[Wired] The Second Coming of Philiip K Dick

[Krug]

Nice article..
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.12/philip_pr.html

 

[nikolai]

Yes it is. Thanks for posting it, I thought I'd respond as everyone else has ignored it but it's worth talking about.

What are your thoughts on PKD adaptations? It seems a lot of them are just buying concepts to hang a movie around. From what I remember Minority Report isn't a very faithful adaptation of the spirit of the short story. It has to be said that - though some of the stories are very high concept - the writing's hackish. I didn't think Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was a patch on Blade Runner. I thought the film was very cleverly put together but the short story just wasn't very good.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

Damn that's a long article. I haven't more than skimmed it, really, but when did Dick's name suddenly become synonymous with action movies? The article writer keeps referring to the connection, for some reason. I've read a lot of PKD, and I never considered them to be "action stories". Blade Runner was probably the closest adaptation, and the original novel didn't really have action scenes so much as killings- and in fact, that was more or less the whole point.

I'm sure I'll see Paycheck, since I love John Woo. But I put Philip K Dick adaptations on the same list with Lovecraft adaptations- so far, I don't think a real one has been done yet.

 

[Kesh]

I think the reason is, as written, the stories would have to be art-house limited runs. Unless you turn them into action stories, they'll never get mass appeal, even if the core of the story is really good.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

I'm just shocked that no one's done a film of A Scanner Darkly. Done right with a good artsy director this could be a fascinating film.

 

[Aaron L]

Very interesting read. I didn't know of Phillip K. Dick before. I'd known that those movies were based on stories, but I didn't know by whom, and I didn't know it was by the same man.

 

[diaglo]

Very interesting read. I didn't know of Phillip K. Dick before. I'd known that those movies were based on stories, but I didn't know by whom, and I didn't know it was by the same man.

You should read The Man In the High Castle. It won the Hugo Award and is a very good read.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

I'm a big PKD fan, and I'm glad that he is getting recognition outside the SF field. That said, I don't know how I feel about the reworkings his stories are getting to be appealing to a mass audience. I guess you have to take the bad with the good, and if the movies lead more people to read his books, then it's a positive step.

I've talked with Russ Galen several times, and he always struck me as a literary agent who goes above and beyond to get what is best for his authors. Having him as one of the guiding forces behind PKDs estate is great, I don't think we will see the kind of exploitation that could happen in the hands of someone only out to make $.

As for PKDs novels, I've always liked UBIK. It's the first of his novels I read, and it continues to be my favorite.

 

[Mallus]

I've ony read VALIS, Ubik, and Androids... and for my money, VALIS is exceptional and Ubik very good.

Best film adaptation of PKD... eXisTenZ by a mile. Even though it isn't based [directly] on his works... There's is a direct PKD reference in the film, I believe in the form of a candy wrapper...

 

[trancejeremy]

PKD was a Gnostic, and it permeated his work. If not directly, like in Valis, thematically.

So movies like Existenz or The Matrix, which have a gnostic theme, are going to be similar to PKD's stuff. (It's funny how the article doesn't mention this...)