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philip K dick

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I havent read a good book in way too long and really want to get into philip K dick. recomend a good book of his to start with and why? :)
 
"The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich"

Really disturbing, psychedelic and highly conceptual sci-fi novel.

or

"The Divine Invasion"

Spirituality in space through the eyes of a madman.
 
TheDeceased,

The Divine Invasion is the second part of the VALIS trilogy which starts with VALIS, continues on to The Divine Invasion, and eventually finds it's vague stand-in completion with the Transmigration of Timothy Archer. So, I would recommend starting with VALIS.

For a short PKD novel, I would recommend Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. I would recommend to stay away from The Simulacra.
 
Hrm, I didn't know it was a sequel let alone part of a trilogy when I read it.
I'll check out VALIS and Timothy Archer.
Thanks.

Flow My Tears is indeed good, but it's not the same level of genius IMO.

The Man in the High Castle is worth considering.
 
^they're called a trilogy, but they don't really relate much at all.

but i do remember my mind being blown by valis and divine invasion. tim archer is good, but nowhere near as amazing as the others.
 
What about Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep?

This is the book Bladerunner was based on. Intense, crazy pre-cyberpunk story. One of his best. IMO. Three Stigmata and Valis are really good as well.
 
TheDeceased said:
^It's a good book, but not one of his best IMO.
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But it's a good one to start with for someone who has never been into PKD. Some of his other stuff like Stigmata, Divine Invasion and Valis all take a little bit of getting used to appreciate. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is relatively straightforward and it works as great feeder piece for those who have seen Bladerunner and want some more of PKD's style work.
 
well finally got around to picking up some of his books last week. First, I read Flow my Tears and thought wow what a let down, didnt really like it. next I read The three stigmata of palmer edritch. Holy shit, what great book. very psychedelic and very haunting. Palmer Eldritch is one hell of an interesting character.

Im thinking im gunna read either Ubik or the devine invasion next skipping valis.

p.s. someone needs to start a facebook group titeled "the three stigmata of palmer eldritch MUST be made into a movie." ide join %)
 
His collections of short stories are worth checking out as well. There have been a lot of really bad adaptations of his short stories. 'Total Recall' is the only one that really does the source material (We Can Remember it for You Wholesale) justice.

A lot of his short stories have a kind of unfinished feel about them, as if they're dreams or sketches. I get the impression that he didn't bother refining them as much as his novels. One of the things I like about PKD is that the ideas behind his stories seem to be more important to him than constructing a coherent narrative.

Short stories in general tend to be a little weirder because there is more freedom to experiment and absurd ideas that would be difficult to pitch as novels can be explored briefly and discarded.

There are five collections currently in print, comprising of about a hundred short stories. Check them out.
 
TheDeceased said:
There are five collections currently in print, comprising of about a hundred short stories. Check them out.
Click to expand...

will do, thanks for the tip.

right now i just bought an italo calvino story called invisible cities that im about to crack into, but some K dick shorter ones may provide me with some sparks of inspiration for some tracks ive been recording latley. any one's that flash in your mind in perticular?
 
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"The Pre-Persons" is great.
"The Golden Man" (VERY loosely adapted into that film 'Next' with Nicolas Cage) is definitely worth a read.
"Oh, to Be a Blobel!" is fucked up.
"The War With The Fnools" is ridiculous.
"The Little Black Box",

It's hard to remember all the titles of his stories. It's been a while.
These aren't all the best of his stories, neccessarily.
 
TheDeceased said:
A lot of his short stories have a kind of unfinished feel about them, as if they're dreams or sketches. I get the impression that he didn't bother refining them as much as his novels. One of the things I like about PKD is that the ideas behind his stories seem to be more important to him than constructing a coherent narrative.
Click to expand...

The OP just mentioned Italo Calvino. What you just said applies as much him as to PKD, I'd say, even though they wrote in different genres. Both of these authors' stories have a haunting surreality about them that makes you wish they'd told you more, but at the same time also satisfied they left a lot up to the reader's imagination.
 
Though I'm a PKD neophyte myself, let me also throw in a solid endorsement for The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, which is the best one I've read so far.
 
"We Can Build You"- one of his lesser known books, but one of the darkest. The final image of the book puts a chilling seal on a painful study of obsession, delusion, madness and death(.......bit like Valis really!) Dick''s themes never really change,they just put on different clothes. This one is wearing a black tie.
 
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