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Post by the Scribe on May 27, 2022 0:02:36 GMT
Philip K. Dick - A Day In The Afterlife (complete)
no data available Published on Feb 1, 2014 BBC Arena Documentary about the author, Philip K. Dick, from 1994.
Features Terry Gilliam, Fay Wheldon, Thomas M. Disch, Brian Aldiss, Paul Williams, Elvis Costello, and other friends and fans.
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Post by the Scribe on May 27, 2022 0:03:27 GMT
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Post by the Scribe on May 27, 2022 0:06:00 GMT
Some Dick related music. That sounds odd so I will do like many others do and refer to him as PKD.
Replicant's Dream (inspired by Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?")
LeventeZone Published on Jul 30, 2016 Track from the new CD "The Dowland Shores of Philip K. Dick's Universe".
leventeth.wixsite.com/thedowlandshores
ALBUM INFO
“...the supposedly real world has begun to feel more and more like a Philip K. Dick novel. [...] You might note that, alongside Dickensian and Kafkaesque, we now have an adjective to describe this state of affairs. Phildickian. And the world seems more phildickian every day.” (Jesse Hicks, The Verge, 2012)
Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) was an American writer, whose works, exploring philosophical, political and theological themes, have moved from a rather unique corner of “science fiction” into mainstream (including cult film adaptations like Blade Runner and Minority Report) and into courses on literature.
In Dick’s exquisitely complex, often disturbing (and disturbingly prophetic) universe there are numerous veiled or direct references to John Dowland, the English Renaissance composer.
While navigating through Dick’s unique and turbulent world, these references for me were akin to encountering safe shores of humanity, of familiar and cosy reality, where one could stop for a moment among the many turbulent flows and currents.
This album is about those shores - the human, sometimes background or secondary, stories and undercurrents in Dick’s ever-changing labyrinthine universe.
Among the compositions, which were inspired by these, there are also a few tributes to John Dowland - hopefully adapted to fit into the Dick-inspired musical world as Dick’s references to the music of a distant past fit into his universe...
Release date : 15 July 2016 (Amazon CD & Bandcamp), in all formats: 1 Aug 2016
TRACK LISTING incl. preview links 1. Flow I. soundcloud.com/levente-toth-2/flow-i-based-on-john-dowland 2. REKAL Inc. soundcloud.com/levente-toth-2/rekal-inc-inspired-by-philip-k-dick (inspired by We Can Remember It For You Wholesale) 3. Human Is soundcloud.com/levente-toth-2/human-is (inspired by Human Is) 4. Flow II. 5. Stigmata soundcloud.com/levente-toth-2/stigmata-inspired-by-philip-k-dicks-the-three-stigmata-of-palmer-eldritch (inspired by The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch) 6. Twelve Realities (inspired by Faith of Our Fathers) 7. Imperial Truths (inspired by The Man in the High Castle) 8. Fading to Chaos (inspired by Ubik) 9. Flow III. 10. Identity Regained (inspired by The Divine Invasion) 11. Replicant’s Dream (inspired by Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) 12. Flow IV.
BIOGRAPHY
His CDs released by the former PeopleSound and Vitaminic indie internet labels were noted for the compositional versatility, which created well-received blends of medieval, ethnic and space/ambient elements.
One composition from his debut album was also featured on the compilation CD entitled “Noua Romanie – Rebirth of a Nation”, which was a special project released by Earthtone / Sonic Images Records founded by the legendary Christopher Franke (ex-Tangerine Dream).
Levente (Levente Toth) is a United Kingdom-based synth artist and published photographer.
Born in Transylvania’s Hungarian ethnic minority, his main escapism during the communist dictatorship was listening to electronic music.
He built his first analogue synth when he was a teenager living under the Ceausescu regime. Music creation has really begun later on in his home studio, which he established after his relocation to the UK in 1995.
THE INSPIRATION: PHILIP K. DICK'S WORKS
The novel Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said bases its title on John Dowland’s perhaps most famous composition. Its dehumanised totalitarian world is in stark contrast with the Dowlandian emotive universe it refers to. The opening and closing pieces of the album are based on Flow My Tears (1600).
