
Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Among the Charlatans (1975) - pmoriarty
https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/5/lem5art.htm
======
bumbledraven
Dick was thrilled with his first glimpse of Blade runner on TV. In October
1981, he wrote to the producers [1]:

 _I came to the conclusion that this indeed is not science fiction; it is not
fantasy; it is exactly what Harrison said: futurism. The impact of BLADE
RUNNER is simply going to be overwhelming, both on the public and on creative
people -- and, I believe, _on science fiction as a field._ … Nothing that we
have done, individually or collectively, matches BLADE RUNNER. This is not
escapism; it is super realism, so gritty and detailed and authentic and goddam
convincing that, well, after the segment I found my normal present-day
"reality" pallid by comparison. What I am saying is that all of you
collectively may have created a unique new form of graphic, artistic
expression, never before seen. And, I think, BLADE RUNNER is going to
revolutionize our conceptions of what science fiction is and, more, _can_ be._

 _… As for my own role in the BLADE RUNNER project, I can only say that I did
not know that a work of mine or a set of ideas of mine could be escalated into
such stunning dimensions. My life and creative work are justified and
completed by BLADE RUNNER. Thank you...and it is going to be one hell of a
commercial success. It will prove invincible._

[1] Philip K. Dick official website,
[http://web.archive.org/web/20121015191334/http://philipkdick...](http://web.archive.org/web/20121015191334/http://philipkdick.com/new_letters-
laddcompany.html)

~~~
WA
Interesting. I always found his book _Do Androids dream of electric sheep_ ,
which Blade Runner is based on, so much better than the movie.

~~~
madaxe_again
If that’s the only book of his you’ve read, you’re really missing out - it’s
good, but not his best.

I would recommend, and you are welcome to ignore should you choose:

Ubik

Flow my tears, the policeman said

Dr Bloodmoney

Radio Free Albemuth

Time out of joint

A scanner darkly

Mary and the giant

And finally as an aside, 334 by Thomas Disch.

Fun fact: Dick shopped Disch to the feds for in his view pedalling anti-
American views. These letters are fascinating - and Radio Free Albemuth might
ring some bells.

[http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/07/neo-nazis-syphilis-
and-...](http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/07/neo-nazis-syphilis-and-world-
war-iii.html)

PKD has an uncanny grasp on the reality-busting nature of our current reality,
and the above books are a decent primer in his way of thinking. The list is by
no means complete, just what trips out of my head as “Good PKD”.

His non-sf works, like _Mary and the Giant_ and _Confessions of a Crap Artist_
, I did not understand in the slightest as a younger man. Now I read them, and
their realities are palpable, sordid, tawdry, and utterly real.

~~~
Finnucane
If you like Confessions of a Crap Artist, you should try to see the French
film adaptation, Barjo. My recollection is that it was a pretty good version,
but it is now more than 25 years since I've seen it.

~~~
madaxe_again
Ooh, I had no idea that existed - thanks!

------
robotkdick
From a commentary about the linked article:

 _The common denominator in all of Dick’s fiction is a world beset by an
unconstrained and monstrous entropy that devours matter and even time_

Reference: [https://dynamicsubspace.net/2010/05/09/stanislaw-lems-
philip...](https://dynamicsubspace.net/2010/05/09/stanislaw-lems-philip-k-
dick-a-visionary-among-the-charlatans/)

And also from the linked article:

 _The writings of Philip Dick have deserved a better fate than that to which
they were destined by their birthplace. If they are neither of uniform quality
nor fully realized..._

Unlike Stephen King, Dick's books aren't very easy to read from cover to
cover, but they're filled with rich references of dystopian tragedy.

William Gibson's Neuromancer is a little easier, but leans more stylistic
similar to _A Clockwork Orange_ by Anthony Burgess, who relied on _a Russian-
influenced argot called "Nadsat", which takes its name from the Russian suffix
that is equivalent to '-teen' in English_ to inject the character's language
with a certain brand of nastiness to go with the subverted plot.

Stanley Kubrick successfully adapted King's The Shining and Clockwork Orange,
but failed to wrap his mind fully around Dick, methinks, as he could never
bring a Dick-influenced project to its feet, A.I., which Spielberg couldn't do
much with either.

Part of the adventure in reading Dick is figuring out what the hell happened
before the novel began to have such a devastating effect on the present he so
vividly presents.

