Paranoico, adicto a la farmacopea, sin tener muy claras las fronteras de la realidad. Un autor compulsivo que escribió muchas de sus obras en pocas semanas. Murió a edad relativamente temprana meses antes de la proyección de una adaptación al cine de una de sus novelas, que se convertiría con los años en obra maestra del cine negro y de ciencia ficción. A partir de ese momento, tras el descubrimiento de sus escritos por parte del gran público, en pocos años se convertiría en un escritor de culto. Hasta aquí los datos más conocidos sobre el autor, y que todos los aficionados conocemos.

En esta biografía, firmada por Emmanuel Carrère, además de las obligadas referencias y datos biográficos, se ponen en perspectiva sus obras, y adquieren una nueva dimensión. Una dimensión casi irreal.

No voy a desvelar los entresijos del libro, por que creo que merece la pena leerlo, pero siempre después de haber disfrutado la obra del autor, al menos en parte. De esta forma podremos releer esos mismos libros tras conocer un poco mejor al autor, adquirirán entonces una nueva dimensión.

Autor con una legión de fieles seguidores que consideran varias de sus novelas obras maestras del género; y también despreciado por otros muchos, que las consideran poco menos que "literatura basura". Cierto es que sus escritos no suelen ser literariamente muy refinados, gajes de escribir por arrebatos, y muchas veces por encargo; de hecho, algunas de sus novelas son un auténtico puro. Aún así, yo me apunto a la horda de seguidores de Dick.

Lo recomiendo a quien le guste P.K. Dick, y también a quien lo odie. Quien no lo conozca mejor que lea otro libro.

---------------

so the exams are over. at least the end of year exams are, seeing as how we've still got the chinese ib exams coming up soon. and yet somehow i dont feel anything. in past years, i used to be brimming with excitement once exams ended, because that meant we could all slack around and do whatever we wanted. this year not so. maybe its the prospects of upcoming work. maybe its just the feeling i get that im not as free as i imagine myself to be. 

everything feels half-hearted. i know if i were to start on my work, i would have no mood to do it. therefore wasting my time. but even while playing i dont feel the same exhilaration i usually feel. its like i dont have an opinion on anything anymore.

-----------------

instead, i shall immerse myself in a world far from our own. its amazing how words printed on thin sheets of paper, compiled together in what we call a book, can so easily draw us away from reality. reminds me of the train rides in the us, time i spent wandering fictitious worlds so detailed they could have been my own. if only.

-----------------

still, it feels as though an entire week has passed since our last paper. playing guitar hero at timo's house on monday, freezing in starbucks air con on tuesday morning, getting amused by the mess of action that is eagle eye. all but a blur.

oh to put a face to the mystery

The novel's resolution was overly convenient and Dick has dealt with the time-bending paradoxes of Determinism/Free-Will and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies with far greater creative aplomb in such short stories as "Minority Report". Its a shame that he never had a chance to properly complete it in novel-length form as I believe it could have been truly great.

A história é simples e tem espantosos paralelos com aquilo que se passa actualmente, não só nos EUA, mas no mundo, e para o que interessa pelos danos colaterais, em Portugal.

Uma empresa privada, chamada New Path (Novo caminho) combate uma epidemia de droga num mundo futurístico.

Essa empresa criou um sistema de camuflagem - uma capa - que é posta por cima dos agentes policiais que a envergam, para evitarem ser reconhecidos no trabalho de agentes disfarçados - pelos seus colegas. (Uma forma irónica de PKD de apontar a corrupção como problema existente...)

Constitui também uma metáfora acerca dos comportamentos sociais de quase todas as pessoas. A colocação de máscaras, de capas de camuflagem constantemente em mutação. PKD coloca as "capas" na história de uma forma indirecta, subtil.

Criticando esta "necessidade" e de como a sociedade joga este jogo de forma inconsciente e a um ponto em que dá quase por adquirido que isso é a verdadeira natureza humana.

A New Path (Novo Caminho) é também uma metáfora não só pelo nome que tem ( O novo caminho - caminho novo para onde e o quê? Um constante "argumento de venda" de empresas charlatães...) como também pelo facto de, no fim do filme, percebermos que a New Path é a empresa, a entidade que é responsável pela existência da epidemia de droga, a chamada "Substancia D".

É uma tremenda parábola do que é a sociedade actual, mesmo nas relações pessoais. Isto é:

- A coisa é o veneno e o seu próprio antídoto - por um preço, que apenas alguns pagam com custos pessoais tremendos e muitos poucos beneficiam dos lucros manchados de "sangue".

- Uma parábola para o que são as corporações?

Fabricam a droga, comercializam-na, provocando uma epidemia (dois em 8 americanos viciados...) e providenciam (1) quer os centros de reabilitação e tratamento, quer (2) os meios para lutar contra a droga (droga essa que os próprios criam).

Aqui temos outra metáfora, infelizmente verdadeira, e ali apresentada de uma forma distópica muito suave mas dura e cínica, mas não tão afastada da realidade actual quanto isso ( PKD escreveu o livro em 1977) acerca do que é o actual capitalismo (ou lá o que isto é...).

Uma máquina de criar problemas complicados de resolver e soluções lucrativas ao mesmo tempo que cria problemas complicados de resolver para providenciarem soluções lucrativas.

ψ

A segunda dimensão do livro é a apresentação dos EUA (isto é, de uma versão da humanidade) como uma sociedade totalitária, mas baseada em algumas coisas bastante simples para aplicar esse mesmo totalitarismo e que passam se não olharmos para elas, como sendo liberdade.

A sociedade é totalmente desprovida de valores - sejam quais forem os valores - e sujeita a vigilância electrónica constante, que se materializa em escutas telefónicas e electrónicas quase instantâneas. A sociedade é monitorizada, mesmo dentro das suas próprias casas, devido ao uso intensivo de tecnologia, exercida pela polícia e de forma sistemática.

Esta alta vigilância (o conceito) é praticada e os recursos para ela existem, enquanto que, ao mesmo tempo, a epidemia de droga da Substância D floresce, o que leva à situação de a polícia/meios electrónicos servirem para vigiar potenciais traficantes de droga, mas também, e com isso, vigiarem tudo o resto.

Infere-se isso do conceito do filme baseado na obra de PKD.

