pickRagle Gumm spends most of each day entering a newspaper contest, submitting his guess as to where the "Little Green Man" will appear next on a grid. Every day, he wins. As Ragle questions the meaning of his repetitive existence, he also begins to question reality itself. Why is he famous? Why does he seem to be the center of the universe? Published in 1959, this was a quick and intriguing read.
pickThis is so different from the movie Total Recall but just as entertaining without all the wacky characters, special effects and chase scenes. The ending is unexpected, I didn‘t know if I should be amused or be stunned.
#books #eBook #readaway2024 #2024reads #sciencefiction #Fiction
bailedPage 41: “If, in reading this, you cannot see that Fat is writing about himself, then you understand nothing”. Well, Dick threw down the challenge & won. I‘m sure it‘s a worthy philosophical/theological exploration but I‘m just not intellectual enough to understand, sadly. Also, drugs, semi-glamorised as profound/cosmic or situated ambiguously as either the cause of, or escape from, a “madness” that‘s a stylised affectation, doesn‘t entertain me
@The_Book_Ninja I thought I'd stop hogging @vivastory 's bandwidth and move over to a VALIS specific post 😊
Don't let me put you off reading this book, but it is hardcore Dick-Head fare!
You might ease in with one of his slightly earlier novels, such as:
• Ubik
• A Scanner Darkly
• Flow My Tears the Policeman Said
If they float your boat, then VALIS might do, too.
With apologies for my presumption in dictating to you what you should read!
This book is wild. WILD. After a series of devastating wars, a Federal Government (FedGov) is instituted along with the Secret Police. Employing rhetoric of absolute opinions are now illegal, as these are seen as what have caused all previous armed conflicts & devastation. These absolutes range from the religious (Christian) or the lack of religious (Atheist) to economic ideals. As Wikipedia succinctly states, “In this particular dystopia,..CONT“
pick(1955) in need of a job, Ted Benteley pledges his fealty to the Quizmaster, the most powerful man on the planet. Right afterward, he learns that his new employer is the *former* Quizmaster and his first task is deposing the new one. But that makes the plot sound straightforward when really it's a surreal mix of speculative civics, game theory, telepathy, body switching, drugs, and a lost philosopher in space. It's an exuberant mess, and I dug it.
so-soI know it's a genre classic and is appreciated by many. Despite its engaging language and pace, the narrative has numerous logical gaps, unresolved plot threads, and a murky ending. Though it explores intriguing concepts, none are fully developed. Furthermore, its misogyny, especially considering the era of its publication amidst second-wave feminism, is particularly jarring. One wonders if the author ever ventured beyond his hovel.
#bookclub
"In a civil war… every side is wrong. It‘s hopeless to try to untangle it. Everyone is a victim.” ?
pickThe unreality of everyday life, and glimpses of an alternate or underlying order of being, is a common PKD theme, explored here in a setting contemporary with its writing (1958), but with glimpses that something is wrong, or out of joint.
The sci-fi element is less interesting than the phenomenological musings, but this was a time PKD's attempts to break into the mainstream was being roundly rebuffed, so I guess dressing the story in genre ⬇️
My 2023 reading summary pictured above, courtesy of StoryGraph. I actually read 181 books and 31,244 pages, with an average of 175 pages per book, courtesy of the more accurate Library Thing 😊📚
