Article on Philip K. Dick...

"T. H. Larsen" <kundeservice.RemoveThis@damedoen.com> wrote in message news:dJx4d.2609$L43.1901@amstwist00...
 > Alan wrote:
<font color=green>  > > check out the website ARTS AND LETTERS DAILY at <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://aldaily.com/</font" target="_blank">http://aldaily.com/</font</a>>
  > > Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate
  > > Look for the article on Philip K.
 >
 > I suppose you refer to the article from The New York Observer, here:
 >
<font color=purple> > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.nyobserver.com/pages/story.asp?ID=9564</font" target="_blank">http://www.nyobserver.com/pages/story.asp?ID=9564</font</a>>
 >
 > which is a book review for 'I Am Alive and You Are Dead': A Journey into the
 > Mind of Philip K. Dick, by Emmanuel Carrère.

Right, the link in AL Daily is to that article.

Anybody seen the Carrere book yet? It's hard to guess from this review
whether it's old-fashioned armchair psychologizing or something really
worthwhile.

-- Bill Cleere<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Article on Philip K. Dick... 

Bill Cleere wrote:

 > Anybody seen the Carrere book yet? It's hard to guess from this review
 > whether it's old-fashioned armchair psychologizing or something really
 > worthwhile.

Just today I received it in a package from the Science Fiction Book Club.
I'm not sure when I'll get to it--right now I'm reading Susanna Clarke's
JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL.

Allyn <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.allyngibson.net" target="_blank">http://www.allyngibson.net</a>
AIM: mknzycalhn ICQ: 4342396

Defeating alien menaces is what Tiggers do best.
-- Peter David, "The TARDIS at Pooh Corner"<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Article on Philip K. Dick... 

"Allyn Gibson" <allyngibson RemoveThis @earthlink.net> wrote in message news:SVF4d.8015$gG4.2697@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...
 > Bill Cleere wrote:
 >
  > > Anybody seen the Carrere book yet? It's hard to guess from this review
  > > whether it's old-fashioned armchair psychologizing or something really
  > > worthwhile.
 >
 > Just today I received it in a package from the Science Fiction Book Club.
 > I'm not sure when I'll get to it--right now I'm reading Susanna Clarke's
 > JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL.
 >
<font color=purple> > Allyn <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.allyngibson.net</font" target="_blank">http://www.allyngibson.net</font</a>>
 > AIM: mknzycalhn ICQ: 4342396
 >
 > Defeating alien menaces is what Tiggers do best.
 > -- Peter David, "The TARDIS at Pooh Corner"

Well, please give us your take when you've had a chance to read it.

It's kind of intriguing.... Sutin, I thought, was very discreet in most
of his psychologizing about PKD. He stuck to contemporary
evidence, speculated cautiously, and didn't draw sweeping
conclusions. That's the right way for a biographer to work, but
there's also room for someone to be more adventurous in PKD's
case, because that actually was what Phil did himself, and his mental
aberrations plus drug use are both important to his work and
something he himself was obsessed with and wrote about incessantly.

This Carrere sounds like someone who can at least get past the
useless antitheses: "Was/wasn't a drug addict" and "Was/wasn't crazy".

-- Bill Cleere<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Article on Philip K. Dick... 

In between chapters of JONATHAN STRANGE & MR NORRELL I've read the fifty
pages or so of I AM ALIVE and a few chapters later on. I've found it to be
fairly easy reading, almost breezy. The chapter on the writing of THE MAN
IN THE HIGH CASTLE is interesting--I wonder how much of it is real or the
author's speculation on PKD's mental state at the time.

I wish it had an index. On the other hand, if it did I'd probably spend my
time reading the sections on the books I like and not so much on the ones I
don't.

One thing I've noticed. It gives short shrift to Dick's short stories. At
least until we get to Ellison's DANGEROUS VISIONS anthology.

Allyn http://www.allyngibson.net
AIM: mknzycalhn ICQ: 4342396

Defeating alien menaces is what Tiggers do best.
-- Peter David, "The TARDIS at Pooh Corner"
 >> Stay informed about: Article on Philip K. Dick... 

"Allyn Gibson" <allyngibson DeleteThis @earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:MyL5d.59$Yr.48@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...
: In between chapters of JONATHAN STRANGE & MR NORRELL I've read the fifty
: pages or so of I AM ALIVE and a few chapters later on. I've found it to be
: fairly easy reading, almost breezy. The chapter on the writing of THE MAN
: IN THE HIGH CASTLE is interesting--I wonder how much of it is real or the
: author's speculation on PKD's mental state at the time.
:
: I wish it had an index. On the other hand, if it did I'd probably spend my
: time reading the sections on the books I like and not so much on the ones I
: don't.
:
: One thing I've noticed. It gives short shrift to Dick's short stories. At
: least until we get to Ellison's DANGEROUS VISIONS anthology.
:
It's quite a good book, though a bit depressing in its descriptions of Dick's
many social failings and especially in its coverage of his conversion to
Xtianity. And the quote from the review, "The title is drawn from one of Dick's
most horrifying novels, Ubik (1969), in which it appears as a message scrawled
on a bathroom wall," is not quite true. I suspect it's an English translation of
the French translation. It's close enough to be recognizable, but no cigar.
 >> Stay informed about: Article on Philip K. Dick...