Os meios tecnológicos são a oportunidade e a oportunidade é providenciada pelos meios tecnológicos.

A técnica totalitária é ali descrita em todo o seu esplendor; de uma forma crua.

1. Existe uma ameaça que é amplificada para ser mais terrível do que é.

2. A guerra travada contra essa ameaça é perdida. A ameaça concreta ali é a droga ( Substância D) originária de uma misteriosa flor azul.

3. Para combater a ameaça terrível, são necessários meios terríveis ( no filme não se diz isso, mas infere-se no decorrer da acção) - uma massiva vigilância electrónica apoiada por agentes de polícia infiltrados e informadores, originando uma redução das liberdades individuais de todos.

4. O patriotismo (e o dever) é aplicado como chamariz e agentes infiltrados são colocados no meio dos sítios de trafico para desmantelarem o fornecimento, mesmo que venham a ser sacrificados por isso em nome de um "interesse superior".

E conjugado com isto, existe a dimensão humana individual e a luta de contrários, os demónios interiores, o logro e a decepção entre pessoas que juram não o praticar, o jogo de opostos entre a identidade real e a identidade falsa de quem vive entre dois mundos totalmente distintos, acabando por ficar sem perceber quem é e em qual dos mundos vive.

Keanu Reeves é Robert Arctor, o agente infiltrado, que, por via da capa de camuflagem, destinada a ocultá-lo (a sua verdadeira identidade) dos seus colegas policias, se infiltra.

Arctor (Reeves) para chegar à origem do fornecimento tem que tomar a Substancia D"- e com isso começar a fritar os neurónios...

E a coisa complica-se quando chega ao seu chefe de nome Hank e este (também a usar uma capa de camuflagem) diz-lhe para "acelerar a vigilância pessoal e electrónica" aos suspeitos com quem ele se dá e que vivem todos na mesma casa" e especialmente ao suspeito Robert Arctor, o que é o considerado o mais suspeito e é considerado como sendo o "traficante que levará aos cabecilhas".

A coisa é assim bizarra para Arctor que recebe ordens do seu chefe, para se vigiar a si próprio. Quase como colocado numa dimensão em que é um espelho que se vigia a si mesmo, numa enorme metáfora acerca de como as pessoas se reprimem e se vigiam a si mesmas para controlarem comportamentos (alguns lícitos e outros ilícitos) que outros (a sociedade) não tolera.

A dimensão do jogo de espelhos, da traição e da manipulação virá no fim a ser - também - revelada quando percebemos que a namorada de Arctor no seu trabalho (e quem lhe fornece a droga Substãncia D) como agente infiltrado é na realidade o seu chefe Hank, disfarçado.

Hank, quando em "modo disfarce" chama-se Donna Hawthorne e era o principal fornecedor a Robert Arctor da Substancia D, sendo ela (ele) próprio um consumidor de cocaina.

Pelo meio disto tudo, de um ponto de vista cinematográfico/diálogos temos a demonstração de alguns diálogos brilhantes, que simbolizam a "pedrada" que a substancia D causa levando os personagens a delírios retóricos absolutamente doidos, bem como a terem visões de insectos que os estão a invadir (efeitos alucinatórios da droga) ou paranóias de perseguições e de "misteriosos eles" que estão a vigiá-los.

Arctor vive com Barris ( Robert Downey Jr) e com Ernie Luckman ( Woody Harrelson) dois passados da cabeça do pior e ainda com Charles Freck (Rory Cochrane), um informador da polícia completamente alucinado pela droga e que julga que está permanentemente a ser assaltado por insectos.

A personagem Barris é o "elo" que leva aos cabecilhas da New Path. É também doido e paranóico para láde usar uma retórica muito bem educada entremeada com palavrões e perdas de calma.

Origina uma cena hilariante quando chega à esquadra da polícia (a Hank e a Arctor disfarçados nas suas capas ) e diz que quer revelar à polícia que Arctor é o Arqui-mestre do crime, de uma conspiração, conjuntamente com Donna Hawthorne, e quer, após providenciar as informações, que o deixem alistar-se na polícia?1?1

Hank (Donna Hawthorne) e Arctor ficam boquiabertos com o facto de Barris os estar a denunciar ali à frente, sem saber as suas verdadeiras identidades e da crença dele...

(A metáfora aqui é também a do segredo totalitário e dos métodos das sociedades totalitárias...)

ψ

Simbolizando muitas coisas, relacionadas com drogas, mas não só, há uma parte no filme muito interessante. O chefe de Arctor (Hank/Donna Hawthorne) revela a dada altura, numa reunião de trabalho com Arctor, que já descobriu que ele é que é o agente infiltrado (devido à capa de camuflagem não se conheciam previamente...).

Mas devido ao uso por parte de Arctor da droga "Substância D, este começou progressivamente a perder a noção ( luta entre os hemisférios direito e esquerdo do cérebro) de quem é. Ao ser-lhe revelado pelo seu chefe que este sabe quem ele é, Arctor tem dificuldade em perceber e fica surpreendido ao perceber quem é, começando a ficar desorientado e confundido já tendo dificuldades em perceber quem é na realidade.

Uma metáfora simbólica, muito bem construída por PKD, também, relativamente à maior parte das pessoas na maior parte das suas vidas e ao estilo de vida e de sociedade que temos.

Em que por vezes, encontram( tem a sorte de) alguém que lhes revela quem verdadeiramente são...

Arctor acaba por ser cuspido pelo sistema, e posto fora, uma vez que está incapaz de trabalhar e de distinguir quem é verdadeiramente: a Droga "Substância D" fritou-lhe completamente o cerebro.

Mas é-nos dado a ver, como metáfora do que é a vida em sociedade, que Arctor apenas foi um voluntário relutante para fazer aquele serviço, e que foi sacrificado em nome de se conseguir colocar alguém dentro das secretas quintas de reabilitação da New Path.

Para, esperava-se, da parte da polícia, vir a conseguir provar que a New Path é a empresa que produz a droga Substãncia D".

É já um Arctor despedaçado e quase completamente catatónico que está numa quinta após reabilitação e descobre no meio de campos de milho verdes a flor azul que dá origem á Substãncia D". Arctor, já despedaçado, como tantas pessoas numa dada sociedade o estão emocionalmente, percebe qualquer coisa.