We Can Remember It for You Wholesale poses a fundamental question: how can we define our identity if our memories are artificial? The music explores this duality of machine-constructed vs. genuine human realities.
Human Is explores the nature of what we define, and perceive, as humanity - it can be a trait of anything that is capable of deep empathy. Hence the music transitions from something otherworldly to a rather terrestrial elegy.
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, with its many layers of different realities, religious and philosophical ideas, has fundamental human aspirations at its centre - and these even shape how humans imagine what a god is. The music was inspired by the dynamism and the metaphysical explorations of the novel.
Faith of Our Fathers, with its disturbing totalitarian world and its ‘true reality’ that appears in different forms, is a powerful allegory, too. The music was mainly inspired by these shifting realities and the Oriental elements of the story.
The Man in the High Castle, with its parallel post-World-War-Two reality of a totalitarian East and West, has at its core a superlative quest for an absolute, inner, truth. The music is inspired by the Oriental and Western elements, and the contrast between the heroic and the introspective.
Ubik, while its world regresses into chaos, is again a fascinating exploration of what reality is... and what may be under the veil of reality. The music fades from order to chaos, as the universe in Ubik unstoppably and swiftly degrades.
The Divine Invasion, while it is a mesmerising metaphysical and religious journey, speaks also about the search and rediscovery of one‘s identity. Hence elements of Eastern and Western music surface in the track inspired by this melancholic and, at the same time, uplifting novel.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? has a subtle undercurrent: can something, seen as inhuman, be more human than we, who are actually dehumanised by the world we created? The music is inspired by the shift from something apparently quasi-alien to the very human longing for postponing life’s end.
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Post by the Scribe on May 27, 2022 0:12:23 GMT
video removed but may return
Philip K. Dick - What You See Is Your Projection (Video Lecture)
Fractal Youniverse Published on Jun 7, 2018 This is a really interesting segment where Philip K. Dick discusses Carl Jung's concept of projection and how this idea was central to many of his amazing science fiction books.
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Post by the Scribe on May 27, 2022 0:15:02 GMT
PHILIP K. DICK DOCUMENTARY
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Post by the Scribe on May 27, 2022 0:15:54 GMT
The exegesis of Philip K. Dick - hacking the hero's journey: Richard Doyle at TEDxLowerEastSide
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Post by the Scribe on May 27, 2022 0:16:28 GMT
Soon after completing "The Exit Door Leads In" Dick wrote another short story, "Chains of Air, Web of Aethyr."
With the manuscript title "The Man Who Knew How To Lose" this story reached the SMLA on July 9, 1979, a month after receipt of "The Exit Door Leads In." How it found a home at Stellar #5 as "Chains Of Air, Web Of Aethyr" in 1980 I’m not sure. PKD had established good relations with Judy-Lyn Del Rey, editor at Ballantine, and perhaps the Agency sent it directly to her.
The story was used by PKD as the first part of his novel to follow VALIS. Originally called VALIS REGAINED, this novel was eventually titled THE DIVINE INVASION on publication by Simon & Schuster in 1981.
This story tells of isolated communications technicians living in domes on the planets of far-flung stars. Leo McVane’s job is to transmit weather reports and the music of Linda Fox to other galactic outposts. He likes being alone. But his nearest neighbor , Rybus Rommey, is sick and wasting away in her dome. McVane reluctantly visits her out of a minimum of human compassion and helps her get well. But, once involved with Rybus, McVane is stuck with her -- and her destructive personality.
Linda Fox is based on one of PKD’s favorite singers: Linda Ronstadt. The character of Rybus Rommey, in slightly altered form as Rybus Romney, is reprised by Dick in THE DIVINE INVASION, the novel that he would write in 1980.
www.philipkdickfans.com/mirror/websites/pkdweb/short_stories/Chains%20Of%20Air,%20Web%20Of%20Aether.htm
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Post by the Scribe on May 27, 2022 0:19:29 GMT
Posted on June 4, 2016
The Divine Invasion (1981) by Philip K. Dick
“When has the government ever told anyone the truth?” (p.76)
divine-invasion-dick-philip-k-paperback-cover-artThe Divine Invasion was published in the same year as VALIS.
