Author Topic: Phillip K Dick  (Read 1116 times)

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Offline Weisshaupt

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Phillip K Dick
« on: May 07, 2013, 10:31:51 PM »
Via INstapundit an Excellent article

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But in Philip Dick's world technology is twitchy, with endless glitches, often open to abuse and exploitation by unsavory elements both in and out of government. Reality itself cannot be depended on -- it can collapse under your feet like a rotten stairwell. Nothing is what it seems -- even a beloved pet can turn out to be a product with an expiration date. Government officials can simply be simulations, if they exist at all. Threats can appear out of nowhere, often irrationally or even whimsically. To escape all this, the public retreats into drugs or obsessions with apparent trivia -- games, "setups" for dolls, hallucinatory virtual worlds. A functional aristocracy has returned, creating a kind of techno-feudalism -- (think of Tyrell, abiding alone within the peak of his vast pyramid in Blade Runner). Dick's world can kill you in a nanosecond without anybody wondering why or even paying much attention.

Consider the reality we're living in today. Schoolchildren kept in line by use of drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall. Technology that is as exasperating as it is necessary. Criminal syndicates operating at the speed of light from the other side of the world. A president with a record so convoluted and opaque that it's impossible to tell what is false and what isn't. (See Dick's short story, "The Mold of Yancy," in which a presidential candidate is totally unavailable and never seen outside of his video ads, because, it turns out, he doesn't actually exist.) Masses of people living in virtual alternate universes -- game clubs, social media -- in preference to dealing with the world as it exists. An encroaching surveillance state intent on tracking every living individual at all times under every possible circumstance. A would-be aristocracy slowly separating itself from the masses. Effectively invisible weapons that can kill from high altitude without the victim even knowing he was targeted

charlesoakwood

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Re: Phillip K Dick
« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2013, 10:57:42 PM »

Offline trapeze

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Re: Phillip K Dick
« Reply #2 on: May 07, 2013, 10:58:23 PM »
I have only read a few Dick books. I remember reading "The Man In The High Castle" when I was in college. Later I read "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" and then "Martian Timeslip." I remember thinking at the time that I would probably enjoy them better as an older person and so put off reading any more.

EDIT: Also read "The Penultimate Truth"
In a doomsday scenario, hippies will be among the first casualties. So not everything about doomsday will be bad.

Offline Libertas

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Re: Phillip K Dick
« Reply #3 on: May 08, 2013, 06:45:45 AM »
I must live a sheltered life...never heard of this fella.  But as is often the case with writers possessing fertile imaginations...many of their ruminations can be seen as predictions come true...sadly it seems like many of them are of the insidious variety, as Weisshaupt's segment reveals.

We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

Offline AmericanPatriot

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Re: Phillip K Dick
« Reply #4 on: May 08, 2013, 09:57:09 AM »
Like Trap, I've read him but not a lot and a really long time ago.

I do remember thinking the last time that he was on some really good sh*t

Offline AlanS

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Re: Phillip K Dick
« Reply #5 on: May 08, 2013, 07:19:40 PM »
I must live a sheltered life...never heard of this fella.

Nor I, but I'm not real big on sci-fi.


To escape all this, the public retreats into drugs or obsessions with apparent trivia -- games, hallucinatory virtual worlds.

I think I knew him back in the late sixties, early seventies.
"Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem."

Thomas Jefferson

Offline trapeze

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Re: Phillip K Dick
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2013, 12:40:38 AM »
I must live a sheltered life...never heard of this fella.  But as is often the case with writers possessing fertile imaginations...many of their ruminations can be seen as predictions come true...sadly it seems like many of them are of the insidious variety, as Weisshaupt's segment reveals.



Well, you must be familiar with the movies that have been made from his writings. The first one to get the big screen treatment was "Blade Runner" and unfortunately he died of a stroke just four months before it premiered. But there have been several other movies made since then. A list from his wikipedia entry:

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Blade Runner (1982), based on Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford. A screenplay had been in the works for years before Scott took the helm, with Dick being extremely critical of all versions. Dick was still apprehensive about how his story would be adapted for the film when the project was finally put into motion. Among other things, he refused to do a novelization of the film. But contrary to his initial reactions, when he was given an opportunity to see some of the special effects sequences of Los Angeles 2019, Dick was amazed that the environment was "exactly as how I'd imagined it!", though Ridley Scott has mentioned he had never even read the source material.[47] Following the screening, Dick and Scott had a frank but cordial discussion of Blade Runner's themes and characters, and although they had wildly differing views, Dick fully backed the film from then on, stating that his "life and creative work are justified and completed by Blade Runner."[48] Dick died from a stroke less than four months before the release of the film.