Since he died, the imaginative powers of Dick have been tapped and retapped by
Hollywood, (Bladerunner, Blade Runner 2049, The Man in the High Castle, A
Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Total Recall, The Adjustment Bureau,
Screamers) ...and sometimes the results are even pretty good (despite the
esoteric nature of his writing).

There's a lot to be learned about our existential existence from reading Dick,
and I associate him more with Kafka and Camus, than his science fiction genre-
mates.

~~~
pmoriarty
_" Since he died, the imaginative powers of Dick have been tapped and retapped
by Hollywood, (Bladerunner, Blade Runner 2049, The Man in the High Castle, A
Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Total Recall, The Adjustment Bureau,
Screamers) ...and sometimes the results are even pretty good (despite the
esoteric nature of his writing)."_

Don't forget _The Matrix_ \-- though it wasn't directly based on any of PKD's
work, his influence on it is pretty clear. _The Truman Show_ was obviously
inspired by Dick's _Time Ouf of Joint_ (though Dick's book was a lot darker
than the lighthearted Jim Carrey comedy). _Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless
Mind_ is yet another PKD-lite (featuring Jim Carrey yet again). PKD's
influence on Hollywood is vast.

~~~
mirceal
PKD was such a visionary that I can pretty much take whatever SF
book/movie/etc from the last 40 years and link it directly to his work.

Although his books are hard to read sometimes, the ideas expressed in them
more than makes up for the fuzzy/bad form in the which they are conveyed.

~~~
hotwire
He was such a visionary that I can pretty much take whatever _news headline_
from the last 10 years and link it directly to his work...

It hasn't been updated in a few years, but this site used to regularly take
recent news articles and link them to story elements in Dick's stories:
[http://fraser.typepad.com/frolix_8/philip_k_dick/](http://fraser.typepad.com/frolix_8/philip_k_dick/)

~~~
mirceal
hah. this goes to prove that no matter what idea you have someone probably
though about it before.

------
cgh
Coincidentally (though Dick himself would likely think not), I'm re-reading
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch right now. And looking at my bookshelf,
I see that A Scanner Darkly sits next to His Master's Voice. Maybe it's time
to chew some Can-D.

~~~
robotkdick
I do love me some CAN-D. Nicely played.

------
forapurpose
I feel the essential importance of the arts, including literature, has been
greatly diminished in the public's consciousness. People look on them as
entertainment (Christie not Dostoevsky, using Lem's examples) and wonder why
they matter at all, why they should be studied - especially the challenging
stuff! But look at Lem's perspective:

 _No one in his right mind seeks the psychological truth about crime in
detective stories. Whoever seeks such truth will turn rather to Crime and
Punishment._

...

 _Joseph Conrad 's elevated description of literature as rendering "the
highest kind of truth to the visible universe"_

To me the arts deal with the hardest questions, the ones that cannot be
quantified, solved with an algorithm, or even with the infinite imagined
powers of ML; the ones for which we often can't find the right questions.
Despite all our technological advancements, the world around us seems to bend
into pointless chaos and conflict, from peace and prosperity to war - but
bizarrely with no enemy threatening us. I find the arts have more and more to
say to me.

~~~
trgv
I don't agree.

Take Dick for example: whether his writing deals with "the highest kind of
truth" is not important to me. I've read just about everything he's written
because I enjoy his writing.

I think this is equally true for Dostoevsky, Conrad, and other acclaimed
writers. When I read those authors, I have an emotional reaction. It's not
research. I didn't come away from _Crime and Punishment_ with a better
understanding of why people commit murder. I don't understand "nautical
psychology" any better for having read _The Shadow Line_. I was moved by those
novels. I'd say that makes them entertainment.

I don't think acclaimed literature belongs in a different category than
teenage supernatural romance. _Twilight_ elicit an emotional response from its
audience just like _Ubik_ does. The emotions, technique, and the audience
could hardly be more different, but I see no reason that one of those novels
should be categorized as "base entertainment" and the other as "high art".
They're both entertainment.

Some literature may contain a thesis but, in my opinion, it mostly doesn't. If
someone has to "study" a novel to "get the point" then that novel has failed,
at least with regard to that reader.

Just my opinion.

