Cantata-140

Vote for Jim Briskin! Or should that be Barack Obama?
Well, at 1am this morning I finished reading Cantata-140. Another interesting read full of typical PKD quirks. Mutants, Strange races, space (and time) travel were just a few of the themes of the book, but surprisingly the main theme of the novel was in fact politics. Focusing around Jim Briskin, a presidential candidate, if elected he would be the first black Americana president.
The novel focuses around the mass overpopulation of earth and the 100 million people frozen in warehouses and how this issue can be dealt with. Moral issues surrounding overpopulation are also large features such as legal prostitution (to discourage pregnancy), colonization and war. And interesting and thought provoking read, but not my favourite so far I have to admit. It is rather unusual for a PKD novel and focuses on multiple alternate reality's as opposed to the questioning or reality itself (which he does so well.). Still worth a read and enjoyable, a few little surprises to make you smile, but not recommended as a first PKD read.

As an after note, not intentional by Philip K Dick, there were some amusing similarities between Jim Briskin's election campaign and Barack Obama's. As a current topic it did bring something more to the read, and some comical parallels can be drawn.

What next? Ive opted for a decade earlier with 'The World Jones Made'.

I am Legend.

Well ... after a day of deliberating whether to continue on my Philip K Dick quest or take a short break and read I am Legend I decided upon reading Richard Matheson's 'I am Legend', still a classic Sci-Fi novel, but with elements of horror mixed in also.

Well what can I say? I finished it in 2 days. It was very interesting and gripping. Starting off slow I believe it lulled the reader into a false sense of security with its slow pace and Robert Neville's monotonous daily tasks, then as you discovered more about his past through flash backs (a nice element retained in the 2007 film) more events begin to occur, picking up the pace of the book, and with twists and turns the reader is left turning pages at an alarming rate. And what an ending, different to the film but with many parallels. Another fantastic read and I recommend it highly.

Ive begun reading 'Cantata-140' now in a return to PKD. Let the SF commence!

Solar Lottery.

Just a twitch of the bottle is all it takes! Solar lottery is complete! Eagerly read across the span of numerous journeys sitting on trains and platforms with my nose stuck deep into Solar Lottery. What an interesting book! Thoroughly gripped me and like all PKD books had a few twists I never expected. Its also interesting to view the themes of the book (it being PKD's first published work) compared to later stories, and many key themes are there; synthetic life forms, space travel and illusion.

The key themes of the book develop slowly and gradually all is revealed to the reader (and the characters!) about the government and its nature.

Another highly enjoyable read! But I so desperately want to know how Ted Bentley gets on with his new position!

In other related news ... During one of my journeys accompanied by Solar Lottery I once again visited the PKD goldmine bookstall in search of some second hand gems. Much to my enjoyment I returned with 'The Game Players of Titan', 'The Cosmic Puppets' and 'Cantata-140', so I'm building up quite a PKD library on my desk!

And once again the question arises, what book next? I may ponder on that for a few days, but I am very eager to read 'I am Legend' by Richard Matheson, a move away from PKD, but I'm curious how the book compares to the various films. We shall see!

Begin at the beginning ...

Finally my reading hiatus is over! Let the Solar Lottery commence! After a long reading hiatus Ive finally picked up the paper again and squeezed in a couple of pages of Solar Lottery. Although I am still eagerly attempting to comprehend the complex plot and political system in the book which I know very little about its secrecy is intriguing. During my reading hiatus I have also acquired two more PKD additions to add to my pile of reading material; 'The World Jones Made' and 'Minority Report', both kindly purchased for me by my boyfriend from his local PKD goldmine bookstall.

Another welcomed element to my PKD collection is the Blade Runner 5 disc edition collectors box set. Although I had no real reason to purchase this, already owning a perfectly good copy of the Directors Cut, PKD fever appears to have struck, unable to resist the bargain for £6 from HMV I bought the collectible tin, mostly for the artwork cards and hologram inside.

As my summer break from university commences, still jobless apart from the odd photography commission I will use my time to indulge myself in the world of SF, unless my situation changes. Let the Solar Lottery commence!

The Exegesis!

