlein’s later work is) but to distort it like Hollywood did is just plain wrong.
Kipple drives out nonkipple.
Just to clarify, those are short novels, not short stories. I've read two of the three. Starship Troopers might be in the Young Adult section of the library.
Thanks. I really liked that movie. It would’ve been so much BETTER without Tom Cruise though, LOL!
I’ll bet the book is miles better...as they usually are. I do prefer ‘the movies in my own head’ versus another interpretation. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.