Philip.K. Dick - "Arena" 2/6

[greenhornet299]

Oustanding...a man many years ahead of his time.....

[LeonSpinx1]

Even in the 60s, most grains were cheaper than dog food--i think the self-promotion narrative makes good sense. But that doesn't make Dick any less cool.

[pmcmanus420]

I can't believe after two years only 25,000 views!!!

[Flubly]

I've seen another documentary where Phil's wife talked about eating dog food too. They were dirt poor and making fun of that seemed kind of in bad taste to me. It wasn't a concept of Phil but actually him and his wife eating dog food because they couldn't afford anything else. Poverty isn't ironic, it's poverty. Some people let literary theory leak into their lives too much.

[pmcmanus420]

@Flubly - Dick wrote about having to buy dog food and lie about having a dog to do it; the profound humiliation. Dick lived most of his life poor or at least right on the knife's edge. He never gloried in his poverty, said it was "enriching" or "fun"; he hated being poor.

[niriop]

Is Barry Spats Dr Stone from VALIS?

[veganthrope]

The nerd at 2:48 was completely wrong about why chose the name "Horselover Fat" for the main character of VALIS. Philip comes the Greek word 'Philippos' which means 'horselover' while Dick means 'thick' (fat) in German. It had absolutely nothing to do with PKD eating horse meat.

[Almuric7]

@veganthrope Exactly right, was thinking the same thing...

[TheChap36]

@veganthrope But realize how that all worked out. Coincidence? I Ching? Synchronicity? Dick believed we're all living in a simulation; a prerecorded life. There was some extraterrestrial stuff going on with Dick and divine illumination.

[DionysisMaenad]

The U.S. will venerate PK Dick as much as Heinlein and Asimov when the poverty hits as much as it has hit me and mine. He was GREAT without poverty. But he was GREAT because he felt poverty in his way.

[teamcrumb]

My fav story he wrote was about a Beaver, called Mr Cadbury falls in love or saves the world, something along those lines (been a long day, too tired to wiki) and in the story you just find out about all this beaver's feelings for all the women he ever loved, how they morphed into one and back into many, i remember reading it when camping with friends and it made me laugh and weep so much a woman had a go at me, for posing (?). So i read it to her. She was almost freaked out by how good it was.

[boogiebuddy01]

pschologists/ therapists can all go to hell

[teamcrumb]

@boogiebuddy01 amen to that

[FeelOfFriction]

If you liked VALIS look into Terence Mckenna.

[roachy333]

Thankfully I discovered his work...many years ago.

I've always tended to think that I personally, have been living inside a gigantic Phil K Dick novel of sorts...and that is generally how I've seen my life and the world...so i view his work as more faction than fiction.

Yes...it may not be the most fun, but it sure is interesting.

horseloverphat is my other name.

[Pandorafix]

@roachy333 hey I go by that monicker too...

[kelgadis]

what's wrong with greg proops?

[v1s1onsofjohanna]

What was the excerpt from that was near the end of the video? The quote with the little girl.

[tux56]

Greg Proops does narrations? god what a joke.

[ICwater1]

maybe watch the beyond within docu. in conjunction with this,to realise PKD's intent..:)

[danger0usknowledge]

Beyond description is "Man In The High Country"

This book is not a masterpiece of anything but it

is a masterpiece of ...something. This freaking

guy had a sense of humor beyond description.

[ookkonaaoulusta]

we are living the world that hitler made. not in the 'world that jones made', one that philip k. dick's wrote.

[zimmerface]

The narrator ruins this...sounds like a snot-nosed kid.

[cheekymonkey1979]

Actually it's Greg Proops: one of the few Californians easily available to the BBC in London at the time.

[YourMadTourGuide]

He was a damn funny and good story teller. I mean Blade Runner is one of the Genre defining books for CyberPunk. But I also think he is a bit of alienated man anyway too and tha is what gave him such access to the ability to express his reactions to an increasingly manufactured and complex world that modern man lives in. If I had one desire it would be for him to write a speculative novel on what he thought a more Utopian world would look like to him. damn Three posts, ok I am done.

[subsamadhi]

Most of his best books people still don't know about or read often. PKD has the nice distinction of being a mainstream writer who still hasn't become overexposed.

[YourMadTourGuide]

I think that PKD saw technology and pharmacology in the context of the old ideas of how society was arranged with a corrupt central Government & Corporations that only treated people as commodities. He illustrates all kinds of dystopias and denatured lives that could and have result from not using our newly acquired scientific tools to more carefully explore what it means to be a human being in a natural balanced state. I think that is why he resonates today. We all want dignity and balance.

[YourMadTourGuide]

I think PKD lasting value to society is to show the human reaction to a world emerging in the 50's thru 70's that was being sold to the American public over the TV that was so full of unhealthy and unnatural encroachments into what was his much more natural and healthy child hood living in sunny and agricultural California. His readers loved his humorous and introspective tone and dialog as it was able to give voice to self and community alienation so well. He was an amusing & powerful critic.

[mblank7686]

"if he ate dog food its cause he enjoyed it!"

[SolidSnack16]

I just got done reading Valis

[elfchaser]

I'm switching off and on between a short

story called "The Turning Wheel" for my

anthropology class, and "Valis." I've got "Ubik" lying about, which I've heard is his masterpiece (the American Library Association named it one of the best novels since 1923). Without giving too much away, is it the best.

[killyourego1983]

@SolidSnack16 I am happy that you can read..PKD would be proud of you.

[MosesGunn]

"Little mechanical things scuttling in the gutter." !

[Glowthumb]

Yes, jolly good show for putting this up... but then, you probably knew that already.

[aerugo49]

Actually, on wikipedia it says that he called himself horselover fat because his first name etymologically means "horse lover" in greek and dick means thick or fat in German.

[larrypearce2]

He says that in Valis too.

[aksinowicz]

great

[elfchaser]

Thank you, THANK YOU, for posting this.