Well, that was a rousing response, i think i best go buy a PKD anthology of sorts . Im glad to see everyone likes his stuff ,and a scanner darkly specifically . awesome guys . Think ill start with Valis? or walking life?

Dick is one of my favorite authors easily. I wouldn't mind being called a "Dick Head" at all. It's not that he is great with prose like some of the greats he is just great at the mind fuck which really resonates with the psychedelic experience and things of that nature.

Valis and Scanner are great and 2 of the most often referenced but he has tons of good stuff.

I have read a lot, but his body of work is so big I still have more to read. What I find interesting is even some of his early work has some great mind fuck stuff before he had his "pink beam experience from god or sirius or whatever". For example "Time out of Joint" which was from 1959 was great. I don't want to explain any of it to spoil it, but I highly recommend that one.

Three Stigmata, Man in the High Castle, Ubik, Flow my Tears, Radio Free Albemuth. These are some strong ones that I have read.

Oh I wanted to say that I like the Scanner movie. One thing I found that was cool is some of the humor from the book that I kind of missed was made really obvious by the acting. I was pretty impressed.

V.A.L.I.S. is great, but Divine Invasion (the second book of the trilogy) goes even deeper. In that book, PKD managed to express some of the deepest mysteries of life.

I also liked Scanner Darkly, but only the book. I felt the movie to be painfully inadequate.

Besides these, I've read The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Ubik, Man in the High Castle, We Can Build You, Flow My Tears the Policeman Said, Radio Free Albemuth and The Maze of Death.

These are also good, but I can't sense that definite spiritual touch in them which characterizes the V.A.L.I.S. trilogy. From these, probably The Maze of Death was the best one (typical psychedelic mindfuck, PKD style).

I love P.K. Dick too. Who wouldn't? I read most most of his novels and short stories. 'Golden Man' is in my top 10 short stories chart. A Scanner Darkly was not a easy read though. I tried when I was 13 or 14 for first time. Not old enough I guess. I liked Linklater's movie much. I found out by experience that Dick needs to be read in chronological order to get most out of his work.



Regards.

First time I saw this movie was on K lol, made for a pretty weird experience!

Such a total paranoid conspiracy drug film! The cartoony/live-action effects make for some pleasantly bizarre eye-candy to go along with

Anyone else think that Substance-D sounds like a combo of every class of drugs there is? Effects were like: Hallucinations, Euphoria, some weird delusional PCP/schizo effects, sedation + stimulation (I recall, been awhile since I've watched it though).

So it's a psychedelic opiate with permanent dissociative effects from abuse and some stimulation to boot.

Haha I'd try it ONCE.

Lets go drop some D!

Yeah,
I think substance D was meant to be as a warning of such a drug. Like very addictive MDMA with potent hallucinogenic properties. I liked the scene when guy committed suicide and had to face eternity with alien reading him his sins It was meant as warning of distopian world where government supply the drug to control the public I think. Dick was quite interesting author. Whole his life he was poor. After he died he become popular. He never had a chance to see any of his books to become a cult as it is today. He didn't see any of movies made of his books. Not even Blade Runner. He died before it was screened. Like Lovecraft. Or famous painters. They had to die first to become understood and appreciated. Maybe it's a sing of genius.


Regards.

But ultimate drug was in Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. If I remember it correctly it was a church of a drug users. A special drug. When you eat the drug you believed you are the god. But when drug wear off you faced the painful withdrawal till rest of your life. So you had no choice. Once you tried the drug you had to take it till the end.



Regards.

Actually he had some money at the end of his life, and strangely enough he was much more famous in france than in the us until the end of the 70's. If you really like his
work (Ubik nearly changed my life) you can read Divine Invasions, a life of philip k. dick by Lawrence Sutin.

I've read the book and seen the film. I found the book extremely dark and quite depressing in places. The film, on the other hand, seemd to contain a lot more humour. With regard to Waking Life, this is an excellent film that I've watched many times. As a director, Richard Linklater seems to be quite a cool guy and clearly a kindred spirit.

I thought the movie was poorly done, but i dont know the book. I've heard they're working on a film Version of Ubik. Valis, i can't get into.

Where do u think i should start with Phili k dicks books? a good first one?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is a personal favorite and imo, one of the "easier" or less out there/convoluted entry points to Dick's works.

His short novels might also be a good entry point.