More on topic: I enjoy Roberto Bolano's thoughts on Philip K. Dick:
[http://www.electriccereal.com/roberto-bolano-on-philip-k-
dic...](http://www.electriccereal.com/roberto-bolano-on-philip-k-dick/)

~~~
pmoriarty
Sure, both are entertainment in that they provide enjoyment to their fans.
However, the one deals with deep issues of existence, identity, reality, and
meaning, while the other deals with superficial issues such as which vampire
hunk is going to hook up with which vampire babe (or so I presume -- I
actually haven't read/watched Twilight or any other supernatural romances).

To the extent that art deals with deep issues of critical importance to
humanity, it at least strives to rise above the mass of "pure entertainment"
which does not strive for anything more than entertaining and distracting its
audience from just such serious contemplation. To the extent said art succeeds
in what it tries to accomplish, and does so in a profound, engaging, and
unforgettable way, it is great.

~~~
dbasedweeb
_...which vampire hunk is going to hook up with which vampire babe (or so I
presume -- I actually haven 't read/watched Twilight or any other supernatural
romances)._

With the sole exception of an added vampire _/ werewolf_ hunk you nailed it.
The subject matter though is less problematic than the really abysmal writing.
PKD didn’t always have the best writing style, but made up for it with
content. Twilight is derivative content delivered in appalling fashion.

------
bbctol
Fun fact: Dick, for his part, thought Lem was the alias for a committee of
Communists dedicated to destroying science fiction.

[https://culture.pl/en/article/philip-k-dick-stanislaw-lem-
is...](https://culture.pl/en/article/philip-k-dick-stanislaw-lem-is-a-
communist-committee)

~~~
VMG
He was diagnosed with schizophrenia to my knowledge

~~~
bobcat9
Indeed. Meth will do that.

~~~
cgh
PKD had amphetamine problems, not methamphetamine. Though of course they are
related, meth is in a different class when it comes to potency. His
hallucinations and mental issues started well after he finished a drug rehab
program in Vancouver so it's not certain they are related.

As an aside, the dreary, rainy atmosphere of Blade Runner was inspired by
Dick's residency in Vancouver.

~~~
colordrops
Was he involved in the making of the movie? Or were the dreary and rainy
scenes described in detail in the book?

~~~
singlow
He was not really involved. He was consulted a bit, and while he disapproved
of the original script, it seems he liked the rewrite. He screened a preview
and reacted positively to the general feel, however he died before it was
completed.

------
n4r9
Wow, I just finished reading "Mortal Engines", a collection of short stories
by Stanislaw Lem, and have moved onto "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch"
by PK Dick. The kind of coincidence that would no doubt inspire Dick to write
something!

The last story in Mortal Engines - "The Mask" \- ranked easily as good as
Dick's work and perhaps even bested it in its narrative of eccentric
psychological states.

------
jdonaldson
There's a lot to unpack in this article, since the article is embedded in a
given point in time (1975), translated (from Polish), and is itself a critical
examination... of critical examination ... of early 70s Science Fiction.

There's a few themes here that are interesting. Firstly, it's Lem's early
recognition of Dick as a genius. I'd like to think that one of the things that
Lem had in common with Dick was that they were both mentally traumatized (Lem,
barely surviving Nazi-occupied Poland, and Dick, suffering from intense
depression and psychoses). They both wove stories around the mind dealing with
situations that were pervasive and inescapable. Lem went on to translate Ubik
into Polish. Dick responded by accusing him of being a Communist party
stooge/pseudonym, and held Lem personally responsible for financial shortfalls
from the publisher. So much for kindred spirits!

Neither one of them wrote "entertaining" stories, at least not according to
popular trends. The main thrust of the article is how to consider literary
greatness in the midst of contemporary entertainment. But, the striking thing
to me is that Dick's works _are_ entertainment now. It's one thing for genius
to be recognized after the author has passed, but why are Hollywood and
Netflix churning out Phillip Dick (and related) stories decades later? Most
ideas about future technology from that period are laughably wrong or
outdated.

After the events of the past few years or so, I have to wonder if people feel
the same sense of paranoia and dissociation echoed in the stories. It's pretty
clear modern society is unraveling, and we're heading towards some awful
disaster, whether it's ecological, technological, or political. Dick's stories
follow those mental patterns and somehow feel familiar.

Finally, I am grateful for taking Istvan Csicsery-Ronay's Science Fiction
class at Depauw all those years ago. He maintains this page and the rest of
the archives :
[https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/index.htm](https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/index.htm)

~~~
pmoriarty
_" Most ideas about future technology from that period are laughably wrong or
outdated."_

Not only that, but science fiction editors back then were actively hostile to
the direction Dick's stories were headed. Here's what Dick himself had to say
about it:

