Yes, Phillip K. dick. A mystery in itself. But getting into his life and what he believed about himslef is a whole other topic. I mentioned that I would love to see a movie adaptation of his life story...and it got me to thinking about some books I read by him, and there is one that I cannot remember the name of....I feel like I asked this before sometime somewhere...but what is the name of that book where Hitler wins the war and takes over? I think I will pick it up again.
Any other dick fans out there? Which was your favorite book?
THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE is the book you are looking for, something I recently re-read for my "Political Futures Through Science Fiction" class.
Philip K Dick is one of my favorite writers. His worldview tends to resonate with mine. That may or may not be a good thing, since I'm of the opinion that Dick was more than a little bit out of his mind.
I tend to prefer his later, religious paranoiac works; THE DIVINE INVASION probably being my favorite. If we're looking at his more straightforward stuff, I'd probably go with UBIK. (It's a testament to the bizarreness of Dick's writing that UBIK can be described as "more straightforward".)
I don't know about a biopic, though. It would have to be extremely well done, and I don't know if there's anybody out there right now with that kind of talent. Most movie adaptions of his fiction fail to capture the complexity of ideas behind his stories. Usually they tend to focus on the gloss of the future, as opposed to the underlying schizophrenia present in so much of his stories. I'm thinking A Scanner Darkly (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405296/) shows promise.
To anybody not familiar with Philip K Dick, here's (http://www.philipkdickfans.com/weirdo.htm) probably my favorite introduction to some of his more "interesting" experiences.
That biopic you're after is probably "Confessions of a Crap Artist", a French or Canadian movie that adapts his own pseudo-biographic book. That other Hitler book you mention is "Man in the high castle" or something like that, and is one of his best, as far as I know.
I'm quite a fan myself, but I tend to stay away from his novel and read his short tales. I found them far more satisfying, for some reason, although I enjoyed "Ubik" as well. Gotta love the twists and turns and the philosophical questions that arise from nowhere. Among my favourite tales there are "The variable man", "The second variety" and "Oh, to be a wovel!".
I'm sort of dissapointed with the later wave of action-oriented Dick adaptations, such as "Paycheck" and "Impostor", but seems that the upcoming "A scanner darkly" will change that trend.
So, out of these ones, which is better?:
-Paycheck
-Minority Report
-Impostor
-Blade Runner
-A Scanner Darkly
-Total Recall
"Blade Runner", for sure, but it is a very peculiar film, the aesthetics and the pace take some repeated viewings to get used to it. "Total Recall" and "Minority Report" come second, as they are more genre (action and noir) oriented than faithful, but they both capture Dick's sense of paranoia really well. "Screamers" would come third, as it is one of the most faithful adaptations of any of his work, and if you like B sci-fi flicks they don't get much better than that one. Forget the rest (except "A scanner darkly", which seems promising ennough), they're either trash or they take Dick too loosely to be any interesting.
Yes, that is the one I hjave been looking for! And thank you for the links. I had this Encyclopedia of strange phenomenon and mysteries that were never solved a lomg time ago, and Author Phillip K Dick was one of the entries, and told a brief story about him. Well, after reading that you can be sure I went to the library to get out some of his books!
Blade Runner is a very loose adaptation of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". The whole religion plot is missing from the movie as well as Deckard's wife.
Don't get me wrong, I really like the movie. I just found the book more interesting on different level.
I have never liked Total Recall, the movie has a mean edge to it somehow. I just didn't care about any of the characters. I read that Arthur C. Clarke was contacted to be an advisor on the movie, but declined when he got a look at the script.
Both things are true.
On the "Total Recall" movie,
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
I have to say I think that mean edge you notice is intentional, and i don't mean it because the movie stars Ahnuld, and Ahnuld likes doing mean things, but also because one of the possible interpretations of the movie is that his character is deranged and the whole movie a delusion. I think it is telling, that once the plot gets started, the first things his character does are to attack both his wife and his only friend. Paul Verhoeven is far more intelligent than he is credited for.
The part that bothered me most was that before Arnold finds out his true identity and the bad guys are trying to kill him, he doesn't mind using innocent civilians as shields.
Yeah. And the fact that he transforms his everyday way to his job into an slaughterhouse is equally disturbing if you think of it. It always makes me think he's not exactly sane, that he subconsciously wants to do that everyday.
Neville Wrote:
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> Yeah. And the fact that he transforms his everyday
> way to his job into an slaughterhouse is equally
> disturbing if you think of it. It always makes me
> think he's not exactly sane, that he
> subconsciously wants to do that everyday.
Hey, who hasn't wanted to slaughter a few "innocents" now and again (especially the ones who drive waaaaaay too slow in the fast lane and then brake for imaginary critters on the road)? (http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/3986/evil12872lx.gif) (http://imageshack.us)