E pega numa flor azul, para levar como recordação aos seus amigos do centro de acolhimento - uma ideia que nos é lançada enquanto espectadores, de esperança, de redenção, de que tudo que de terrível a vida tem poder vir a ser ainda corrigido pelo sacrifício de alguns, entregando as provas dos culpados, aos que perseguem os culpados utilizando métodos tão culpados como os que os criminosos o fazem.

O filme é "difícil" e não tem perseguições de carros, nem senhoras sem roupa. É filmado pelos actores e depois foi trabalhado em computador para dar a imagem de um filme visto através dos olhos de um scanner, mas um scanner humano (se é que se pode pensar assim...

Ficou obviamente com notoriedade pela "parte técnica" e não pela história...(Qual é a novidade...)

PKD escreveu o livro, também como "manifesto" contra a droga e o trafico de droga. No fim do livro incluiu uma lista de pessoas que conheceu, que morreram de overdoses ou ficaram com lesões permanentes. PKD incluiu o seu próprio nome na lista de pessoas que ficaram com lesões permanentes.

Mas não é só sobre droga, mas também sobre uma sociedade totalitária e sobre o individuo e os seus sentimentos acerca de saber quem é e qual a sua posição dentro de tudo isto.

Everything was going rather well. I had the apples cut up and sitting happily in a the brown sugar, flour, lemon juice, and vanilla extract while I carefully rolled out the dough. The bottom crust took two tries to roll out while I whispered every prayer I had ever learned at church, school, and of course tv. Although I do think at one moment I was reciting lines from the Exorcist.
[caption id="attachment_193" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Apple Pie"][/caption]

With the reverence usually shown to religious items or historical artifacts, I carefully laid out the top layer of dough. The recipe recommend "mounding the fruit slightly". I arranged the apple slices in a pyramid that defied gravity and in a moment of sheer creativity decided to use the fork tongs to carefully poke holes in the shape of an "A". After poking the "A" that stood for Aleta and Andy, I placed the pie in the oven and set the timer for one hour.

I patiently waited to be assaulted by the scents of homemade apple pie that so many cookbooks promised. Slowly but surely, I began to first smell the butter in the crust, and then began recognizing the tart smell of the Granny Smith apples I had used. Eventually it was a subtle but beautiful medley of fruit, butter, and spices. I cleaned up the kitchen happy and proud of my efforts. I even began making dinner.

Then it happened. I smelled something that smelled like burning. I threw open the oven door and was instantly overcome by the smoke that was pouring out. I staggered back a few steps horrified by what I saw but as the smoke cleared, I realized the actual pie wasn't burning. It was dripping. Dripping right on the heating rod in the oven. That was the cause of the smoke. I grabbed a pan and put it under the pie but the damage had all ready been done. I ran around the house opening doors and windows to prevent the smoke alarm from going off.

The smoke cleared and Andy and I finally ate dinner. After the pie had been cooling for approximately 45 minutes, I felt as though it would now be safe to tap into the beast. The apples that had been stacked into a pyramid had caused the crust to bubble and peak at odd areas. As I cut into the pie I was happy to note that it was flaky and the apples were fragrant. I pulled out the first piece and was greeted by a site I had never seen. The inside of the crust resembled a cave. The apples lay at the bottom of the pan while the crust rose above in an alien-like display. I could almost see figures usually found in a Philip K. Dick novel, partying in the back of my pie. Drinking, dancing ,and singing merry songs while they mocked my inability to poke effective holes.
[caption id="attachment_195" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="All done"][/caption]
Why doesn't Glade offer a candle with a scent that your family and friends will actually believe? I call it: burning food. Andy thinks that one of the scents in the "Blame" category should be "Cat Box scent." Andy's mentioning a few other ones that I'll leave out of this post. But he was on a roll so I will mention the "What's that Smell in the Refrigerator" and "Wet Dog".

Synopses From Harper:
Viewed by many as the greatest science fiction writer on any planet, Philip K. Dick has written some of the most intriguing, original, and thought-provoking fiction of our time. This collection includes stories that will make you laugh, cringe...and stop and think. In "The Minority Report," a special unit that employs those with the power of precognition to prevent crimes proves itself less than reliable. This story was the basis of the feature film Minority Report.

In, "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale," an everyguy's yearning for more exciting "memories" places him in a danger he never could have imagined. This story was the basis of the feature film Total Recall.

In "Paycheck," a mechanic who has no memory of the previous two years of his life finds that a bag of seemingly worthless and unrelated objects can actually unlock the secret of his recent past, and insure that he has a future. This story was the basis of the feature film Paycheck.

In "Second Variety," the UN's technological advances to win a global war veer out of control, threatening to destroy all of humankind. This story was the basis of the feature film Screamers. And "The Eyes Have It" is a whimsical, laugh-out-loud play on the words of the title.

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Amazon.com Review
Mind- and reality-bending drugs factor again and again in Philip K. Dick's hugely influential SF stories. A Scanner Darkly cuts closest to the bone, drawing on Dick's own experience with illicit chemicals and on his many friends who died from drug abuse. Nevertheless, it's blackly farcical, full of comic-surreal conversations between people whose synapses are partly fried, sudden flights of paranoid logic, and bad trips like the one whose victim spends a subjective eternity having all his sins read to him, in shifts, by compound-eyed aliens. (It takes 11,000 years of this to reach the time when as a boy he discovered masturbation.) The antihero Bob Arctor is forced by his double life into warring double personalities: as futuristic narcotics agent "Fred," face blurred by a high-tech scrambler, he must spy on and entrap suspected drug dealer Bob Arctor. His disintegration under the influence of the insidious Substance D is genuine tragicomedy. For Arctor there's no way off the addict's downward escalator, but what awaits at the bottom is a kind of redemption--there are more wheels within wheels than we suspected, and his life is not entirely wasted.

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I can't believe I waited this long to see Total Recall!  Maybe it was a preconceived notion in my head - Arnold Schwarzenegger + Action Movie = Mindless Entertainment.  However, I must have forgotten that Terminator 2 is one of my favorite movies, or maybe I just haven't seen enough of his movies.

