# I just discovered Dick! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 25, 2002, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855 "2002-06-25T10:50:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jenner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac8455/32.png) [@Jenner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenner)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/1 "2002-06-25T10:50:17Z")
And to think – all these years I’ve called myself a science fiction fan, and I never once picked up a Philip K. Dick book until a few weeks ago when I read “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” on the recommendation of a friend. I couldn’t put it down. I Loved it. As soon as I finished, I went straight to the library and grabbed “Man in the High Castle” and “Now Wait for Last year”. I loved them both. So now I’ve got a lot of reading to do. I feel like a junkie who just opened a dusty old cupboard in the basement and discovered a 6-month supply of crack. :eek: Give me some recommendations. What are your favorite/least favorite Dick books? He’s written something like 40 novels, and I’m kind of wondering where I should start. Should I try to read them in any particular order, or should I just dig in at random? Also, for when I run out of Dick books, can your recommend any other authors whose writing style is similar to his? They don’t necessarily have to be sci-fi authors. Thanks for your help. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/2 "2002-06-25T11:50:49Z")
Hmmm… I guess you could trace Dick’s development as a writer from the early novels to the later ones (compare and contrast: _Vulcan’s Hammer_ and _VALIS_), but I don’t think they demand to be read in any particular order. It’s not as if Dick is trying to set up an internally consistent future history; with most of his books, you’re lucky if reality stays the same from one chapter to the next… I’m something of a Dick fan myself… I like _Ubik_, which some people (among them, notably, Stanislaw Lem) consider his best. _VALIS_ is undoubtedly heavy going, but it’s the one that gives the best view of Dick’s personal philosophy (which I tend to describe as “loony psychedelic Gnosticism”). Couple of other favourites of mine are _Galactic Pot-Healer_ and _A Maze of Death_, which are easier to get into. But these are very much my personal choices, and what speaks to me may not resonate with you. Dick-like writers? The man was pretty much _sui generis_… Tim Powers and K. W. Jeter certainly learned a lot from him; if you like Dick’s humourous aspect, you might like Robert Sheckley; if you like unreliable realities… hmmm… possibly Christopher Priest? Or possibly not. ---
**Author:** ![jinty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dbc845/32.png) [@jinty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jinty)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/3 "2002-06-25T12:34:41Z")
Well, like you, “Do Androids Dream” was the first PKD book I read. Then I read “Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said” and it was a blast. Then…umm…pretty much anything I could find. His short stories are pretty good, too (Hollywood agrees - countless films sneak “Based on a story by Philip K Dick” into their title sequence.) Terry Gilliam is a big fan, unsurprisingly! I have to mention my favourite of his short stories. “The Golden Man” is PKD inventiveness at its best. What if a mutant human developed who could foresee the future? Sounds simple, but the story follows up the implications (he’s unkillable, able to escape any prison, able to seduce at will - and hence procreate, and hence take over the existing gene pool, etc) in a really clever way. Welcome to PKD - your world will never be the same 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mars\_Horizon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mars_horizon/32/2804_2.png) [@Mars\_Horizon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mars_Horizon)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/4 "2002-06-25T12:55:32Z")
When I first read the thread title I was thinking something, um, **different**. I was thinking this was going to be about the recent movie on the life of Richard Nixon. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![LateComer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5ac83/32.png) [@LateComer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LateComer)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/5 "2002-06-25T12:58:08Z")
I may be unusual but my favorite Dick is “A Scanner Darkly.” There’s a scene involving a ten speed bicycle that still cracks me up every time I think about it. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/6 "2002-06-25T14:37:49Z")
I like to go through his short stories, but if you don’t like spoilers you might want to read his novels first. Some of his short stories (at least the themes) develop later into novels. This is especially true of “Do Androids…” I would read “The Transmigration of Timothy Archer” before “Valis” or “The Divine Invasion” if you want to have an idea of where he’s going in those books. Just one guy’s opinion. FWIW, when I discovered Dick a few years back, I had to rush to do some research on the guy (pre WWW) because I was sure he must have offed himself, given the themes of his later works. Turns out he didn’t, but maybe just because nature didn’t give him enough time. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/7 "2002-06-25T14:44:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LateComer \* > \*\*I may be unusual but my favorite Dick is “A Scanner Darkly.” > \*\* I like this book as well, but I consider it one of the creepiest books that I have ever read. Especially when you look at the list of names at the end of the book. People who had their health and lives ruined, or ended, by drugs. I alway recommend _Valis_ to someone interested in Dick, if only for the reason that the book is partially autobiographical. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/8 "2002-06-25T15:57:54Z")
I think _A Scanner Darkly_ is a good book, but a very, very sad one. I once recommended it to a friend who works in drug rehabilitation - it seemed to chime with his experiences. It’s definitely worth reading. ---
**Author:** ![MisterThyristor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@MisterThyristor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MisterThyristor)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/9 "2002-06-25T16:24:28Z")
I’m just curious as to how many of you discovered Dick through “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” because of the fact that it was the inspiration for _Blade Runner_? ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/10 "2002-06-25T17:20:59Z")
There is a 4-volume set of the Collected Short Stories of Phillip K. Dick. The first volume is called “The Happy Life of the Brown Oxford” and I am very fond of it (that short story as well as the collection). I think volume 3 in the series has “The Minority Report” as the title story. But then I am a big fan of the short story in general. Did you know that Kim Stanley Robinson (Red Mars trilogy, Gold Coast, etc.) wrote his doctoral dissertation about Philip K. Dick? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/11 "2002-06-25T17:42:41Z")
