I do, but mostly his short stories. I just finished up with "Golden Man" which was badass but I'm absolutly positive the movie some fuck is loosely basing off it well completly suck (think Minority Report). Umm. Welcome by the way LimoWreck.
Philip K. Dick
bozemananarchy wrote:
I do, but mostly his short stories. I just finished up with "Golden Man" which was badass but I'm absolutly positive the movie some fuck is loosely basing off it well completly suck (think Minority Report). Umm. Welcome by the way LimoWreck.
If you liked Golden Man do not watch the movie "Next". The original screenplay was written by the same guy who wrote total recall and he apparently tried to stay close to the book, being a PKD fan. Nicholas Cage however, who was smarting at not getting to play Superman, wanted it to be a superhero flick. So the studio chucked the screenplay in the bin and had a tottaly new screenplay written.
They've changed it completely and I wouldn't even say it's loosely based on the original story anymore.
I am such a sci-fi geek. 
welcome to Libcom Limowreck
Marshall wrote:
Yeah - PKD usually an entertaining read, tho his output is variable. The Man in the High Castle is my favourite.
It's one of the very best. The whole 'axis powers won the second world war' alternate history thing is such a fucking inspired way of tearing the concept of normality to shreds.
welshboy wrote:
If you liked Golden Man do not watch the movie "Next". The original screenplay was written by the same guy who wrote total recall and he apparently tried to stay close to the book, being a PKD fan. Nicholas Cage however, who was smarting at not getting to play Superman, wanted it to be a superhero flick. So the studio chucked the screenplay in the bin and had a tottaly new screenplay written.
They've changed it completely and I wouldn't even say it's loosely based on the original story anymore.
I am such a sci-fi geek.
welcome to Libcom Limowreck
Thats what I hear. I actually thought Total Recall was half ok, they should have just keeped the orginal name however, We can Remember it for You Wholesale. 
Aye Total Recall was ok. Not completely divorced from the original story. Next takes the idea that a guy can see the future and that's about it. Action scenes, love interest, special effects and a few (admittedly impressive) stunts, it's got none of the real flavour of the golden man. I actually thought Minority Report was ok, not read the original story but the film was pretty decent, unlike next.
welshboy wrote:
Aye Total Recall was ok. Not completely divorced from the original story. Next takes the idea that a guy can see the future and that's about it. Action scenes, love interest, special effects and a few (admittedly impressive) stunts, it's got none of the real flavour of the golden man. I actually thought Minority Report was ok, not read the original story but the film was pretty decent, unlike next.
You are going to love me - i hope!! When i come up next month, i will bring my treasured earliest paperback ever bought ever - a book containing a Dick novella and four short stories one of which is the Minority Report. It is only 38 pages - you will be able to read it straightaway - prolly while i am recovering from my fun 9-10 hour or so long public transport journey. 
Yep Dick is prolly my fave sci-fi author which is saying something!! I have read most of his stuff tho mostly when i was a kid so can't remember many of the stories - he was highly prolific yet the quality of his writing remained high. Pretty damn prescient too along with Huxley, Welles, Orwell etc.
Limowreck you sound like a real fun newbie!!
Love
LW XXX
bozemananarchy wrote:
welshboy wrote:
If you liked Golden Man do not watch the movie "Next". The original screenplay was written by the same guy who wrote total recall and he apparently tried to stay close to the book, being a PKD fan. Nicholas Cage however, who was smarting at not getting to play Superman, wanted it to be a superhero flick. So the studio chucked the screenplay in the bin and had a tottaly new screenplay written.
They've changed it completely and I wouldn't even say it's loosely based on the original story anymore.
I am such a sci-fi geek.
welcome to Libcom LimowreckThats what I hear. I actually thought Total Recall was half ok, they should have just keeped the orginal name however, We can Remember it for You Wholesale. :)
Wasn't it originally called "Do androids dream of electric sheep?" Or was that another classic...both awesome titles anyways.
welshboy wrote:
Aye Total Recall was ok. Not completely divorced from the original story. Next takes the idea that a guy can see the future and that's about it. Action scenes, love interest, special effects and a few (admittedly impressive) stunts, it's got none of the real flavour of the golden man. I actually thought Minority Report was ok, not read the original story but the film was pretty decent, unlike next.
Yea, thats excactly what I hear in regards to Next. The book gives me the impression that the "Golden Man" is really disabled in a lot of ways. Hes a mute, and other then that he can barely socialize let alone communicate with his family and has never socialized with anyone else. Like by the end of it I figuered that his experience of life was the opposite of ours, his memory is wholly in the future, and ours is the past. Anyhow, from what I see from the movies trailers it looks like complete shit, who the fuck needs another "I can see the future" movie anyway? Action no less.
Minority Report was divorced from the original story in a few bits but not completely. IMO, Aside from Total Recall being kinda ok, the only other PKD book turned movie that wasn't bad was A Scanner Darkly. It of course deviates from the book too much, but still at least gets acrros the basic idea. Interesting animation too.
welshboy wrote:
Aye A Scanner Darkly was really interesting to watch. The animation really added to the diconection from reality that runs through the story. Anyone that's a PKD fan should avoid next like the plague, I'm glad I downloaded it rather than paid for it in the cinema.
I didn't think it was that bad....at least it wasn't like Blade Runner, where they removed one of the central facet of the original story, the fact that Deckard was running around topping replicants so he could buy robot animals (the real ones were all extinct....hence the title—"Do androids dream of electric sheep?")
But in Next they simply removed the entire story and replaced it with a giant streaming turd. Blade Runner is a great movie in it's own right whereas anything starring Nicholas Cage should be encased in concrete and dumped in the north sea to protect future generations from its vileness.
welshboy wrote:
But in Next they simply removed the entire story and replaced it with a giant streaming turd. Blade Runner is a great movie in it's own right whereas anything starring Nicholas Cage should be encased in concrete and dumped in the north sea to protect future generations from its vileness.
Come on dude what about Con Air! 
I got rid of half my phillip k dick books, because although I really enjoyed them, due to my weak mental state I end up believing them and it takes me years to shake them off. I thought I was living a Scanner Darkly the first time I was in hoospital...
Although The Divine Invasion was my absolute favourite for a while.
Quote:
I got rid of half my phillip k dick books, because although I really enjoyed them, due to my weak mental state I end up believing them and it takes me years to shake them off. I thought I was living a Scanner Darkly the first time I was in hoospital...
Well, there are those that believe Dick was clairvoyant, and Dick thought that VALIS was real enough.
VALIS is the best ever. I don't think Dick believed VALIS was real when he published it, though he certainly had in the past... the quote in the OP is articles 41 and 42, you can find the whole thing in the appendix of VALIS. I totally get the obsession with gnosticism too.
Anyone here read/enjoy the novels of Philip K. Dick?
"The Empire is the institution, the codification, of derangement; it is insane and imposes its insanity on us by violence, since its nature is a violent one....To fight the Empire is to be infected by its derangement. This is a paradox: whoever defeats a segment of the Empire becomes the Empire; it proliferates like a virus, imposing its form on its enemies. Thereby it becomes its enemies."
- Tractates Cryptica Scriptura