Anyway. Total Recall is based on Philip K. Dick's short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" (great name, right?), which I must read now.  Simply, this is what action/science fiction movies should be like.  It's violent (balanced, I think), has a great story, and makes you think.  The special effects were also ahead of their time.  As I was watching the movie, I began to think of others that influenced it (Blade Runner being one of them), but then again many movies since it came out have been influenced by it (Vanilla Sky, The Fifth Element, The Matrix).  Such a movie that can do that is well worth your time if you enjoyed any of those.

IMDB Link

Rating:

"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick, "How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later"

Sitting in my living room is an entertainment armoire.  It is golden pine.  It takes up a certain amount of space.  But wait.  It's partially pine, but a lot of it is particle board.  On top of that, it has quite a bit of plastic, and metal screws.  On top of that, at the atomic level, it is mostly empty space.  At second thought, it's a cabinet, so it is mostly empty space anyway.  And really, it's not so much golden, as it is multiple shades of yellow.  There are also reds and browns.  And when you get right down to it, it's only an entertainment armoire because I put a TV in it.  If I put it in my basement and filled it with junk it'd just be a storage cabinet.  And while we're at it, this room is only my living room because it's where I hang out and watch TV.  It could just as easily be a bedroom.   And it's "my" because I signed some papers and send the bank some money every month.  It's more like the bank owns it, and I'm renting to own.

I could go further, but I think you get the idea.  This is one small example of the ways in which our words define our reality.  How does this apply when we talk about God?  How does it apply when we speak of "us" and "them" and anything at all?  When I speak of my entertainment center, the only thing I have a hard time going back on is the fact that it takes up a certain amount of space.  There is something there.  It has qualities that we can discuss.  It has qualities like color and shape and size.  We can discuss them and get a decent picture of the reality of this armoire.  But they can never be the full reality of the cabinet.  A photograph of the Grand Canyon can never convey the reality.  As Alfred Korzybski said, "The map is not the territory."

Our words about God, or anything else for that matter, while useful in getting the general idea, should never be confused with who God really is.  We each overlay certian ideas to our image of God.  But we must never confuse that with the reality of God.  Alan Watts said, "...a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all."  The point being that we are clinging to a god that we can control by labeling.  A faith in a true God means that we have to be willing to let go of ideas about Him that turn out not to be true.  This is one of the reasons we have the Holy Spirit, to guide us and correct our ideas and presuppositions.  Beyond that is where the Bible sits.  The Spirit will never tell you anything that contradicts God's Word.  Study the Word, open your heart and mind to the Spirit, and you will be one step closer to something that doesn't go away when you stop believing it.

" A man of knowledge uses words with restraint, and a man of understanding is even-tempered.  Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue." - Proverbs 17:27-28

"It's hard to live your whole life in fear, isn't it? This is what it means to be a slave." Go Philip! Go Ridley Scott, applause all around.

Which brings me to Bad Tenants (bad list BL) all I can say is avoid them at all costs, they will suck your blood to the very core!

Then Blue Man Group, I don't know what its about, other than a mild dig against Internet obsession and modern life, something of a plea for a reconnection with the primal, interactive theater loving self. It is mostly just fun and slapstick, and grotesque-dirty. Thoughtful at best, I remember being really inspired by it at 18, this time it felt more like a colorful circus, sadly lacking the bearded lady.

This was my today, now see you tomorrow!

By Callum Goodwilliam

This review contains spoilers.

A Scanner Darkly tells the story of Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves), an undercover operative trying to find the source of a new, deadly narcotic: 'Substance D'. Set in a dystopian future in which America has lost the war on drugs, Arctor must become a user in order to infiltrate a group of addicts. He begins to suffer as the dangerous side effects of the drug causes cognitive problems, preventing the two hemispheres of his brain from communicating properly.

Based on the novel of the same name by influential science fiction author Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly is another film that attempts to capture some of the effects that drug use can have on individuals and society. There are a number of films that recreational drug users often cite as being, in their eyes, 'classics'.  As many of you know, that would suggest that the films they are referring to subscribe in content, style and production to a particular period in Hollywood's history. They do not mean that, they mean 'fucking awesome'.

I have found that these films are almost always mentioned when intoxicated individuals, discuss films about intoxication: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Gilliam, 1998), Human Traffic (Kerrigan, 1999), or anything by Cheech and Chong.

The reason why, is that these particular films manage to capture the madness and fun of drugs without ever exploring in any serious manner the darker aspects of different drug cultures, or the most common problems that many people end up facing: paranoia, illness and/or addiction.

These are a selection of films I have found that no one wishes to watch or discuss when 'under the influence': A Scanner Darkly, A Scanner Darkly, or A Scanner Darkly (seriously, do not watch A Scanner Darkly).

Just like Danny Boyle's Trainspotting (1996) or Requiem for a Dream (Aronofsky, 2000) the film explores (amongst other themes including surveillance and our construction of reality) the very darkest aspects of drug use and some of the possible consequences that clearly had a very real impact on Phillip K. Dick, whose use of narcotics is well-documented.

The most striking way in which this is explored is in the film's animated style - shot digitally and then animated via a process called interpolated rotoscoping. It gives the film an extremely unnerving aesthetic (particularly the mind-bending scramble suits) that feels like a hallucinatory drug experience, or as Linklater has stated, reflects his personal experiences of lucid dreaming.

The style will certainly divide people. I found it an incredible visual experience, but simultaneously one that made focusing on the twisted narrative quite difficult. It is rare that a film has made me feel so physically uncomfortable, it affected me in a way that I am sure anyone who has had an unpleasant experience on drugs may also relate to.

Once again, Keanu Reeves manages to convey about as much emotion as a door-knob and Winona Ryder is not particularly effective as his addicted love interest, which ultimately means that the twist in the closing minutes do not carry as much impact as I believe stronger performances would have invoked.

The film is carried by the screw-ball performances of the consistently excellent Robert Downey Junior, Woody Harrelson and Rory Cochrane who appear as Arctor's addicted cronies. Using actors that have been known for drug-taking and problems gives the supporting cast's performances an additional layer of authenticity, they clearly understand the paranoid delusions that people can succumb to.

