Anyone else here read Time out of Joint by Philip K. Dick?
I thought this was a nice, concise, and original read, and my first real attempt at an American SF story. I went into it with very little background, only a brief blurb written in Mark Fisher’s The Weird and the Eerie about Dick’s description of the uncanny feeling of driving to the outskirts of one’s own town - one of the most memorable scenes from the book. The first half is certainly the better, while the second half’s over-explained and sort of goofy rational explanation for everything took away a bit of the intrigue.
Very cinematic. Funny when it needed to be, moody throughout, and pretty transgressive to [my idea of] the standards of the late-50s.
Props to SF Masterworks for making such a great presentation. I always try to find their prints of books whenever possible.
You might want to build up to it instead, but if you want Dick at his best, I think you should try The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.
Once you try Dick, you want more. Thankfully, there’s plenty more Dick to enjoy.
That’s wonderful to hear. I guess you could say I’m a big Dick enjoyer now
I’ve got some Dick you could borrow, if you promise to give it back.
It was also my first! Loved it
This is the one where he goes to flick a switch and it’s not in the same position as he remembered it.
Sort of. One of the MCs goes to pull a light cord and realizes that it’s a switch and that the bathroom has never had a light cord, giving them the idea that the reflex must have come from some repressed memories of a past life. Dick puts a lot of stock in Freudian psychology in the setup chapters.
Ah yes, it’s been a while and the bathroom switch was pivotal to his doubting his reality. Like he entered a trip (which undoubtedly PKD was experiencing a lot of the time).
I read A Scanner Darkly years ago and it made me uncomfortable. Then I read about Dick and it made so much sense.
Do counter clock world next, it’s easily my fav from him.
Yes, his last name is “Dick.” Hurr hurr.
Yeah bro that’s why they call us Dickheads.
Just wait til you discover Moorcock.