Wonderful news! PKD's Journals are going to be published! Theres still going to be quite a wait as they are scheduled to be published in autumn 2011, but Im still ecstatic that PKD is still as popular as ever and things we all want are getting published! Read the full article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8653261.stm

Im just dropping by after what seems to have been a long Sci-Fi reading hiatus. Being incredibly busy at university and having essays (and therefore reading) about Gender Stereotypes I have had little time to pick up any PKD of late.
My collection of reading material is still continuing to expand slowly, recently I aquired 'Flow my tears, the policeman said' and 'Second Variety', so my 'To Read' pile is building ever higher!
Something I was happy to note recently during a trip to Waterstones was more reprints of SF Masterworks novels. Greeted by a large promotional stand (which I did think would look lovely in my room full of PKD books) full of slightly psychodelic reprints with white spines. I was thrilled that the demand for PKD is finally being met in some way, however I did feel a slight dissapointment that I might have to avoid these white spined monstrosities as they will look dreadfull wedged in with my blackspined collection (an aesthetic snob I know, but they were rather garish.). I just hope that all this reprinting and promotion helps bring PKD back to the masses and gets future generations aprechiating PKD (even though in the future his novels will ironically be historical fantasies).

The Grasshopper Lies Heavy ...

Just incredible. I’ve just completed ‘The Man in the High Castle’. Utterly mind blowing. Really not the ending I was expecting. Dramatic twists in every plot strand, but no real closure with any of the story lines. The book is left incredibly open ended and much to my surprise, the different strands do not converge in the way that I had imagined. Although, as I had predicted, further involvement of Abendsen brings to book to its pinnacle.

Writing about this with virtually no spoilers is becoming an impossible task, so skip this paragraph if you don’t want any spoilers about the end of the book. I never for a second thought my brief pondering on the book being a paradox of sorts would be correct. Juliana’s meeting of Abendsen and her questioning about his book reveals the truth that ‘The Grasshopper Lies Heavy’ was in fact written by The Oracle and when The Oracle is consulted it is revealed that the book was written because it is the truth. Mind blowingly it is essentially revealed that their existence, their reality, is fake. In a bizarre way PKD has almost revealed to his characters that they are in fact that. The ‘Inner Truth’ concludes the novel, drawing together the novel within a novel and blurring the lines of reality, for the characters (and at times almost the reader too!)
There are so many questions left unanswered. Why was Edfrank jewellery so incredible? How did it possess a pure quality of Wu? What happened to Tagomi? Where does Juliana go next? What happens to Wenger?
In some ways I feel a reflective sadness that I will never know the answers to these questions, as PKD never completed his sequel.

All in all, a joy to read, a real page turner and highly recommended to any Sci-Fi fan, or indeed anybody who enjoys contemplating a very good, at times heavy, book.

Where (or when) next?

The Man in the High Castle …

Gripped. I’m so involved in this book I’m on chapter 12 and I’m only just finding time to write a thing about the book. Every page I turn seems to bring up new, interesting, unexpected occurrences.

The book is set 17 years after the end of WWII, instantly an interesting shift from reading about the future to reading about the past. But the novel is far from ‘historical’, it explores a sort of ‘alternative reality’, a different time line in which the Nazi’s won WWI and the Axis were beaten. The concept itself is incredibly grabbing. It is human nature to ponder upon such things. The usual phrase I have heard time and time again considering the prospect is ‘Oh you want to be thankful, we’d all be speaking German right now if we hadn’t won!’, but (as usual) PKD takes this notion to a whole new level and makes the frivolous concerns about linguistics appear pathetic in comparison. He explores what would have happened after the war, how it was lost and touches on the shattering consequences of Hitler ruling the world. Emotive as ever his occasional mentioning of ‘Africa’ was sickening, yet most likely a realistic assumption of what Hitler’s actions would have been had he ruled the world. Although the book does look at the grand scheme of things and how the world was divided between Germany and Japan (clearly drawing many parallels between actual events) it focuses on the lives of specific characters and how their world is affected by the changes still.
One element which thus far has brought a great grin to my face whenever I ponder it is the title itself. ‘The Man in the High Castle’ at first it seemed just as bizarre as ‘Do androids dream of electric sheep?’, but once again as the book progressed things became clearer (and I feel that they will come clearer still.).