**MisterThyristor** , I don’t know about anyone else, but the first Dick book I read was _The Zap Gun_, several years before _Blade Runner_ came out. ---
**Author:** ![widdershins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f0a364/32.png) [@widdershins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/widdershins)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/12 "2002-06-25T20:19:51Z")
_Blade Runner_ led me to _Do Androids…_, then from there I jumped around to his other books. _A Scanner Darkly_ is probably my favorite of what I’ve read so far. _Now Wait For Last Year_ is another favorite, but the OP read that one already. _Clans Of the Alphane Moon_ is okay but not nearly in the league of some of his better books already mentioned. I liked _Time Out Of Joint_, again it’s not in the same league, but a good minor mind trip. I happened to be reading the “shakey reality on a bus” scene while riding on a bus and tired at the end of a long work day. That will really fuck with your head. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Frink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Mr.Frink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Frink)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2002, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/13 "2002-06-27T03:20:46Z")
So you’ve been sucked into the vortex of Phillip K. Dick’s universe. Congratulations & Welcome…your mind will never be the same. Flipping open the cover of say, **VALIS** is strangely akin to swallowing the red pill of _The Matrix_. My introduction to PKD came about in a very Dickian manner. In the summer of '92 I was an avid fan of Terence McKenna. In one of his lectures he was discussing Bishop Pike and he mentioned PKD’s fictionalized account of Pike’s ordeals–The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. Hmmm…I thought…this guy sounds interesting, I should get one of his books. Just a couple of days later I was rereading Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger, and Wilson devoted several pages to PKD–discussing how they both had similar mystical experiences at pretty much the same time. At the time, McKenna & RAW were two of my biggest intellectual inspirations, so their endorsements really piqued my interest. Not too long after that, I had a dream where I was in a bookstore looking for Dick’s masterpiece– **VALIS**. One big aspect of my personal philosophy at the time was to pay attention to coincidences. And at the time it almost seemed like I was being “guided” towards PKD. On my drive back to university, I made a pit-stop at the Purdue campus to visit my buddy. While browsing at the bookstore, I turned down an isle & there my friend stood, with a used copy of **VALIS** in his hands. “I heard this is pretty good,” he said as I ripped the book out of his hands. So, yeah…it felt like a bunch of synchronicities were pushing me to read **VALIS**. And the kicker? The protagonist of the novel felt as if the universe had begun communicating with him & was guiding his life through coincidences and synchronicities! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2002, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/14 "2002-06-27T09:28:21Z")
Hello Again writes: \> There is a 4-volume set of the Collected Short Stories of Phillip \> K. Dick. The first volume is called “The Happy Life of the Brown \> Oxford” and I am very fond of it (that short story as well as the \> collection). I think volume 3 in the series has “The Minority \> Report” as the title story. The set has five volumes. The volumes have different titles in different editions, and the stories were, in a few cases, moved from one volume to another in the various editions. For what it’s worth (and I know this is being picky), it’s spelled Philip. Mr. Frink writes: \> Flipping open the cover of say, VALIS is strangely akin to \> swallowing the red pill of The Matrix. Which is why when I saw _The Matrix_ I said, "Big deal, this is warmed-over Philip K. Dick. ---
**Author:** ![JDM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/90db22/32.png) [@JDM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JDM)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2002, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/15 "2002-06-27T10:14:53Z")
I read a lot of his books years ago, and never was a big fan. The one that I did like was “Our Friends From Frolix 8.” JDM ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2002, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/16 "2002-06-27T13:07:45Z")
And just in time, PKD shows up in the mainstream media. From today’s [USA Today](http://www.usatoday.com/life/enter/books/2002/2002-06-27-dick.htm) (27 June 2002). ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2002, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/17 "2002-06-27T13:13:45Z")
Oops, meant to throw a quote out there: > [@](#): > > “He deals with levels of reality in the sense that now we’re obsessed with game playing and role playing,” Frank says. “We’re inhabiting all sorts of different realities now.” > > Dick wrote more than 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, so there’s still plenty of material from which Hollywood can choose. Steven Soderbergh has purchased the rights to Dick’s drug-related novel A Scanner Darkly, and Paramount is currently developing Paycheck, a Dick story about a man who has part of his memory erased. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2002, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/18 "2002-06-27T15:33:21Z")
Gah! I can’t believe I misspelled “Philip.” I am shamed. \ ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/19 "2002-06-28T03:31:49Z")
Also look for “The Divine Invasions,” the biography of PKD by Lawrence Sutin. In addition to Dick’s fascinating life story, you get an overview of PKD’s work, with a criticial assessment by Sutin. Also, keep an eye out for Weirdo #17, a comic book that came out in 1986. It contains “The Religious Experience of Philip K. Dick” by R. Crumb. Great reading about an important part of PKD’s life. Oh, wait, apparently, [You can read it online.](http://www.philipkdick.com/weirdo.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855/20 "2002-06-28T14:35:18Z")
I really like Dick. I’m kind of a DickHead. I would try UBIK. It is really good and it will probably blow your mind at how well he does the story. VALIS is the start of a trilogy that goes to The Divine Invasion and then The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. The first two are tough. The universe changes about every chapter towards the end of Valis. But Archer is practically ‘normal’ so I was a little let down with that one. I just finished the short collection with Minority Report. There is some really good stuff there. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-discovered-dick/115855.md?page=2)