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!
Showing posts with label sci fi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sci fi. Show all posts
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Saturday, 1 May 2010
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).
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).
Sunday, 21 February 2010
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?
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.
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.
Friday, 19 February 2010
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.
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.
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