It is the second book in the VALIS Trilogy, although there is only a brief mention of VALIS in the story. Like VALIS it addresses religion and philosophy, but it’s not as tightly structured or plotted as the first book. In fact, some parts of The Divine Invasion feel like they belong to a completely different story. According to Jonathan Lethem, one of the editors of Dick’s Exegesis, this book was written in only four weeks. It would be easy to say it shows.
The Divine Invasion tells the story of two distant-planet colonists, Herb Asher and Rybys Romney. We follow them on their journey back to Earth as Rybys is due to give birth to a son, Emmanuel. The book goes on to chronicle a battle between the forces of good and evil in which Emmanuel will play a major role. He is joined by a young girl called Zina, an old man, Elias, who acts as his guardian, and a kid goat. I kid you not.
“The goat leaped from their arms and ran off; Zina and Emmanuel watched it go. And as it ran it grew.” (p.230)
Dick fills the book with his religious philosophizing, questioning reality, divinity and our place in it all. He attempts, yet again, to make sense of his “mystical” experience(s) of February and March 1974 that led him to write VALIS as well as his mammoth Exegesis. This can make it feel a bit chaotic and random at times, yet it is bursting with ideas. I had a lot of fun reading it. Where else but in a PKD story can you discover that the name of Earth’s vast Artificial Intelligence System is “Big Noodle”?
Also funny, in a slightly uncomfortable way, is Dick’s inclusion and depiction of a character based on his unrequited object of obsession at the time, the singer Linda Ronstadt. This leads to some memorable lines:
“And yet-his ultimate move had fallen through because Linda Fox . . . it had been the wrong time. Her menstrual cycle, he thought. Linda Fox has periods and cramps? he asked himself. I don’t believe it. But I guess it’s true.” (p.209)
*
Bizarre! I enjoyed The Divine Invasion more than VALIS, despite VALIS being the tighter written and better structured book. I guess it’s because I like the eccentric side(s) of PKD. I like it when he is a bit bonkers and you’re not quite sure what the heck is going on. I like it when he messes with your head and leaves you wondering if this or that character is really experiencing the craziness or just dreaming it. I like big noodles, too.
biginjapangrayman.wordpress.com/2016/06/04/the-divine-invasion-1981-by-philip-k-dick/
The Divine Invasion is 1981 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It is the second book in the gnostic VALIS trilogy, and takes place in the indeterminate future, perhaps a century or more after VALIS. The novel, originally titled Valis Regained, was nominated to the BSFA Award[1].
After the fall of Masada in 74 AD, God, or "Yah", is exiled from Earth and forced to take refuge in the CY30-CY30B star system. Meanwhile, the people of Earth are ruled by Belial, the spirit of darkness, but Yah is intent on reclaiming his creation.
Writing
The book was conceived as a sequel to Dick's VALIS, though it shares no characters and virtually no plot elements with the other book. The Divine Invasion was conceived immediately after the completion of Valis, with the working title VALIS regained.[2] Dick did not begin actually writing the novel until March 1980 (more than a year after VALIS's completion in November 1978), when he wrote it in less than a month.[2] The opening chapters were based on Dick's short story "Chains of Air, Web of Aethyr" that had been written between VALIS and The Divine Invasion, and published before either in 1980 in Stellar Science-Fiction Stories #5.[2]
Plot summary
After a fatal car accident on Earth, Herb Asher is placed into cryonic suspension as he waits for a spleen replacement. Clinically dead, Herb experiences lucid dreams while in suspended animation and relives the last six years of his life.
In the past, Herb lived as a recluse in an isolated dome on a remote planet in the binary star system, CY30-CY30B. Yah, a local divinity of the planet in exile from Earth, appears to Herb in a vision as a burning flame, and forces him to contact his sick female neighbor, Rybys Rommey, who happens to be terminally ill with multiple sclerosis and pregnant with Yah's child.