The title is taken from an author in the book, Abendsen, who wrote the popular underground novel ‘The Grasshopper lies Heavy’ which appears as a book within a book. The book is controversial (and banned) and explores what reality would have been if the Axis had won the war and the Nazi’s had lost (as they really did). Humorously, Dick has created essentially a character of himself within his own novel, pondering on the opposite outcome of the war and writing about it. There is a paradoxical feel about this element which I love, An author writing about an alternative reality in which an author is writing about his alternative reality. Naturally Dick avoids the pitfall of writing exactly what happened in our reality in the extracts of ‘The Grasshopper Lies Heavy’, he approaches it from an idealistic point of view, as a perfect utopia. More to the point, the author lives in a fort called the ‘High Castle’, hence the title of the book.

As it stands I’m hoping (and expecting) that the various different story strands will converge into one, connecting together the plot into some grand scheme. That’s the feeling I’m getting, but Dick’s always throwing up surprises and oddities, which just makes for a more exciting read.

Book Hunting …

I received two £10 book vouchers to spend which I was awarded by my old college for the highest A Level results in Textiles and Photography that year.
I pondered what to spend the vouchers on for weeks, regularly visiting WH Smiths and Waterstones, browsing their somewhat limited collections. During this time I spotted a PKD novel I had vaguely heard of, probably read something in passing on the internet. ‘The man in the High Castle’. I pondered upon it for a while … The cover had struck me with its powerful imagery of the Star spangled banner … but a mass of swastikas burned out at the viewer as opposed to the stars. Having studied Nazi Germany in History when I was at school and frequently watching programmes on WWII, I read the blurb. ‘This is the next one.’ I could instantly tell that this was what I wanted to read next. But at £8.99 it struck me as very expensive for a paperback … and it was rather tatty considering that it was brand new. I considered what else I would buy with my vouchers to accompany the book, but unable to find anything else I desired, I glumly put the book back on the shelf and departed.

Over the next few weeks I regularly visited book stores, searching for other interesting books to spend my vouchers on, but alas I found nothing. Until one day I spotted ‘Tales from the perilous Realm’ by JRR Tolkien ‘This wasn’t here last week’ I thought, and picked up the book. I also spotted something Id never seen before, a Tolkien map book, full of discussion about the land of middle earth and a large map, it struck me as a dainty, desirable book (I am somewhat of a Tolkien enthusiast and it is a little dream of mine to one day collect as many different published editions of his works as I can). Finally, I had something to accompany ‘The man in the High Castle’ in my purchase. When returning to the PKD section much to my surprise two new books had arrived, both ‘The Man in the High Castle’. I eagerly took the book from the shelf. It was a SF Masterworks edition, which pleased me as I’ve taken it upon myself to collect these editions where possible. It was a hardback, and shockingly it was cheaper than the £8.99 Puffin paperback. Needless to say, I raced to the till, finally a happy shopper.

Gold mine!

Eureka! After around a month of searching the shelves of charity shops and book shops I found a Philip K Dick Gold mine! In an unlikely town in Shropshire I was taken to a large book stall (by my boyfriend whom rightly knew ‘just the place’ to take me) and to my amazement there they stood! Row after row of PKD books. Early prints, reissues, even several copies of the same book! I couldn’t believe my eyes. I began picking up books in some sort of frenzy, forming a pile of books. Carrying what I could I bought ‘Valis’ ‘Solar Lottery’ and ‘A Scanner Darkly’ and took them back to Derby, squeezed into my bag. In retrospective I wish Id bought more, but my bag was already bursting at the seams.

Sadly though, I was still avidly searching for ‘We can remember it for you Wholesale’.

Gold Dust …

After eagerly reading ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ I felt an enjoyment and satisfaction that I had not felt since discovering Stephen King. I felt a great interest in Philip K Dick that I had not experienced in a long time, it appeared I had got the reading bug once again.

Eager to read more of Dick’s novels I began to look around for some more reading material. I was given ‘Now wait for last year’ and ‘Clans of the Alphane Moon’ by my uncle and started to explore second hand book stalls.

