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I just finished reading Ubik last night. I liked the beginning and middle of the book. Parts of it had me laughing in earnest. I'm going to talk about why the book disappointed me and in doing so I will spoil parts of the book. 1. The explanation for Ubik's existence seemed tacked on and contrived. The prologue style advertisements seem unconnected to Ubik's use as a plot device. 2. The "incorrect villain" trope was ripped from a 1950s JRPG or any modern final fantasy. 3. The ending, wherein it's not clear who is alive and who is in half-life, or if either truly exists, seems like the most perfunctory ending imaginable. 4. Of the many possible villains, Jory was given about 3 lines of dialogue prior to the final chapters wherin he got about 10. S. Dole Melipone, whom we never saw or heard from was talked about constantly. I am not relieved that Jory was thwarted and I was left wondering what became of the other antagonists whom I was actually invested in. 5. The book does a fair bit to prop up its own logic in an unobvious way, but then says "gently caress it" by the end and implements deus ex machina upon deus ex machina. Real lovely story telling. The book promises early to be an exploration of reality in this strange world of 1992, however the only thing I found was a pile of red herring and a ton of bullshit. Please tell me why I'm wrong.
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Jul 4, 2016 09:41
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 08:04 |
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You are wrong because you read a sci-fi book by mentally ill drug addict and expected it to be coherent
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Jul 4, 2016 16:04
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thats cool
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Jul 4, 2016 19:31
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mallamp posted:You are wrong because you read a sci-fi book by mentally ill drug addict and expected it to be coherent He'd stopped doing drugs by the time he wrote Ubik. To be fair, he had also doubled down on the mental illness. (PKD is the greatest sci fi writer of all time, mind you.)
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Jul 5, 2016 18:11
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He's among the greatest, but Gene Wolfe, Alfred Bester, and Theodore Sturgeon and all surely contest him.
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Jul 5, 2016 18:17
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I was being a bit flip, because I have some deep personal connections to PKD and many of his books. If I had to be entirely serious, I think William Gibson would be my favorite "purely" sci-fi writer, especially if we're talking Peak Gibson like Mona Lisa Overdrive and The Peripheral. PKD is a sci fi writer in the same way that Burroughs was a beatnik 
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Jul 5, 2016 18:25
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Crossposting this question from the Sci-Fi thread: So I wrapped up Ubik this week and while I like PKD's writing, I hated the ending and his abandoning of a well maintained internal logic. I'm thinking about picking up Flow My Tears, but was wondering if there was a better next one for me, taking into account my frustration with Ubik. Thoughts or recommendations appreciated.
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Jul 6, 2016 15:29
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Dorkopotamis posted:Crossposting this question from the Sci-Fi thread: So I wrapped up Ubik this week and while I like PKD's writing, I hated the ending and his abandoning of a well maintained internal logic. I'm thinking about picking up Flow My Tears, but was wondering if there was a better next one for me, taking into account my frustration with Ubik. Thoughts or recommendations appreciated. Flow my tears has the same non-ending and unsatisfying "real" explanation that you saw in Ubik. If you want something that's a little more traditional sci fi but still funny in that PKD way and also more coherent, I like Galactic Pot Healer which has all that while still being batshit insane and fairly large in scope. Man in the High Castle is also great, but I have trouble recommending it for someone looking for science fiction or even really alternate history. That's a book that's more about the interpretation of the I Ching and a debate on the values of nostalgia and kitsch art/antiquing, as well as the usual rejection of a single reality/the possibility of truth or absolute knowledge. But it is a very very well constructed novel. I might actually recommend delving a little bit into the Exegesis, which is a collection of the author's writing and letters that give you some insight into his mental illness, mystic experiences irl and his gnostic theology. It's huge so don't feel you have to read all or most of it, but it puts a lot of his books and themes into a new light.