With the help of the immortal soul of Elijah, who takes the form of a wild beggar named Elias Tate, Herb agrees to become Rybys's legal husband and father of the unborn "savior". Together they plan to smuggle the six-month pregnant Rybys back to Earth, under the pretext of seeking help for Rybys' medical condition at a medical research facility. After being born in human form, Yah plans to confront the fallen angel Belial, who has ruled the Earth for 2000 years since the fall of Masada in the first century CE. Yah's powers, however, are limited by Belial's dominion on Earth, and the four of them must take extra precautions to avoid being detected by the forces of darkness.
Things do not go as planned. "Big Noodle", Earth's A.I. system, warns the ecclesiastical authorities in the Christian-Islamic church and Scientific Legate about the divine "invasion" and countermeasures are prepared. A number of failed attempts are made to destroy the unborn child, all of them thwarted by Elijah and Yah. After successfully making the interstellar journey back to Earth and narrowly avoiding a forced abortion, Rybys and Herb escape in the nick of time, only to be involved in a fatal taxi crash, probably due to the machinations of Belial. Rybys dies from her injuries sustained in the crash, and her unborn son Emmanuel (Yah in human form) suffers brain damage from the trauma but survives. Herb is critically injured and put into cryonic suspension until a spleen replacement can be found. Baby Emmanuel is placed into a synthetic womb, but Elias Tate manages to sneak Emmanuel out of the hospital before the church is able to kill him.
Six years pass. In a school for special children, Emmanuel meets Zina, a girl who also seems to have similar skills and talents, but acts as a surrogate teacher to Emmanuel. For four years, Zina helps Emmanuel regain his memory (the brain damage caused amnesia) and discover his true identity as Yah, creator of the universe.
When he's ready, Zina shows Emmanuel her own parallel universe. In this peaceful world, organized religion has little influence, Rybys Rommey is still alive and married to Herb Asher, and Belial is only a kid goat living in a petting zoo.
In an act of kindness, Zina and Emmanuel liberate the goat-creature from his cage, momentarily forgetting that the animal is Belial. The goat-creature finds Herb Asher and attempts to retain control of the world by possessing him and convincing him that Yahweh's creation is an ugly thing that should be shown for what it really is. Eventually Herb is saved by Linda Fox, a young singer whom he loves and who is his own personal Savior; she and the goat-creature meet and she kills it, defeating Belial. He finally discovers that this meeting happens over again for everyone in the world, and whether they choose Belial or their Savior decides if they find salvation.
Characters
Herb Asher: audio engineer Rybys Rommey: mother of Emmanuel, sick with MS Yah: Yahweh Elias Tate: Incarnation of Elijah Emmanuel (Manny): Yah incarnated in human form Zina Pallas: Shekhinah Linda Fox: singer, songwriter, Yetzer Hatov Belial: Yetzer Hara Fulton Statler Harms: Chief prelate of the Christian-Islamic Church (C.I.C), Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church Nicholas Bulkowsky: Communist Party Chairman, Procurator maximus of the Scientific Legate VALIS: agent of Yahweh, disinhibiting stimulus
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Divine_Invasion
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Post by the Scribe on May 27, 2022 0:22:12 GMT
Ever wished you could go back in time and change one crucial point in history? Ever thought what the world would be like if, say, Lincoln was not assassinated? This book is a compilation of what ifs where what is changed is the life of some famous writer.
The introduction, "What Killed Science Fiction" is an absolute hoot. Detailing the various things that went wrong with real science and the flops that Hollywood made, the fun is finding all the references to things as they are in our world, while it makes a perfect case for just how and why the dreams of science fiction died. And of course, this is a parody of "Who Killed Science Fiction" of SF fan fame.
The first story, "The Jackdaw's Last Case", is told in typical early 1900 style, with a large amount of description and flowery phrases, as it looks at Franz Kafka as a super-crime fighter. The story is somewhat slight, its interest is in the style and the odd situation, not quite coming off as a parody of the early scientifiction pulp stories.
"Anne" is bittersweet, following a very different life path for Anne Frank. Its conclusion is almost an acidic put down of Hollywood and the American dream.