Total Recall (1990), based on the short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale", directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The film includes such Dickian elements as the confusion of fantasy and reality, the progression towards more fantastic elements as the story progresses, machines talking back to humans, and the protagonist's doubts about his own identity.

Confessions d'un Barjo (1992), titled Barjo in its English-language release, a French film based on Dick's non-science-fiction novel Confessions of a Crap Artist. Reflecting Dick's popularity and critical respect in France,[citation needed] a brief science fiction homage is slipped into the film in the form of a TV show.

Screamers (1995), based on Dick's short story "Second Variety", directed by Christian Duguay and starring Peter Weller. The location was altered from a war-devastated Earth to a distant planet. A sequel without Weller, titled Screamers: The Hunting, was released straight to DVD in 2009.

Minority Report (2002), based on Dick's short story of "The Minority Report", directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise. The film translates many of Dick's themes, but changes major plot points and adds an action-adventure framework.

Dick's 1953 story "Impostor" has been adapted twice: first in 1962 for the British anthology television series Out of This World and then in 2002 for the movie Impostor, directed by Gary Fleder and starring Gary Sinise, Vincent D'Onofrio and Madeleine Stowe.

Paycheck (2003), directed by John Woo and starring Ben Affleck, based on Dick's short story of the same name.

A Scanner Darkly (2006), directed by Richard Linklater and starring Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, and Robert Downey Jr., based on Dick's novel of the same name. The film was produced using the process of rotoscoping: it was first shot in live-action and then the live footage was animated over.

Next (2007), directed by Lee Tamahori and starring Nicolas Cage, loosely based on the short story "The Golden Man".

Radio Free Albemuth (2010), directed by John Alan Simon loosely based on the novel "Radio Free Albemuth".

The Adjustment Bureau (2011), directed by George Nolfi and starring Matt Damon, loosely based on the short story "Adjustment Team".

Total Recall (2012), directed by Len Wiseman and starring Colin Farrell, second film adaptation of the short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale".

One of the things that puzzles me about Hollywood is how they can remake stuff over and over when there are so many sic-fi stories that have yet to be done. I know that in probably a lot of cases there is difficulty getting the rights to a story. There are doubtless a lot of authors who do not want Hollywood to screw up their work...it happens, a lot. "Dune" is an example of Hollywood totally screwing the pooch with a sic-fi classic and when it bombs they blame the source material. Idiots.

But where there is a will there is usually a way. I never would have thought that "The Lord Of The Rings" could be done so well with so little deviation from the source material but it was. On the other hand, I was amazed at how well "The Chronicles Of Narnia" could be totally trashed by the second installment.

Anyway, there are too many sic-fi authors to name who have yet to be given the big screen treatment or have only had one movie done and gone no further. Here are a couple of examples:

I am pretty sure that "I, Robot" is the only big screen adaptation of any of the ridiculously prolific Isaac Asimov's works to be made into a movie. It totally sucked because it took a series of short stories (which is what the title was in book form) and used a few ideas from them to make a screenplay and movie. I would like to see Asimov's "Foundation" series get worked over by someone like Peter Jackson.

Another prolific sci-fi author who has only had one book turned into a movie is Robert Heinlen and that would be "Starship Troopers." I read quite a bit of Heinlen's writings when I was in high school and "Starship Troopers" is one of the few I never got around to reading so I don't know how faithful the movie was to the source material. But...holy crap, there is a LOT of Heinlen's stuff that would make pretty decent movies. Oh, yeah...another Heinlen story turned movie was "The Puppet Masters" which was not done very well. They mostly adhered to the source material but the screenplay was kinda sh*tty and the productions values, given what was available, were weak.

Phillip Jose Farmer's writings would also make for great epic big screen stuff. Especially the "Riverworld" series or the "Dayworld" series.

