The question is, which sci fi writer is more goth? Mary Shelly (learned to write by tracing letters off of gravestones) or Philip K. Dick (literally had a tombstone since he was born)
Childhood trauma is a very common source for depression and anxiety, especially if it's emotional abuse. No wonder he became depressed later in life if that's a thing that happened in his childhood. Poor kid.
Wow, learning that about Dick's life really does contextualize all his work. I have read "Do Androids Dream", "Ubik", and "In a Scanner Darkly" and that information changes all of them. I guess this is an instance where "death of the author" is less possible because Dick's world view permeates so much of his material.
I think we get really caught up on the idea of "death of the author" as being the "best" way to view media, and a lot of people seem to forget that it's just one tool in the analysis toolbox. But a lot of times the author's background and intentions are highly relevant to interpreting what they wrote, and to discard them means missing out on a lot.
Death of the Author is good for understanding works of fiction as they are, and especially in a historical context, because there will inevitably come a day when all authors will become like Homer, and utterly unknown beyond the work they wrote. Understanding how those future people might read a work is important because it tells us something about ourselves too. But until that time, it's also good to interpret stories from the author's perspective as well.
You said it. I've read D.A.D.o.E.S. (what an acronym!) and Ubik and learning about his life informs so many of the plots and metaphors so completely :D
The thing I liked most about "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" is how the questions were designed such that, as a rule, a typical modern human would be labeled an android due to "lack of empathy."
Want to know something that freaks me out? Philip was born on the same day that I was born (not the year) and died on the same year that I was born in. On top of that, I recently found out he made a book called "Valis" something I've had in my username for the last 20+ years.
Very PKD. If he was alive today he would definitely think you were a reincarnation or part of the vast active living intelligence system that saved his son
5:55 _"“Tell me one last thing,”_ said Harry. _“Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?”_ Dumbledore beamed at him, and his voice sounded loud and strong in Harry’s ears even though the bright mist was descending again, obscuring his figure. _“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”_
I read the book and that scene is shockingly unpleasant and removed all the sympathy you may have had for the replicants, showing how their lack of empathy makes them dangerous.
For me that was probably the best part of the book. For all of the horror we feel for spiders, that scene was lovely to show our empathy for ALL living beings
I started my bachelor's thesis on the unreliability of introspection with the 'What does a scanner see?' monologue from A Scanner Darkly. My kind of science fiction. I hope this show will discuss later scifi, especially things like The Expanse.
I didn't get Valis, one of Dick's split-timeline stories, but I'll always remember the part where the main character is rambling to the doctors in the insane asylum, shocking them all into silence when he regains enough sanity to talk about how he misses his son and hopes his wife is treating him well. Those little moments are what keep me reading Dick's books.
The strongest element of his writing is his incredible ability to generate empathy. It’s the fuel of all his best novels, and at its most effective in Do Androids Dream. I have never been as invested in a fictional animal as in the toad Deckard finds near the end of the book, and more devastated by this toad turning out to be artificial than beloved fictional animals dying.
I always wondered why in most of his books there is a dark-haired woman that seems to exist semi-outside of reality. Do you think it might be a representation of his sister?
What I got from P.K. Dick books I read wasn't the question "what is real?" but "What is human?" or "what is life?" In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep the androids are getting closer and closer to humans not only in how they behave but in how they are constructed. Of course the end of the process will be when androids are human but the question is how close to human does the android need to be to get human rights?
The strongest element of his writing is his incredible ability to generate empathy. It’s the fuel of all his best novels, and at its most effective in Do Androids Dream. I have never been as invested in a fictional animal as in the toad Deckard finds near the end of the book, and more devastated by this toad turning out to be artificial than beloved fictional animals dying.
I've read a bunch of Lem's work and it's very hit and miss. But the ones that hit, hit hard. Have you read Cordwainer Smith? Short stories, but incredible. I recommend Mark Elf and Scanners Live in Vain as great introductions into his work.
i love this channel, i found it when trying to faind out more about the 100 years war an i was not ready for the amount of amazing content that was hidden from me for years!
welcome back Extra Scifi! I'm so happy to have you back! I knew about the book and the movie but had no idea about this man and it was a trip to find out about him it really puts all his work in a new and more interesting light
Yeah, in the book, the Androids are incapable of empathy, which is what makes them so dangerous, because they are in effect, super strong, hyper intelligent sociopaths
This explains so much the themes he uses in his novels, how he's constantly challenging both the caharcters and the readers perception of reality. To be able to express his anxiety in such a way is quite remarkable. In the end I find it a bit sad that such great sci fi novels, stemed from his troubled mind.