I quickly discovered as I searched through market stall after market stall of books that Philip K Dick was not making a willing appearance. I enquired eventually at every one after my own efforts had failed ‘Oh no! I’m afraid not, he’s very difficult to hang onto when we get them in.’ and ‘No, hes like gold dust! You’ll have a job on getting them. Why have you got any you want to get rid of? Ill take them off you!’ were just two of the replies I received. My attempts to purchase PKD novels at less than RRP appeared to be going stale. Whenever possible I like to try and support small businesses and buy second hand books, give them a new home where they will be treasured, but my efforts seemed in vain in this case.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? ...

Impatiently I waited for ‘Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep?’ and a number of days later my wait was over, the book plopped through the letter box and I tore open the packaging and began reading excitedly. Still on my Christmas holiday from university, time was in abundance, and I managed to read the book at a fair pace (largely due to the fact that I found it difficult to put down.).
Quickly I noticed a number of large differences between the book and the film, which is often the case. The book appeared to focus largely around Rick Deckard’s morals and his social standing, clearly not satisfied with his mundane life, social position and the façade of his ersatz pet he obsessively strives to achieve more. The interesting idea of relations between a human and an android is also played upon, generating questions about artificial beauty (and artificial life in general). The idea that Deckard may be an android is also played upon, which is especially interesting as the contemplation is voiced by an android. The bizarre religion of Mercism was also a key element within the novel, concluding the book in a reflective way, continuing its moral theme and Deckard’s conscience divide between ersatz and ‘real’ forms hinting at being resolved.

The film on the other hand, mostly focuses on the androids lives and how they are treated by society and Deckard’s quite ruthless (and action packed) hunting of them. Unlike the book the film focuses around humanoid androids, not predominantly animals. Like many American blockbuster movies, the ending is the exact opposite of the novel (Cujo springs to mind). The book and film are actually far more detached that I would have expected. Virtually two different stories, Dick’s characters and plot has clearly only been used as a loose basis for the film, although this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I thought both the film and the book were excellent, but do need to be appreciated separately.

'Electric Sheep!?' ...

Investigation into ‘Blade Runner’ and Philip K. Dick ensued. As someone who has always enjoyed reading and felt the need to strive to read more and more, soak up more ideas, more knowledge, learn all that I can, naturally I wanted to read the novel. I quickly learned that it was in fact titled ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’. The title struck me as most bizarre … ‘Electric sheep!?’ I thought, ‘I don’t recall that from the film?’ But I ordered the book regardless. Eager and excited after reading a few comments about the differences between the film and the book. I’ve always found myself preferring the book to the film, in every case, I wondered if this would prove the same.

My investigation also revealed something else which made me even more eager to delve into Dick’s SF world, ‘Totall Recall’ (A SF movie much loved by myself which ive seen many times) was an adaptation of the Dick story ‘We can remember it for you Wholesale’. The more I read about Dick’s books the more of his books I wanted to read. My mental reading list was growing rapidly, I needed to hunt for more books.

A New Dawn ...

The dawn of 2010. This year marking my presence here spanning three different decades and two millennia. An odd thought for a 19 year old Textiles Design student.
Nevertheless, life is something which requires constant thought and pondering, and in the words of Buddha; ‘The mind is everything. What you think you become.’

Science-Fiction has existed as an interest of mine throughout almost my entire life. Dominantly film has been the major creative SF input in my life thus far. Television has also played a long lasting role in my interest in SF, such as; Star Trek, Stargate, Doctor Who, Farscape, The X Files, all of which I began viewing at a young, impressionable age. But importantly my interest and enthusiasm still remains today, and in fact continues to grow.

The catalyst for my interest in SF approaching the ‘next level’ occurred around Christmas 2009 after watching ‘Blade Runner’. Curiosity about this highly acclaimed SF movie had existed for some time, but the opportunity to view it had not yet arisen. But being a fan of Harrison Ford I found myself at last with the opportunity to watch the film (as presented by BBC iPlayer). Upon its conclusion I found myself baffled yet intrigued. Elements of the film were bizarre and confusing, having sat drawing as well as watching I had missed some elements vital to the understanding of the plot. Recognising the ingenuity of the concept I watched the film a second time a few days later, things were far clearer and this time I missed nothing, finding myself caught up in the story and characters. Suddenly, I needed to know more about Philip K. Dick.