# Phillip Dick **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 29, 2000, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phillip-dick/47661 "2000-12-29T15:14:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![barton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@barton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barton)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phillip-dick/47661/1 "2000-12-29T15:14:45Z")
I think my first was Phillip Dick’s “Eye In The Sky”… a still enjoyable little romp about a group of people caught into some kind of atomic accident and unconsciously creating their own parallel Earths. It was weird and fresh and brash, nothing like I’d seen in school - in other words, prime apple-in-the-garden-of-eden. It wasn’t long after that until I had devoured my father’s collection and started on my own. ---
**Author:** ![barton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@barton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barton)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phillip-dick/47661/2 "2000-12-29T15:18:15Z")
Damn, that was supposed to be a reply to the sci-fi thread, not a new one. Oh, well. List your favorite Dick books or something. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phillip-dick/47661/3 "2000-12-29T16:14:10Z")
Philip K Dick is a genius. I just wish his books were more consistent. Take what probably is his masterpiece, “Valis”. The first half of the book is truly beautiful, a real work of art. The second half is mediocre at best. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phillip-dick/47661/4 "2000-12-29T16:44:40Z")
“The Man In the High Castle” “Martian Time Slip” “Ubik” “Deus Iras” Well, yeah, he’s inconsistent. He’s also, actually, a terrible writer. He’s also a genius. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Pinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dr.Pinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Pinky)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phillip-dick/47661/5 "2000-12-29T19:10:57Z")
Yes, he’s “technically” a poor writer, from a stylistic, namby pamby lit crit, but I have one word for you: telefrigginpathicslimemold. ---
**Author:** ![G.Nome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c89c15/32.png) [@G.Nome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.Nome)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2000, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phillip-dick/47661/6 "2000-12-29T23:06:57Z")
Have you ever read “The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick”? I have never managed to get a copy of that book. Can you tell me what it’s like? ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2000, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phillip-dick/47661/7 "2000-12-30T03:33:05Z")
So for someone who’s never read Dick, what’s a good starting book? ---
**Author:** ![Uniball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Uniball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uniball)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2000, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phillip-dick/47661/8 "2000-12-30T04:38:57Z")
For starters? Maybe Ubik or Divine Invasion. Or his short stories. ---
**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2000, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phillip-dick/47661/9 "2000-12-30T04:48:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by smackfu \* > \*\*So for someone who’s never read Dick, what’s a good starting book? \*\* A book NOT to start with would be “A Scanner Darkly.” I think PKD is a writer you have to be eased into (dig the homoerotic qualities of THAT metaphor!) and “A Scanner Darkly”, which I’ve just read for the first time, is a major mind-fuck. I might suggest “Clans of the Alphane Moon” or “Time Out of Joint.” ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2000, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phillip-dick/47661/10 "2000-12-30T05:41:22Z")
Philip K. Dick is the reason I did not like The Truman Show. I kept expecting it to go way off into left field and it just never quite got there. I like his short stories–haven’t read many novels but liked “Time Out of Joint.” I especially like an introduction in a collection called “I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon.” I think it’s an address that he gave at a college or something. It has a great line in it–“Reality is that which, when you stop thinking about it, doesn’t go away.” ---
**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:** [December 30, 2000, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phillip-dick/47661/11 "2000-12-30T20:21:13Z")
I’ve read many of Dick’s books, and they often get lumped into the Sci-Fi category even though that is a minor part of the story. Anyway, _A Scanner Darkly_ is just about the most chilling book that I have ever read. Read the little list of people that Phil knew at the back of the book, and you realize that [Mr. Garrison] drugs are bad. M’kay?[/Mr. Garrison] _Valis_ is also a trip because it is semi-autobiographical. ---
**Author:** ![diamud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@diamud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diamud)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2000, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phillip-dick/47661/12 "2000-12-30T20:32:03Z")
My favorites, and ones I always recommend are: Confessions of a Crap Artist Flow my tears, the policeman said The Game Players of Titan Now Wait for Last Year and The Galactic Pot-Healer