I could go on and on but it's a total mystery why Phillip K. Dick's stories have been made into so many movies and other deserving authors have not.
« Last Edit: May 09, 2013, 12:59:13 AM by trapeze »
In a doomsday scenario, hippies will be among the first casualties. So not everything about doomsday will be bad.

Offline AmericanPatriot

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Re: Phillip K Dick
« Reply #7 on: May 09, 2013, 02:32:29 AM »
Trap, I agree with your assessment that there is so much great sci fi that would make good movies.

I was a fairly prolific sci fi reader as a teenager in the 60s.
Heinlein was my favorite.

I think Riverworld would be hard to do as a movie but think Foundation would work

Offline trapeze

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Re: Phillip K Dick
« Reply #8 on: May 09, 2013, 03:37:56 AM »
I think that Riverworld used to be impossible to do but with the advent of and huge improvements to CGI just about anything that you can imagine can be done.
In a doomsday scenario, hippies will be among the first casualties. So not everything about doomsday will be bad.

Offline Libertas

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Re: Phillip K Dick
« Reply #9 on: May 09, 2013, 07:02:04 AM »
Huh, yeah, I did see a few of those Trap, unaware of the link until now.  Interesting.  My SciFi reading has been largley some Asimov as a youth and later on a lot of Herbert (the Dune series).
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

Online ToddF

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Re: Phillip K Dick
« Reply #10 on: May 09, 2013, 08:27:29 AM »
Ask and you shall receive

ENDER'S GAME -- Trailer

Halfway promising, except they're all a little older than portrayed in the story.  A 4 year old Bean would probably be hard to pull off.

Offline Weisshaupt

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Re: Phillip K Dick
« Reply #11 on: May 09, 2013, 08:50:18 AM »
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One of the things that puzzles me about Hollywood is how they can remake stuff over and over when there are so many sic-fi stories that have yet to be done.

I doubt its a problem with rights- most authors profit handsomely from book sales from a movie release - even if they get paid squat on the movie itself.  No, I fear this has more to do with the Hollywood agenda. The Left is anti-human and anti technology, so they will gravitate to stores like Dicks where the humans live in some nightmarish, morally ambiguous world, where the technology has usually play a role of catalyst. Don't get me wrong, I have liked nearly everything that Phillip K Dick ever wrote, but they are NOT  tales of good and evil, or of bright futures for mankind. Hollywood shows you some sort of really awful totalitarian society in order to make the slightly less totalitarian society they envision seem benign in comparison.  Orwell and Huxley have been treated to movie adaptations for the same reason.

Heinlein? That guy is a  pro freedom libertarian.  Can you imagine them making "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" when the main moral theme is TANSTAAFL


Is really a miracle they decided to make Lord of the Rings, and did it so well, with its overt Christian Themes and clear cut Good and Evil story.  Narnia, which was MUCH, MUCH easier to adapt, got funded only because of LOTR's success, and I suspect they screwed it  up on purpose. In my mind the horribly animated version is better ( I snapped it up for $10 when it was released, and even my kids prefer this to the CGI version - crappy animation and all - because its told properly. ) Simpy look at Aslan's stature in the film. He is not a giant, towering over all, but a normal size, regular lion. That fact alone was enough to make me hate it, as the producers obviously must have hated it.

Asimov? Really I think he is too  intellectual in his tales for what Hollywood considers their audience. Not enough explosions and fighting you see, too much thinking and figuring things out.

Orson Scott Card is getting his shot this year with Enders Game.  But Card falls in that same category as Dick- not as dark, but he tends to focus on tough moral questions brought on by technology.

A lot of Sci-Fi is about human exploration, living on interdependently  frontier worlds, dealing with new and strange challenges though intellect, creativity and force , and all without the help of some nanny government.  Hence those tales  of an untamed frontier are ignored.  For Hollywood its just not about the money. Its about the message. Its "art" you know.  So they will make some agit-prop film about fracking that no one will see before funding a great story with a large built in audience - because that story has a message they find uninspiring or inappropriate.

  


Online ToddF

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Re: Phillip K Dick
« Reply #12 on: May 09, 2013, 09:05:29 AM »
Card has Mormon cooties, also.  A lot of that comes through in his stories, and the left has already been ragging on the making of Ender's Game just because of that.

Asimov just didn't live long enough to get his due by today's left.  I really think he would have went down the feral path of today's left.