A Scanner Darkly is an interesting experience. The animation is spectacular and the themes disturbing, but the story never quite engaged me thoroughly enough. This might be because I found the whole experience slightly uncomfortable, it might be because of the performances and narrative as a whole, it is likely that both factors are relevant. I would be interested to know if the film is less engaging to those who have little interest in drug culture or if anyone else felt like they'd just been through some form of rehabilitation.

Rating: 7.5

Clip

The longer I'm here, the more apparent it is to me that I'm not really a "city guy." I love the work, don't get me wrong, but the city? Eh. It's crowded and there isn't nearly enough green. Now there is plenty to do and I love having so many museums around, but a yard and quiet pitch black nights where you can look up into the depths of space itself and make out every start above you, where the only sound for miles is that of the crickets warming up their legs for song and looking for others in that darkness...

You have to go elsewhere for that, and I think I've grown too long enjoying it (and taking it for granted) to be much good in the city. It isn't hell, it isn't even bad, but you know when a place and you are going to have a love-hate relationship and I can see this one brewing up just that flavor.  Country guy in the city, or suburbs guy anyway.

So, yes, road trip to the MD and back. It's going to be a long day, but hopefully the three of us heading out will be able to keep each other good enough company to pass the trip.  I'm worried about being too quiet along the way (because I'm too quiet most of the time), so I think I'll make a concerted effort to keep up with the conversation.

I hope I'm not the one driving out of the city...

In other news I'm discovering the pure bliss that is Philip K. Dick novels.  On the one hand, I'm sorry that I hadn't discovered him before, but on the other hand, if I had, I would probably have blown through his repertoire by now and wouldn't be reading him at the moment.  So all things considered, not too bad to be finding him now. But odd, very odd.

Odd that I hadn't read him before.  I had certainly heard of him, had seen and enjoyed movies adaptations of his work like The Minority Report, Blade Runner, and Through a Scanner Darkly.  I'm currently listening my way through Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, a work about lost identity, paranoia, police states, and much much more.  I'm absolutely blown away right now and once I'm finished with this, then I have purchased his Valis Trilogy (or so this grouping of books is called).  As I understand it, the Valis Trilogy explores the notion of a crossroads between Science & Technology and God. I'll have to actually read them to know for sure, but premises that I've heard connected with these books include What if God were just a piece of long forgotten technology and What if Technology inhibited the Second Coming of God to Earth?

Philip K. Dick's biography states that he wanted to be accepted as a "serious" writer but he never quite got there with the literary elite. However, as a result of his talent and willingness to explore some big ideas as well as get down into the nitty gritty of the human psyche and the effect that chemicals and pushing the technological envelope might have on us, he became, post-mortem, one of the most revered Science Fiction authors ever to have written. I'm still discovering his works, so I can't speak to that last bit, but I can tell you, for what it's worth, that he is a master of psychosis; I'm not sure I've ever read an author who is so good at writing "crazy." There are points in this book where I sometimes feel like I'm stepping over a ledge with the characters and you certainly go back and forth with regards to what is real and what is not, who is credible and who is insane. It's immersive and slightly suffocating at the same time and I love it for all the reasons that I love a Stephen King story - you just get swept away inside the tale and there's no fighting the storytelling tide.

But anyway, enough for tonight. There's an early morning ahead of me on the horizon. Have a good one tonight, where ever you are out there.

Twenty-five years before we had William Gibson and "cyberpunk," we had Philip K. Dick, and if nothing else, this work proves that he was way ahead of his time and that his successors in the genre have done little to build upon his ideas or surpass his vision. In Flow My Tears, we are shown a near-future society transformed to a neo-fascistic police state. Jason Taverner, a pop superstar, finds himself one day without an identity: his friends and lovers don't recognize or remember him and his music and TV shows are unknown. Most significantly, perhaps, he does not have the precious ID cards without which he cannot safely travel more than a few blocks without being waylaid by police and sent into a forced labor camp. Taverner must contend with a rogue's gallery of bizarre and memorable characters to discover how his identity was lost and attempt to recover it. Sometimes Dick's writing is clunky - it is as if ten words at random were removed from the paragraph, and the reader is left slightly uneasy, but this may contribute to the book's strong mood of paranoia. A touch of psychedelia a la Burroughs compounds this effect. Luckily for the reader, unlike in many of Burroughs's works, there actually is a story here. And the characterizations are excellent. Unfortunately, however, somewhere towards the ending, Dick breaks down. The book ends quickly and crudely, like a field amputation given by a half-trained medic in the middle of a battle. In addition, there are allusions to Jung, Renaissance poetry, and several other thinkers or artistic movements which obviously influenced Dick, but I feel that he could have done more to develop these references and themes. All in all, though it is a prescient and moving work and one that should be enjoyable to any science-fiction fans.

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THE INSPIRATION FOR BLADE RUNNER. . .
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was published in 1968. Grim and foreboding, even today it is a masterpiece ahead of its time.
By 2021, the World War had killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remained coveted any living creature, and for people who couldn't afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacrae: horses, birds, cats, sheep. . .
They even built humans.
Emigrees to Mars received androids so sophisticated it was impossible to tell them from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans could wreak, the government banned them from Earth. But when androids didn't want to be identified, they just blended in.
Rick Deckard was an officially sanctioned bounty hunter whose job was to find rogue androids, and to retire them. But cornered, androids tended to fight back, with deadly results.
"[Dick] sees all the sparkling and terrifying possibilities. . . that other authors shy away from."
--Paul Williams
Rolling Stone

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Lamento la embolia que el título de esta entrada le debe haber provocado a más de alguno, sin embargo, creo que es la reacción más adecuada. Que loco esto de las coincidencias y el destino, justo anoche vi Blade Runner 'The Final Cut' la última versión del director Ridley Scott y basada en la novela de Philip K. Dick, estrenada recién el año pasado. Confieso que no me vuelve loco la historia en si, pero reconozco su valor por lo que nos muestra y la forma en que nos lo muestra. Es una historia absolutamente melancólica, triste y aunque con harto androide dando vuelta, dolorosamente humana. Cautiva y encanta en distintos niveles. Es por eso que siquiera pensar en una secuela, de una película que es un ícono de la ciencia ficción, parece un sacrilegio y una estupidez. Para más detalles sigue leyendo a continuación.

