Terran Psycho

"don freeman" <dfreem3.DeleteThis@nospam.shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:VMbjd.134900$%k.79707@pd7tw2no...
>
> > ...not at all unlike Brett Easton-Ellis's 'American Psycho',
> > if with less sartotrial elegance. I enjoy both authors but
> > have never considered there would be any common ground at
> > all.
> \
>
> Now that is an interesting comparison. I always like rereading Ubik
> because it is unlike the other PKDick books. I know many people who
> never liked PKDick, but like Ubik.
>
> But whenever I tell anyone to read Ubik, I tell them to wade through the
> first 30 pages or so, because it seems Dick was writing a totally
> different novel at the beginning.
>
> I must say, I thought Brett Easton-Ellis's 'American Psycho' was a very
> fine, very funny novel as well.

I haven't read American Psycho, but I always have a tough time with
that first part of Ubik. The description of the clothing is not only
distracting, it's also worked in awkwardly, as if PKD was checking
items off a list.

I've read somewhere that he started the book with a sort of generalized
hangover, feeling about as uncreative as ever in his career, and was just
trying to knock out something to meet a deadline. At some point it
started going in a different direction on its own, and the rest is history.

-- Bill Cleere
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"Dave Ryman" <dave_rymanNOSPAM RemoveThis @hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns959A7F21E7B40daverymanhotmailcom@130.133.1.4...
> "Bill Cleere" <bcleere RemoveThis @philipkdick.com> wrote in
> news:2v5r73F2i0lpkU1@uni-berlin.de:
>
> >
> > "don freeman" <dfreem3 RemoveThis @nospam.shaw.ca> wrote in message
> > news:VMbjd.134900$%k.79707@pd7tw2no...
> >>
> >> > ...not at all unlike Brett Easton-Ellis's 'American Psycho',
> >> > if with less sartotrial elegance. I enjoy both authors but
> >> > have never considered there would be any common ground at
> >> > all.
> >> \
> >>
> >> Now that is an interesting comparison. I always like rereading Ubik
> >> because it is unlike the other PKDick books. I know many people who
> >> never liked PKDick, but like Ubik.
> >>
> >> But whenever I tell anyone to read Ubik, I tell them to wade through
> >> the first 30 pages or so, because it seems Dick was writing a totally
> >> different novel at the beginning.
> >>
> >> I must say, I thought Brett Easton-Ellis's 'American Psycho' was a
> >> very fine, very funny novel as well.
> >
> > I haven't read American Psycho, but I always have a tough time with
> > that first part of Ubik. The description of the clothing is not only
> > distracting, it's also worked in awkwardly, as if PKD was checking
> > items off a list.
> >
> > I've read somewhere that he started the book with a sort of
> > generalized hangover, feeling about as uncreative as ever in his
> > career, and was just trying to knock out something to meet a deadline.
> > At some point it started going in a different direction on its own,
> > and the rest is history.
> >
> > -- Bill Cleere
> >
> >
> >
>
> I felt that the bomb scene near the start was a little clumsy and awkward
> - but the first time I read it, I was on a train, so had nothing better
> to do, anyway! It was the first PKD book I'd read, so I could quite
> easily have given up if it wasn't for the tedium of rail travel.
>
> Needless to say, once I was past the first few pages, and into the meat
> of the novel, I was hooked.
>
> It's almost good that the early part of the novel is below the standard
> of the last 90% of it, because it leads you into a false sense of
> security - your brain is getting all complacent, then gets sent on this
> wild trip that is "Ubik". Maybe it's deliberate that it starts off this
> way - maybe PKD was being more clever than we give him credit for (or
> maybe the drugs hadn't kicked in?).
>
> --
> Regards,
> Dave

That may be....it's just that I recall reading something specific about it.
Of course, it's not really significant anyway. PKD, in spite of being a
serious professional writer, didn't always know where he was going.

A film of Ubik could take advantage of all this by playing with the
"false start" thing to get the audience squirming a little and thinking
"Where the hell is this thing going...?", while the ominous undertones
are being worked in subtly.
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"Roy Batty" <nexus6.TakeThisOut@waitingfv.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:cmh59l$giv$1@news8.svr.pol.co.uk...
loafers, crimson sash and a
: purple airplane-propeller beanie' [!!!]
:
Believe it or not, I saw an old geezer in the Mars supermarket a few weeks back
wearing an honest-to-God propeller beanie. I don't remember the color.
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