P.K. Dick's Thermonuclear Chainsaw Brett Heller 8/26 '14

I love most of what PKD has written, but  a few things stick out. Once I discovered Confessions of a Crap Artist I always felt it was my favorite.  His only "mainstream fiction", but still written in his style; I felt it was like a pocketknife. The ideas I discovered in it were everyday useful, and changed my life in a small but important way.

But I just restarted rereading the Valis trilogy: Valis, The Divine Invasion, and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. Now I remember that compared to that little pocketknife of pratical wisdom it's a thermonuclear chainsaw capable of opening The Universe up and showing its guts.

As you might expect, they both get my highest recommendation.

MORE
8/26 '14 13 Comments

This comment has been deleted.

Well? What's the line?

The trilogy is especially neat to me in that each book is pretty much the same thing from a different perspective (skeptical, gullible, disbelieving). Plus Radio Free Albemuth is the proto-version of the whole set, I think.

I remember loving a lot of lines from the whole thing, but what always stuck in my head is from Transmigration. Guy comes to guru, who tells him (more or less) "I know you came here for wisdom, but you need to eat a sandwich."
Brett Heller

This comment has been deleted.

"You're going to be here 90 days."
Brett Heller

This comment has been deleted.

Just rediscovered my favorites from Divine Invasion & The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. "Even a goat can cite scripture" and "Who would eat a pork chop that had an evil spirit in it?"
Brett Heller
"Just because something bears the aspect of the inevitable one should not, therefore, go along willingly with it."
Brett Heller
I keep thinking about this post, which means I need to get some Dick.
Lindsay Harris Friel
A little Dick is surprisingly satisfying. Too much Dick can make you crazy.
Thomas Boutell
I wish Dick were in the public domain.
Lindsay Harris Friel
Never read either. Why am I so up on space opera by lesser authors?
Thomas Boutell
I don't know about "lesser" but I think he's pretty great. A lot of people start with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep because of Blade Runner, but the novel is VERY different. Still great, but when I tried to read it in high school I did not appreciate it one bit.
Brett Heller
Yes, I enjoyed the novel a lot. So much that isn't even hinted at in the movie. And I love the movie.
Thomas Boutell