De acuerdo a lo que se comenta en /Film, Travis Wright, uno de los escritores de la recientemente estrenada y con críticas dispares Eagle Eye, comentó en una sesión de Q&A (Preguntas y Respuestas) organizada por la revista Creative Screenwriting que tanto él como John Glenn, también guionista de Eagle Eye y no el astronauta, estaban trabajando en la adaptación de Blade Runner 2, junto con el productor de la película original Bud Yorkin. Para este último, Blade Runner ha sido su proyecto más exitoso, por no decir el único, sin embargo, no ostenta control real sobre la historia basada en la novela de Philip K. Dick. De acuerdo a lo comentado por Wright, estarían trabajando desde hace un par de años en la adaptación del nuevo film. Sin embargo, y para darle un poquitito de tranquilidad a los fans, John Glenn indicó que aunque estuvo trabajando con Wright en este proyecto hace algunos años, nunca despegó mucho del suelo ya que mientras más se metían en la historia, más se daban cuenta de lo perfecta e irreproducible que era la original. Esto de todas formas no descarta la posibilidad que Wright haya seguido trabajando por su cuenta o con la ayuda de Yorkin en la creación de una segunda parte. Visto la terrible sequía creativa en la que está Hollywood últimamente, no sería de extrañar que un desastre de proporciones Bíblicas, como sería esta película, se produjese. Es de esperar que la crisis económica gringa ponga fin a esta pretensión, siempre y cuando el sentido común no lo haga.

Download: L.A. RECORD "Pretty Sh!t Mix"

[audio http://www.larecord.com/podcast/larecord-prettyshit.mp3|bg=0x000000|lefticon=0×666666|righticon=0×999999|bgcolor=0x000000|leftbg=0x777777|rightbg=0x666666]

I made a mix for L.A. RECORD to rouse dreamy girls and shy guys for the second in our series of Sh!t N!ghts at the Cha Cha in Silverlake. I may DJ but I may also better-valor and let Sian Alice Group (who are killer and did an upcoming L.A. RECORD interview that will win hearts forever) do something much better.

We are DJing at Cha Cha Wednesday night for the next installment of our acclaimed "Something Sh!t" series and we are following up last month's Heavy Sh!t with the logical next step: Pretty Sh!t. (Let's also call this an Eagle Rock Music Fest pre-party!) It's free to everyone to come see us and guests from Gangi and hopefully Sian Alice Group (if they're in town) DJ the most purtiest lovelies we can pry out of our library.

My liners below.

01. Os Mutantes “Panis Et Circenses”

One of my favorite bands. Up there with Roky. Me interviewing Sergio for a long long time here. I would also urge you to purchase their later "bad" albums because guess what? They aren't bad. Get some Sweet 45s and '70s Link Wray while you are in a missed-opportunity mode, too.

02. Stone Poneys “Different Drum”

Definition of "pretty shit." Written by Monkee Nesmith and probably beloved of Philip K. Dick, who wrote Linda Ronstadt into like two novels and a bunch of short stories as "Linda Fox."

03. Sid Selvidge “Miss Eleana”

Great orchestral bummerdom from the just-out Thank You Friends Ardent box set. I love Ardent and hope to sit in their control room chair one day. This would be a great comp already but they seeded it with some Big Star rarities—real rarities; some not even on the Ardent Sessions boot that came out—which really push this into that ultimate one-percent. This also blew out of print I think so grab it. 2XCD only as far as I know.

04. Nirvana “Rainbow Chaser”

The British band that Nirvana U.S. had to name-wrangle with. Canterbury psych-pop with an intro that surely must have been rapped over by now.

05. The Bee Gees “Red Chair, Fade Away”

From their first super-heavy record.

06. Daughters of Albion “Hey, You, Wait, Stay”

Post-Peppers studio-as-acrobat project from producer Greg Dempsey and singer Kathy Yesse. "Well Wired" is a real fun one on hear—plenty fast and stereo pans that will run your car into a ditch. But this is a sentimental favorite.

07. JK & Co. “Fly”

Supposedly a 17-year-old Canadian boy genius who came to L.A. and sessioned this out. I actually get certain basic nutrients from backmasking so I have to listen to this once a day.

08. The Millennium “The Island”

California pop that should have sat first-tier but somehow they got sidelined as re-ish treasure. Great album, tho. Drums that walk around the room by themselves. (But not on this track, which had to be pretty.)

09. Rogerio Duprat “Honey / Summer Rain”

Duprat was Mutantes producer and gave tropicalia its signature maximalism. This is a double from his only solo release. I was told once to buy anything that had his credit on it.

10. Bonnie Dobson “I Got Stung”

Canadian folk gal whose songs tend to slide psych/funk—try her "Light Of Love," which is the same formula of jilted-in-love-swing-in-the-drums. Sampled lots.

11. Soft Boys “Positive Vibrations”

Definitive "pretty shit" philosophy. Says Robyn in his liner notes: "I wanted to invert the way I was feeling. The Russians had invaded Afghanistan, my girlfriend took the dog to be put down. I thought, okay, let’s turn this upside down. I flipped myself over."

12. Os Mutantes “Panis Et Circenses” (Reprise)

When they played at the Bowl I got their late and heard only the last note of this last movement, and after that there was nothing worth remembering.

Respectability for fantasy or science fiction is most likely a hopeless cause, at least in the current cultural climate. It has the stigma of childishness and Nerd Cooties at the same time. A genre might be able to get away with one; you won’t get away with both.

Maybe—but I'm not so sure. One very positive outcome of Deconstructionism has been the relative rise of genre fiction and an increase of the perceived merit of texts that aren't purely in the tradition of Flaubertian realism. Raymond Chandler and Philip K. Dick have Library of America volumes dedicated to them, cultural studies flourishes, Tolkien has a peer-reviewed journal named "Tolkien Studies," and Clark University, my alma mater, offers English courses in science fiction. Michael Chabon's genre bending has engendered widespread critical admiration, and he defends the idea of genre as part of literature in his wonderful essay collection Maps and Legends, at one point saying:

Yet all mystery resides there, in the margins, between life and death, childhood and adulthood, Newtonian and quantum, "serious" and "genre" literature. And it is from the confrontation with mystery that the truest stories have always drawn their power.
Like a house on the borderlands, epic fantasy is haunted [...]