"The Happy Valley at the End of the World" is, perhaps, the weakest story here, as we enter a world depopulated by a hemorrhagic plague, with a daredevil pilot convinced that H. G. Well's Wings Over the World is the blueprint for how to return the world (and fliers) to glory. Overly long and without much of either the humor or parody that suffuses most of the other stories.
"Mairzy Doats" is my favorite of this bunch, as we find Robert Heinlein, through an odd combination of circumstances (though highly believable - showing just how close to reality some of these alternate histories can be), as President of the United States, and mounting a manned mission to the moon. Heinlein is one of my favorite authors, but I could really appreciate just how well this story extrapolates some of Heinlein's political and social ideas to their extreme, deflating both the ideas and the man in a thoroughly delightful way.
"Campbell's World" is one that any science fiction fan can relate to, showing just what would have happened if Joseph Campbell, rather than John W. Campbell, became editor of Astounding magazine in 1938. The results are literally astounding.
"Instability", written with Rudy Rucker, is one I did not care for, probably because I've never cared for Kerouac, Cassady, Ginsburg and the other `Beats'. But as a story of the ultimate meeting of the Physicist with the Poet, it certainly belongs in this collection.
"World Wars III" is a nice little tale of the world as it would be without Einstein or any of the other physicists who made the A-bomb possible. The added charm of this one is the weird skewing of musical personalities, from the Beatles and Elvis Presley to Barry Sadler and Dionne Warwick.
Philip K. Dick married to Linda Ronstadt? "Linda and Phil" is a quiet tale of alternate realities that Dick (naturally) has to set right. Doesn't quite have the head-splitting wackiness of a Dick original, but good for a quick read.
"Alice, Alfie, Ted, and the Aliens" is one for science fiction aficionados only. The fun is catching who all the people are and which characterizations of them really fit the person. Alfred Bester doesn't come off so well here, but `Chip' Delany is marvelously satirized.
Most of these stories have a very strong `in-crowd' element - those who are not steeped in the world of fantastical literature may miss many of the sly, underhanded references scattered throughout. I've been reading this stuff for 45 years, and even so I have the suspicion that I missed a few of them. But there is some good parody, some biting social comment, and a good sense of style throughout these stories. Not perfect, and some of the stories are much weaker than the others, but a good light read, with an occasional laugh.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
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Post by the Scribe on May 27, 2022 0:25:21 GMT
The Selected Letters, 1974 by Philip K. Dick, Don Herron
I've read most of PKD's novels and short stories but I had no idea that they published collections of his correspondence. It is so illuminating, so perversely entertaining, to have such a personal window into a brilliant mind failing itself. In 1974, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said had just been published, and we're dropped right into the middle of Dick's bitter arguments with his publishers and endless gripes about disappearing royalties and short print runs. He's particularly mad at Stanislaw Lem, who published Ubik in Poland. When a piece of fan mail arrives from then Soviet-occupied Estonia, he freaks out and begins a terrified, one-sided correspondence with the FBI. Delusions about Marxists and USSR mind experiments build up and out of control, and the acid patterns begin to form; PKD's powerful imagination is getting the better of him.
As the year goes on he has powerful dreams and hallucinations, and in correspondence with Claudia Bush and some other close friends, he tries to make sense of everything his mind throws at him. In the ideas that emerge, Dick devotees will recognise early sketches of The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, VALIS, Radio Free Albemuth and even the unpublished The Owl in Daylight. Even as it gets hard to follow the complex, obtuse logic of it all, these intimate ramblings makes for absolutely compelling reading.
There are lighter, often quite funny moments too. It's amazing to me that even PKD himself said things like "I wake up and feel like I'm living in a PKD novel". He sends fan mail to Linda Ronstadt and hate mail to Richard Nixon. Plus there's this quote, which has haunted me ever since I came across it:
"Most of what I used to think were games played for ideological reasons have over the years turned out to be played for money. This is a hard lesson to learn. You keep hoping something more is at stake, and it's always just money."
If you're not already familar with his work this book will mean nothing to you, but if you're the kind of person whose already read, say, ten to twenty of his books already, this will be hard to put down.
www.goodreads.com/book/show/216392.The_Selected_Letters_1974
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Post by the Scribe on May 27, 2022 0:29:01 GMT
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