 _" At the beginning of my writing career in the early Fifties, Galaxy was my
economic mainstay. Horace Gold at Galaxy liked my writing whereas John W.
Campbell, Jr. at Astounding considered my writing not only worthless but as he
put it, "Nuts." By and large I liked reading Galaxy because it had the
broadest range of ideas, venturing into the soft sciences such as sociology
and psychology, at a time when Campbell (as he once wrote me!) considered
psionics a necessary premise for science fiction. Also, Campbell said, the
psionic character in the story had to be in charge of what was going on. So
Galaxy provided a latitude which Astounding did not. However, I was to get
into an awful quarrel with Horace Gold; he had the habit of changing your
stories without telling you: adding scenes, adding characters, removing
downbeat endings in favor of upbeat endings. Many writers resented this. I did
more than resent this; despite the fact that Galaxy was my main source of
income I told Gold that I would not sell to him unless he stopped altering my
stories--after which he bought nothing from me at all."_

~~~
Finnucane
Gold had a fantastic eye for talent and published many classic stories in
Galaxy, but his habit of making unapproved changes to stories was well known
and he drove writers nuts.

------
XVII
His book Valis had the most profound effect on me,two years ago I wrote some
interesting quotes down:
[https://www.danieljakobian.com/valis/](https://www.danieljakobian.com/valis/)

~~~
davidgould
VALIS is quite a ride. The really scary thing is that it is clearly heavily
autobiographical.

------
YeGoblynQueenne
Alright to all that, but sometimes all you really want to read is a damn good
space adventure.

Something well-written of course, like _Consider Phlebas_ [1]. But good
literature doesn't necessarily need to have "more self-knowledge than talent".
The Odyssey and the Illiad, are not particularly known for their deep
philosophical understanding, and yet they were passed down generation to
generation, mouth-to-ear for thousands of years. There is something precious
and unique to be found in great stories that are nothing more than great
stories. We should welcome and celebrate work that goes a bit further than
that, but well-crafted tales of a specific genre also have value.

Also, they're much easier to write and read.

_____________________

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consider_Phlebas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consider_Phlebas)

------
DonHopkins
When I was reading A Scanner Darkly before the movie came out, I remember
wondering how they would ever be able to represented the "scramble suit" in a
movie, since it was so impressionistic and subjective and mundane looking,
that anything you actually drew and animated would be too concrete and
objective and freaky looking.

[http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=997](http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=997)

>The scramble suit was an invention of the Bell laboratories, conjured up by
accident by an employee named S. A. Powers... Basically, his design consisted
of a multifaceted quartz lens hooked up to a million and a half physiognomic
fraction-representations of various people: men and women, children, with
every variant encoded and then projected outward in all directions equally
onto a superthin shroudlike membrane large enough to fit around an average
human.

>As the computer looped through its banks, it projected every conceivable eye
color, hair color, shape and type of nose, formation of teeth, configuration
of facial bone structure - the entire shroudlike membrane took on whatever
physical characteristics were projected at any nanosecond, then switched to
the next...

>In any case, the wearer of a scramble suit was Everyman and in every
combination (up to combinations of a million and a half sub-bits) during the
course of each hour. Hence, any description of him - or her - was meaningless.

When the movie came along, I was disappointed in the scramble suit effect they
used, since it looked like a bunch of flickering concrete glimpses of
different people, instead of an abstract glimpse of one generic unmemorable
person. If somebody looked like they did in the movie, you'd sure notice them
in a crowd, which is the opposite effect the scramble suit was supposed to
provide.

It was a great try, it looked really cool, but it couldn't work because Philip
K Dick wrote something that was easy to imagine, just impossible to draw.

Scanner Darkly Scramble Suit:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqWBCsWRdw4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqWBCsWRdw4)

A Scanner Darkly - FX:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWne23FfKW8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWne23FfKW8)

>They wear these suits called scramble suits, where it hides their identity,
and instead replaces pieces of parts. It gives you the idea that you're seeing
the person, but you just can't focus on it.

>You read in the novel and it describes it as a vague blur, or millions of
different representations of people. That makes sense when you're reading it.
But then we have to visualize that, and actually present that, how do you do
that? A blue eye for one second, and I'll shift it to a brown eye, to a
different mouth, to a mustache, to a full beard, to nothing.

There's just no way to capture the "just can't focus on it" part of the
scramble suit on film, because the scrambling on film draws your attention
instead of repelling it.