To be sure, Chabon could be the exception that proves the rule. Nonetheless, I don't think so; I mentioned Chandler and Dick already, and Philip Pullman has earned a strong and real reputation that brings him a spot along with le Guin among major literary figures. Chabon's aware that some double standard still exists, saying that "From time to time some writer, through a canny shift in subject matter to focus, or through the coming to literary power of his or her lifelong fans, or through sheer, undeniable literary chops, manages to break out," but I think he's overstating the case and that the the double standard he's implicitly writing about is shrinking by the year. William Gibson and Neal Stephenson wield as much literary authority as anyone this side of Ian McEwan and Louis Menand, and Chabon is busily demolishing whatever barriers might be left.

The result, however, will mean that science fiction is judged relative to other literary books, and by this standard it still too often doesn't reach high or far enough. Beware of the walls that come down: it lets you into the world, and it also lets the world into you. My problem with science fiction and fantasy isn't as genres, but when the formula of genre is used by bad writers and then defended by those who don't appear to have really thought about what great writing means or done the heavy lifting real criticism demands. Some writers—Robert Jordan, I'm looking at you, and The Name of the Wind counts too—the find vociferous followers whose overall literary knowledge often seems low, causing the rest of us who defend the genre but not bad manifestations of the genre much angst.

I have one other partial quibble which isn't about his assertion but the reasons behind it when Markley writes:

That might explain why magical realism is usually considered legit literature: it has imaginative elements, which is iffy, but it doesn’t compound the sin by thinking about the imaginative elements rationally.

Part of the reason magical realism gets good marks is because it's associated with what academics like me call post-colonialism, which has been a major topic (or fad, depending on perspective) in universities. This is probably more political than aesthetic, but it partially explains why magical realism has been more accepted than fantasy. Nonetheless, the distinction, if there is one, has been fading, and is likely to continue to fade, like the idea that genre literature isn't real literature. Notice that magical realism began growing in earnest after Deconstructionism, just like respect for fantasy and science fiction. In addition, speculative elements have long been in literature, as something like Henry James' The Turn of the Screw or the vast body of myth and myth criticism demonstrates. In some ways, the acceptance of fantasy and science fiction is more a return than an all-out change.

(On a side note, Markley's post on science fiction and ideology is also worth a read. I'll add a comment a former professor kept repeating, which is that fantastic literature inevitably returns to comment on the society in which it is produced. I suppose this is opposed to the art-for-art's-sake school, but I'm buying it nonetheless.)

The Barnes & Nobel Book Clubs forums have a fairly low-level discussion, and I'd like to respond to one poster who says:

I am not familiar with the author of the post on that blog, but what I am assuming they mean is the academic defintion of literary merit. Whether or not one agrees with that point of view (some people see "academic" as elitist), there is a particular approach to evaluating texts seen as standard. However, even from that approach that is a small list. Interestingly, though, in a college course I had on SF and Fantasy lit a few years ago we did read Solaris, Left Hand, Canticle, and Ubik (PKD).

(Mistakes in original)

I responded in the thread with a variation on this and a reply saying that I'm approaching science fiction from overall aesthetic and literary perspective that isn't really academic. Rather, I think the issue is that some science fiction readers and others are talking past literary critics like the Martian and Tomas in Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles.

By that I mean too much science fiction and fantasy aren't sufficiently concerned with freshness and vividness in language and expression, which is the positive way of saying they're too often filled with flatness and cliche, whether in character or plot. So is much literary fiction, but the best rises. What I'm describing will no doubt be misinterpreted: I'm at a very broad level, and to understand it in full would demand reading books like Jane Smiley's Reading Like a Writer, James Wood's How Fiction Works, Martin Amis' The War Against Cliche, or even Stanislaw Lem's Microworlds, a book that preempted many of my criticisms about science fiction. Some authors transcend this—in addition to Lem and Le Guin, I might add Stephenson's Snow Crash and The Diamond Age.

My position isn't that science fiction is automatically not literary or is literary, but that it can be literary and too infrequently is. Unfortunately, much of the conversation in blogland and print tends to want binaries and fights, and too often the background reading necessary to really contribute to the conversation hadn't been done. Consequently, as one critic's comment about the fantasy du jour goes, "There's not one beautiful sentence in the entire first three books of the Twilight series." It's true, at least of the first half of the first one, but if you haven't put in the time and reading to think about what makes a beautiful sentence, that probably just comes off as snobbery when it's (probably) not. Real snobs wouldn't give fantasy or science fiction real attention in the first place, while the rest of us are looking for what we're always looking for: vigor, crispness, vivacity, and fidelity. If only we could find it more readily, whether in science fiction or elsewhere.

And, did you like it? Did it stretch your boundaries? Did you shut it with a shudder the instant you were done? Did it make you think? Have nightmares? Kick off a new obsession?

My work as a reviewer means there's a certain lovely randomness to the books I'm handed.  I get to read, mull over, and describe books that I wouldn't have picked up on my own in a bookstore or library.  I don't know if I would have picked up any of the dog books I just reviewed, but I certainly had fun reading them.  The stories about funny, quirky dogs made me smile.

On deck are two science books about the possibilities of the future.  I never would have picked up a book called "Death From The Skies" unless it were some kind of action-packed, far-fetched mystery.  I don't like thinking too hard about dystopia, apocalypse, or even life as we know it going to hell in a handbasket.  Hopefully, I can put my own qualms aside long enough to read, understand, and figure out who would naturally, and happily, pick up that kind of book.  Maybe it won't be as scary as I think.

Two others come to mind, both I read in school.  In high school, we were assigned "The Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison.  I remember havint to read it slowly, with pauses to pace and shiver and clear my head.  I remember how much the vivid descriptions of violence and hatred affected me.  I remember being torn between my horror at what was being described, and my awe for the language Ellison used.  I knew why it was assigned.  Not just to capture a moment in cultural history, but to showcase really fine writing.

