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Philip K. Dick and Our Predicament
American Thinker ^ | 05.05.13 | By J.R. Dunn

Posted on 05/08/2013 6:43:49 AM PDT by Perdogg

I've been thinking about Philip K. Dick quite a lot in recent months.

Philip K. Dick, for those who pay no attention to such things, is the writer who, without ever expressly intending it, transformed the often shabby and degraded genre of science fiction into something resembling art.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Chit/Chat; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: gnostic; philipkdick; sciencefiction; scifi
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To: Former Proud Canadian

My first PKD novel.


21 posted on 05/08/2013 7:23:19 AM PDT by SAMWolf (Looking for my generations Lexington and Concord.)
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To: Perdogg

He was a great sci-fi writer; he had great insight into human nature.

One of my favorites was “Clans of the Alphane Moon,” where inmates of a mental institution set up shop on a planet under their various mental disorders. Turns out the “normal” people who discovered them were just as nutty, but hadn’t been labeled yet.


22 posted on 05/08/2013 7:24:15 AM PDT by henkster (I have one more cow than my neighbor. I am a kulak.)
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To: Proud_texan

I found EYE IN THE SKY around the same time and was hooked. Still have all my Dick paperback originals.


23 posted on 05/08/2013 7:27:27 AM PDT by Argus
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To: Perdogg

the author makes it seem that Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury, Clarke were hacks with no artistic bent.

I like Dick, Love some of his stories, but he was seriously mentally ill. if that is the artistic they speak of, then one has to question the critic.


24 posted on 05/08/2013 7:52:49 AM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: Oberon; jcon40

Philip Jose Farmer was given permission to write under the Vonnegut nom di plume of Kilgore Trout.

you might want to check out “ venus on the half shell” by Trout (farmer)
it is the piece that ‘Hitchhikers Guide’ was blatantly stolen from...

hilarious....I highly recommend it....for what that is worth.


25 posted on 05/08/2013 7:57:03 AM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra

Perhaps inspiration for the 2002 film S1m0ne?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S1m0ne


26 posted on 05/08/2013 7:57:12 AM PDT by ConjunctionJunction
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To: SAMWolf
Memory test, I never forgot the answer to this one, for obvious reasons.

In the novel, Bob Hope was broadcasting to America over the radio. Where was he broadcasting from?

27 posted on 05/08/2013 8:21:05 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (Obamanomics-We don't need your stinking tar sands oil, we'll just grow algae.)
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To: jcon40

Nah, Philip K. Dick’s pseudonymous character name was Horselover Fat.


28 posted on 05/08/2013 9:00:20 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Perdogg

Philip K. Dick had some rough times, but during one of them there was somebody who loaned him money for his crushing tax debts and bought him a typewriter so he could support himself. The two couldn’t have been further apart politically. Dick dedicated a book of short stories to him. Fellow you may have heard of: Robert A. Heinlein.


29 posted on 05/08/2013 9:09:50 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Former Proud Canadian

Given your screen name, I’m going with Canada, eh?


30 posted on 05/08/2013 9:26:55 AM PDT by null and void (Republicans create the tools of oppression and Democrats use them. Gun confiscation enables tyranny.)
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To: Perdogg

Excellent article. Thanks for posting. Phillip K. Dick needs to be more widely read.


31 posted on 05/08/2013 9:29:04 AM PDT by newheart (The worst thing the Left ever did was to convince the world it was not a religion.)
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To: Perdogg

“his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? became the basis of Blade Runner, a film that reflected his personal vision a lot more than might be expected from Hollywood.”

It captured the vision despite taking the plot in a completely different direction. Movie tells the book’s tale to about halfway thru, then IIRC a drive takes a left turn instead of a right, ending up in an opposite ending. Nonetheless, and in rare form, it remains faithful to the spirit of the text.


32 posted on 05/08/2013 9:39:34 AM PDT by ctdonath2 (Making good people helpless doesn't make bad people harmless.)
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To: Perdogg; KevinDavis

On the rare occasions that I read fiction, he’s da man.


33 posted on 05/08/2013 7:10:02 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: Perdogg
Heinlein and Asimov were the greatest Grand Masters of all. Future History and Psychohistory were concepts of human development beyond anything ever written before or since.
34 posted on 05/08/2013 11:36:12 PM PDT by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken!)
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