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Jul 6, 2016 18:53
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Dorkopotamis posted:1. The explanation for Ubik's existence seemed tacked on and contrived. The prologue style advertisements seem unconnected to Ubik's use as a plot device. Also I'd like to give some thoughts on this point in particular: UBIK is a god in a universe unconcerned with divinity. That is, when salvation and the final victory over death (which now comes in the form of a handy spray can) is a victory not over sin, but a physical victory over entropy, it cannot be distinguished from capitalism, which is itself the meanest and most base of human originated systems (see the scene with the pay-per-use door early on in the novel). At the same time, maybe he doesn't think that's a terrible thing? Or at least that's the limit of what we as people can recognize as divine. Quite a few of PKD's books are explicitly religious, though through the lens of a very personal, almost Taoist, form of Gnosticism. Ubik has a lot to do with an imperfect god or savior attempting to reach in from...somewhere. But either this universe or that universe is so alien or the journey so strange that results and intentions both get hosed. And we are limited not only by our perceptions, but by a narrator, by our existing faith, by the structure of the novel and so on and so on. Man in the High Castle gets very metatextual in this regard as well. Hopefully this makes some sense.
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Jul 6, 2016 19:09
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Mover posted:Man in the High Castle gets very metatextual in this regard as well. Hopefully this makes some sense. And I say that as someone who likes VALIS.
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Jul 6, 2016 19:27
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The psychic vampire is actually the hero of the novel. He's the only one who can end your terrifying half-life dream existence and grant you the peace of death.
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Jul 7, 2016 00:01
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Dorkopotamis posted:Crossposting this question from the Sci-Fi thread: So I wrapped up Ubik this week and while I like PKD's writing, I hated the ending and his abandoning of a well maintained internal logic. I'm thinking about picking up Flow My Tears, but was wondering if there was a better next one for me, taking into account my frustration with Ubik. Thoughts or recommendations appreciated. Flow My Tears is very near to his best novel, if not outright the best. I started reading it and literally could not stop until I had finished it in one glorious long stoned afternoon. That said, the ending to that one has some similar problems to Ubik's ending.
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Jul 7, 2016 04:24
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Mr. Dick could have started a religion. Dickology. Or, maybe, The Church of Dick.
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Jul 8, 2016 18:18
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UBIK was the first PKD novel I read and it turned me into a huge fan. One thing about PKD you should know if you don't already, is that many of his novels were written very quickly. Often that shows. I would recommend "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" for your next read. One of his best IMO. "Martian Time-Slip" is also very good.
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Jul 8, 2016 19:45
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The audiobook of The Game Players of Titan is absolutely fantastic, the narrator is just so good.
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Jul 9, 2016 02:11
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UBIK is equally idiotic and incredible
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Jul 13, 2016 02:58
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I often wonder if part of Stephen King's 'The Langoliers' was inspired by the retrograde time aspects and airport/spaceport bit in Ubik.Lunchmeat Larry posted:UBIK is equally idiotic and incredible This too - so much of his writing sums up what it means to be human.
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Jul 13, 2016 10:54
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I think it's a credible theory that PKD was the only human that ever existed and we're all just living in his novels.
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Jul 14, 2016 00:42
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Henry Kissinger posted:Mr. Dick could have started a religion. Dickology. Or, maybe, The Church of Dick. I don't think he could have, but perhaps Horselover Fat could have.
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Jul 14, 2016 16:34
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Dorkopotamis posted:2. The "incorrect villain" trope was ripped from a 1950s JRPG or any modern final fantasy. Ubik was written in 1969. Video games could hardly have been a reference point. It may be a trope now, but you can't really discredit PKD for using a trope that didn't exist yet.
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Aug 2, 2016 21:08
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thank you, NuclearEagleFox!!!, for helpfully pointing out that there were no JRPGs in 1950. Our literary knowledge is truly enriched by your contributions
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Aug 2, 2016 21:43
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Henry Kissinger posted:Mr. Dick could have started a religion. Dickology. Or, maybe, The Church of Dick. It would have just been gnostic Christianity
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Aug 3, 2016 04:04
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"Ubiquitous"
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Aug 3, 2016 22:45
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 08:04 |
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mallamp posted:You are wrong because you read a sci-fi book by mentally ill drug addict and expected it to be coherent im emptyquoting mallamp
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Aug 4, 2016 14:59
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