And a funnier story.  In college, I read "The Man In The High Castle," by Philip K. Dick under duress.  My senior year, my boyfriend thrust it into my hands and said I absolutely had to read it.  And that, if I didn't, there would be consequences.  Absolutely no kisses for me until I was done reading it, he said with a grin.  Philip K. Dick's prose reminded me of a bargain-basement version of Hemingway.  The same standoffish, isolated sense of pressing my nose to the glass, sealed off from the characters' emotions.  And as much as I dislike reading Hemingway, Papa did it better than Philip K. Dick.  (I've always wondered why PKD never took a pen name.  Or did he?  Is his given name something like Smith?)  In due course, I finished the wretched book and got kisses.  Though, it wasn't an effective exercise- I don't remember much about the book itself, except sullenly reading and disliking it.  I really should have given that boyfriend poetry to read, in retaliation as much as the spirit of expanding his comfort zone.  Perhaps Dickinson.  Just, you know, because.

This is eerily similar to the "Pre-crime" division in Philip K. Dick's "Minority Report" and the Tom Cruise movie based on it. Are we going to start being arrested because we might commit a crime? When are you going to stand up for your rights? When are you going to wake up?

Homeland Security Detects Terrorist Threats by Reading Your Mind

Baggage searches are SOOOOOO early-21st century. Homeland Security is now testing the next generation of security screening — a body scanner that can read your mind.

Most preventive screening looks for explosives or metals that pose a threat. But a new system called MALINTENT turns the old school approach on its head. This Orwellian-sounding machine detects the person — not the device — set to wreak havoc and terror.

MALINTENT, the brainchild of the cutting-edge Human Factors division in Homeland Security's directorate for Science and Technology, searches your body for non-verbal cues that predict whether you mean harm to your fellow passengers.

I'm . . . sceptical.  Let me put it like this: if this thing actually, dependably, reliably works the way they tout it in the article (go read the whole thing, even if it is from FOX), then the TSA would be perfectly fine with allowing me to carry a gun onto a plane.  After all, I have a legitimate CCW permit, have been vetted by a background check and accuracy test, have had the permit for three years, and have never demonstrated the slightest inclination to use my weapon inappropriately.  If I could pass their MALINTENT scanners as well, they should be completely willing to let me (and anyone else who had a similar background and permit) carry a weapon on board.

Just how likely do you think that is?

Right.  Because this sort of technology does not, will not, demonstrate reliability to the degree they claim.  There will be far too many "false positives", as there always are with any kind of lie detector.  That's why multiple questions are asked when a lie detector is used, and even then many jurisdictions do not allow the results of a lie detector to be admitted into courts of law.

Furthermore, the risk of a "false negative" would be far too high.  Someone who was trained/drugged/unaware/elated with being a terrorist and slipped by the scanners would still be a threat.  As Bruce Schneier just posted about Two Classes of Airport Contraband:

This is why articles about how screeners don't catch every -- or even a majority -- of guns and bombs that go through the checkpoints don't bother me. The screeners don't have to be perfect; they just have to be good enough. No terrorist is going to base his plot on getting a gun through airport security if there's decent chance of getting caught, because the consequences of getting caught are too great.

Contrast that with a terrorist plot that requires a 12-ounce bottle of liquid. There's no evidence that the London liquid bombers actually had a workable plot, but assume for the moment they did. If some copycat terrorists try to bring their liquid bomb through airport security and the screeners catch them -- like they caught me with my bottle of pasta sauce -- the terrorists can simply try again. They can try again and again. They can keep trying until they succeed. Because there are no consequences to trying and failing, the screeners have to be 100 percent effective. Even if they slip up one in a hundred times, the plot can succeed.

OK, so then why do it?  Why introduce these scanners at all?  Why intrude on the privacy of people wanting to get on an airplane?

Control.  As I noted earlier this year, about the news that the US military was deploying hand-held 'lie detectors' for use in Iraq:

The device is being tested by the military. They just don’t know it. And once it is in use, some version of the technology will be adapted for more generalized police use. Just consider how it will be promoted to the law enforcement community: as a way of screening suspects. Then, as a way of finding suspects. Then, as a way of checking anyone who wants access to some critical facility. Then, as a way of checking anyone who wants access to an airplane, train, or bus.

Just how long do you think it will be before you have to pass a test by one of these types of devices in your day-to-day life? I give it maybe ten years.  But I worry that I am an optimist.

An optimist, indeed.  Because here's another bit from the FOXNews article:

And because FAST is a mobile screening laboratory, it could be set up at entrances to stadiums, malls and in airports, making it ever more difficult for terrorists to live and work among us.

This is about scanning the public, making people *afraid*.  Afraid not just of being a terrorist, but of being thought to be a terrorist by others, of being an outsider.  Of being a critic of the government in power. The first step is to get you afraid of terrorists, because then they could use that fear, and build on it, to slowly, methodically, destroy your privacy.  Sure, the DHS claims that they will not keep the information gathered from such scanners.  And you're a fool if you think you can trust that.

Jim Downey

Via BoingBoing. Cross posted to UTI.

*Recognize the quote?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is available at Amazon for $11.20. To Order click here
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Other Products of Interest

• Neuromancer
• The Man in the High Castle
• A Scanner Darkly
• Ubik
• Snow Crash (Bantam Spectra Book)

Jim Butcher - "Someone is targeting the city's magic practitioners, the members of the supernatural underclass who don't possess enough power to become full-fledged wizards. Many have vanished. Others appear to be victims of suicide. But the murderer has left a calling card at one of the crime scenes - a message for Harry, referencing the book of Exodus and the killing of witches." "Harry sets out to find the killer before he can strike again, but his investigation turns up evidence pointing to the one suspect he cannot possibly believe guilty: his half brother, Thomas. Determined to bring the real murderer to justice and clear his brother's name, Harry attracts the attention of the White Court of vampires, becoming embroiled in a power struggle that renders him outnumbered, outclassed, and dangerously susceptible to temptation." "Harry knows that if he screws this one up, people will die - and one of them will be his brother."--

Philip K. Dick - One of the earliest books that Dick ever wrote, and the only novel that has not previously been published, "Voices from the Street" is the story of Stuart Hadley's descent into depression and madness, and out the other side.

Eyre Affair - Welcome to a surreal version of Great Britain, circa 1985, where time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem, militant Baconians heckle performances of Hamlet, and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection, until someone begins kidnapping charactersfrom works of literature. When Jane Eyre is plucked from the pages of Bronte's novel, Thursday must track down the villain and enter the novel herself to avert a heinous act of literary homicide.