PKD Joy!
Philip K. Dick is the first science fiction author to be recognized by The Library of America!
This is a real honor because the LoA strives to publish "America's best and most significant writing in durable and authoritative editions" (as per their website). As an added bonus, the editor chosen for this volume is Jonathan Lethem - the brilliant writer of such novels as Amnesia Moon; Gun, with Occasional Music; and Motherless Brooklyn. [Amnesia Moon is directly influenced by PKD's work, as is so much of sf today.]
The publisher's brief discusses the four novels from the 1960s that were selected, and I've added my own blurbs below:
The Man in the High Castle [What if Japan and Germany had won WWII and divided the US down the middle? What if a sf writer in this world dreams of a world where the Allies won?]
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? [Blade Runner was loosely based upon this text, but the novel does many more things - especially concerning the issues of belief and ecological devastation. It's a much more complex and darker look at the question of 'What does it mean to be human?']
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch [The earth is so overcrowded that the UN has a 'lottery' that forces people to immigrate to Mars. Life in the colonies is so horrible that drug use seems the only escape - drugs that take you into another reality. But what if the drugs never let you go?]
Ubik [The entire world is commodified - you have to pay your front door to open every time you use it. Worried those telepaths are listening in on your business deals? Pay anti-psis to block them! And if you die, you may not be allowed to fully pass on, but be kept in a state of half-life so that your relatives can visit and the people running the facility you're kept in can make lots of money. So, is it any wonder that a commodity may end up as your savior - a commodity in a spray can? A satire about life, death, and everything commercialized in between.]
I'm excited with the selections - the last two are personal favorites - and of course especially ecstatic that Ubik was one of the texts chosen. (points to icon)
This is a real honor because the LoA strives to publish "America's best and most significant writing in durable and authoritative editions" (as per their website). As an added bonus, the editor chosen for this volume is Jonathan Lethem - the brilliant writer of such novels as Amnesia Moon; Gun, with Occasional Music; and Motherless Brooklyn. [Amnesia Moon is directly influenced by PKD's work, as is so much of sf today.]
The publisher's brief discusses the four novels from the 1960s that were selected, and I've added my own blurbs below:
The Man in the High Castle [What if Japan and Germany had won WWII and divided the US down the middle? What if a sf writer in this world dreams of a world where the Allies won?]
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? [Blade Runner was loosely based upon this text, but the novel does many more things - especially concerning the issues of belief and ecological devastation. It's a much more complex and darker look at the question of 'What does it mean to be human?']
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch [The earth is so overcrowded that the UN has a 'lottery' that forces people to immigrate to Mars. Life in the colonies is so horrible that drug use seems the only escape - drugs that take you into another reality. But what if the drugs never let you go?]
Ubik [The entire world is commodified - you have to pay your front door to open every time you use it. Worried those telepaths are listening in on your business deals? Pay anti-psis to block them! And if you die, you may not be allowed to fully pass on, but be kept in a state of half-life so that your relatives can visit and the people running the facility you're kept in can make lots of money. So, is it any wonder that a commodity may end up as your savior - a commodity in a spray can? A satire about life, death, and everything commercialized in between.]
I'm excited with the selections - the last two are personal favorites - and of course especially ecstatic that Ubik was one of the texts chosen. (points to icon)