The book had a whole new religion, Mercerism. How humans and replicants perceive this religion is one of the critical parts of the story and it dosen't even exist in the movie
The passage that you read at the beginning describes the Android's amorality from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. JR, the human who has befriended the renegade droids, looks on in horror as they slowly remove the spider's legs.
Identity is such a huge part of the PKD catalog. Even cultural identity in The Man in the High Castle plays a huge role in the character's worldview. Some of his stories do get a little hard to follow though, as two realities blend on top of each other, like Flow My Tears.
Man, I didn’t know Dick had a backstory quite like this. I’m still digging the return of extra sci-fi! Jesus Christ be with you friends! Merry Christmas!😊
Sounds like he had a serious case of Depersonalization Disorder -- which makes perfect sense, he was basically living with the dual trauma of losing a sibling, and the foreknowledge of his own death (which when we study people who are living with terminal illnesses, is a trauma. Death anxiety for those who aren't terminally ill is also a very real and serious thing)
There is a speech that he gave late into his life, when he was in France at that time - looked and sounded defeated by the American literature industry. He was also around the time of being fully convinced that we are in a simulation, and that we can change the simulation from inside. His later talks in his life are truly fascinating,
The book is worth reading. Doesn't matter if you've watched Blade Runner. My favourite part is where androids debunk the human's new religion but the humans don't care because it's a crutch needed for the spiritual crisis caused by World War Terminal.
Yeah the book surprised me very much. Really love the vibes of bladerunner, but while the book is different also love that vibe as well :) makes me want to read more phillip :D
Twins born prematurely, sister dies about the time she should have been born, worried and poor parents bought a single stone for both kids, took him with them when laying flowers on the grave. The stone has dates on it: 1928-1928 for his sister, and 1928-1982 for Phil. There's more. Many if not most of Dick's stories have a female presence, small, dark-haired, usually divisive and cranky, usually pathologically unable to allow normal interactions with her. Most clearly, the 'twins with different lives' Pris Rosen and Rachel Rosen from 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'
It, like Masamune Shirow's 'Appleseed' before it, is also majorly inspired by 'CI5: The Professionals', a British spy / cop TV show of the 1980s. He saw it on Japanese TV when he was a teen, and mentions it in many of his text interviews, published in the English adaptations of the manga.
The feel the spider scene is super important because it's when we realise the replicants are the bad guys and any empathy they display is only simulated. The original movie also has this (they kill everyone who tries to help them). It's something I didn't like about the new movie where they try to push "humans are the real monsters" which has been done to death.
Will you guys be covering Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation? Not that it's Sci-Fi itself so much as that it inspired the Wachowski's in the making of the Matrix. The "what is reality?" and "are we just in a simulation?" questions that are popular in Sci-Fi.
If his parents expected both to die, they might have wanted to bury them side-by-side, which might have required them to buy the plots at the same time.
Electric Sheep is really, really depressing. Great book, but the ending is soul wrenching. Ubik in the other hand is just a bit of an existential mindf*ck.
Best read the book, and what Dick had to say about the 'andys' in that book. They are not the sympathetic victims of 'real' humans, not the 'supermen who couldn't fly' that Ridley Scott was talking about. They, most of all Roy Baty and his wife Mary, who live next door and attempt to fit into normal society, are psychopaths, who are likened to the concentration camp guards who wrote in their diaries. 'It is hard to sleep. The groans of the children keep me awake.' Dick was concerned about 'the real' but he did not equate himself with the 'andys'. That's Rick Dekard's job. His wife, Iran, is also questionably human, as she spends all her time dialing moods for herself on the mood organ. - and watching daytime TV while he goes out to work, killing escaped 'andys'.
Yeah, this was a weak episode. But diving deep into Dick requires touching on very horrible and sensible subjects, so I think they went light for a reason.
