What's the best Blade Runner version? (Off-Topic)

by Claude Errera , Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 14:11 (2605 days ago) @ Kahzgul

Philip K. Dick, which I'm ashamed to say I haven't read.

Bro. Dick is a master at taking a small premise, applying it to an entire universe, and then telling a story about the human condition which uses that premise as a backdrop. Let me start you off easy, and I'll work you up to the truly high concept pieces:

- The Man in the High Castle. This is Dick's award winning novel about what the USA would be like if the Nazis won. Some will call it his best work, but I argue that it may actually be his lowest-concept and most accessible novel.

- The World Jones Made. Higher concept about a psychic who, much like Vonnegut's main character from Slaughterhouse 5, can see and remember his own future. He knows the major events of the future and is able to take actions to change them. Told from the perspective of someone who is definitely not psychic, this is presented well as a lay person's look at higher concept and serves as an excellent bridge to Dick's other work.

- We Can Build You. Androids, action, and some interesting thought-provoking bits about what makes you real. If any of these books is skippable, it would be this one, and yet it's still a fun read and sketches the outlines of some of the more dense works.

- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. This is the basis for Blade Runner, and is a more complete exploration of the themes found in We Can Build You. How do you know if you are real? How do you know if someone else is? In a world where your very job may be to know the difference, and you fear you're only good at your job because you don't know about yourself, how do you go on with the day to day drudgery of simply existing?

- Galactic Pot Healer. God I love this novel. It may have the second most perfect ending of any book I've ever read (China Mieville's 'Iron Council' is my favorite by a wide margin). This is a less than serious romp through a universe which contains, among other things, an immortal blob-god whom the main character joins forces with purely because the main character is in love with a hot chick who also joins forces with the blob-god. Did I mention that the ending is perfect? It's PERFECT.

- Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said. My favorite Dick. A well known and popular TV host wakes up in a world where he no longer exists. How, why, and what happened to him are the main plot drivers, but the world is also a darker one than ours where racism and fascism have taken the lead and cynicism and escapism have become the gods to which people pray. It resonates with me more today than the day I first read it. Seriously just thinking about this book right now is bringing tears to my eyes.

The Sirens of Titan, A Maze of Death... There are so many other brilliant novels this man put forth into our world. Do yourself a kindness and read him. No one I've ever read has been able to deliver such brilliantly simple and human feelings through such complicated and conceptual worlds and situations.

Heh - this is a pretty interesting read, and I thank you for it.

I'm always intrigued when someone whose opinions I respect has a wildly differing viewpoint than I do. And when it comes to Dick, we differ. Pretty wildly. ;)

When I was younger, and more arrogant, I used to hold forth on subjects near and dear to my heart; close friends certainly got tired of my ranting. Science Fiction was one of those subjects. And one of my favorite SF rants was about hard sf, and the changes it went through in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Dick was my poster child for the 'old-style' hard sf writer: absolutely brilliant ideas, wrapped in mediocre (at best) writing. It didn't matter, really, that the writing sucked - because the concepts were so mind-blowing.

Larry Niven (in my mind) was the prototype for change. The science was still fantastic, but the writing was so much better. (I look back at early Niven these days, and I think that I overestimated his writing abilities - but again, the ideas were so good that the writing could be given a pass.)

It was really the next generation - Zelazny, Gene Wolfe, Frank Herbert, maybe even folks like David Brin - that really married good writing with great ideas, and tied it all up with solid science. (There are people I consider better today - Iain M. Banks, Alastair Reynolds - but they're decades later, and have benefitted greatly from the lessons of those who came before them.)

I'm not sure I would be quite as sure of myself as I was back then... but the fact remains, I STILL feel like Dick's writing is amateurish, and I STILL don't care because he had more (and better) ideas than hundreds of other writers combined.

So: while I'll agree with a lot of what you wrote up there... I can't help but remember how I held his writing (the actual writing, not the impression that writing made on me) in contempt for much of my youth. :)