Rare Philip K Dick interview: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ewcp6Nm-
rQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ewcp6Nm-rQ)

>The position which writers such as myself hold in America, those positions
are very lowly. Science Fiction is considered something for adolescents. For
just high school kids, and for disturbed people in general to read in America.
So we are limited in our writing to books that have no sex, no violence, and
no deep ideas. Just something of an adventure kind of nature, which we call
"Space Opera", which is just Westerns set in the future.

I still can't imagine how they could ever make The Three Stigmata of Palmer
Eldritch, Ubik, or Faith of Our Fathers into movies. But that's more because
of the plots and the subject matter, than the visuals.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Stigmata_of_Palmer_E...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Stigmata_of_Palmer_Eldritch)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubik](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubik)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_of_Our_Fathers_(short_st...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_of_Our_Fathers_\(short_story\))

------
DonHopkins
Mark Weiser once told me that Ubik was one of his inspirations for Ubiquitous
Computing.

[http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/UbiHome.html](http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/UbiHome.html)

>Ubiquitous computing names the third wave in computing, just now beginning.
First were mainframes, each shared by lots of people. Now we are in the
personal computing era, person and machine staring uneasily at each other
across the desktop. Next comes ubiquitous computing, or the age of calm
technology, when technology recedes into the background of our lives. Alan Kay
of Apple calls this "Third Paradigm" computing.

[https://blog.canary.is/from-tesla-to-touchscreens-the-
journe...](https://blog.canary.is/from-tesla-to-touchscreens-the-journey-of-
the-internet-of-things/)

>One year earlier, in 1998, Mark Weiser described it a little differently,
stating that, “Ubiquitous computing is roughly the opposite of virtual
reality. Where virtual reality puts people inside a computer-generated world,”
Weiser asserted,“ubiquitous computing forces the computer to live out here in
the world with people.” This wasn’t the first time someone broached the idea
of IoT. In the early 1980s, students at Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science
department created the first IoT Coke machine. Author Philip K. Dick wrote
about the smart home in the 1969 sci-fi novel Ubik, and four decades before,
inventor and engineer Nikola Tesla addressed the concept in Colliers Magazine.
In an amazingly prescient 1926 interview, Tesla said,

>"When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a
huge brain…We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly,
irrespective of distance…and the instruments through which we shall be able to
do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man
will be able to carry one in his vest pocket."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubik](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubik)

“Five cents, please,” his front door said when he tried to open it. One thing,
anyhow, hadn’t changed. The toll door had an innate stubbornness to it;
probably it would hold out after everything else. After everything except it
had long since reverted, perhaps in the whole city … if not the whole world.

He paid the door a nickel, hurried down the hall to the moving ramp which he
had used only minutes ago.

[…]

“I don’t have any more nickels,” G. G. said. “I can’t get out.”

Glancing at Joe, then at G. G., Pat said, “Have one of mine.” She tossed G. G.
a coin, which he caught, an expression of bewilderment on his face. The
bewilderment then, by degrees, changed to aggrieved sullenness.

“You sure shot me down,” he said as he deposited the nickel in the door’s
slot. “Both of you,” he muttered as the door closed after him. “I discovered
her. This is really a cutthroat business, when —“ His voice faded out as the
door clamped shut. There was, then, silence.

[…]

“I’ll go get my test equipment from the car,” Joe said, starting towards the
door.

“Five cents, please,”

“Pay the door,” Hoe said to G. G. Ashwood.

[...]

“Can I borrow a couple of poscreds from you?” Joe said. “So I can eat
breakfast?”

“Mr. Hammond warned me that you would try to borrow money from me. He informed
me that he already provided you with sufficient funds to pay for your hotel
room, plus a round of drinks, as well as —“

“Al based his estimate on the assumption that I would rent a more modest room
than this."

------
cerealbad
an insane prophet revealing the madness to come.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjG0iy1vx9U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjG0iy1vx9U)

------
cgoecknerwald
The writing style seems to be unnecessarily complex, and, in my mind, dilutes
and obscures the message of this piece.

~~~
alkyon
This is due to poor translation - Lem is generally regarded as a master of
style. Polish sentences tend to be longer, not unlike German, because highly
inflective grammar allows for it. It is not the case for languages with
simpler grammar like English, of course.

~~~
b0rsuk
Partially, yes. But I'm a native Polish speaker who reads a lot, and still
consider Lem a challenging writer. He _did_ like long and complex sentences
with diverse vocabulary.

