Laura Miller takes a look here at Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle and Amazon's streaming series based on it. I don't know how that can work, truthfully. The book at the end suggests that its own reality is even more complex and bizarre than the reader has even been led to believe, but I'm not sure you can explore that over multiple seasons - which obviously they'd want to do - without killing the golden goose. Plus apparently there's a resistance force added to the show, which seems counter to the point.
Dick also shows up as a character in this novel I'm reading, Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory. It's about an America where demonic possession has become semi-common since the 1950s. Dick might be himself pretending to be possessed, or he might be VALIS, a demon that claims to have been keeping him alive since 1982. He's not a major character, but it's an interesting wrinkle. The book is an odd melange of 1990s cultural obsessions, like the OJ trial and Sinead O'Connor, who is actually a character (and exorcist) but slightly renamed. As to how well the novel works overall, I'm holding off until I finish it to say.
Dick also shows up as a character in this novel I'm reading, Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory. It's about an America where demonic possession has become semi-common since the 1950s. Dick might be himself pretending to be possessed, or he might be VALIS, a demon that claims to have been keeping him alive since 1982. He's not a major character, but it's an interesting wrinkle. The book is an odd melange of 1990s cultural obsessions, like the OJ trial and Sinead O'Connor, who is actually a character (and exorcist) but slightly renamed. As to how well the novel works overall, I'm holding off until I finish it to say.
2 comments:
from the linked article: ’widely considered his best novel’? really? maybe his most accessible novel, but his best?…
i was surprised, & disappointed, to hear that, of all of dick’s ‘alternate realities’, ridley scott’d chosen to co-produce a series based on this one. because, to me, it really is among his least imaginative ones - never mind the fact that, in actuality, the u.s. already is something of a fascist star (minus the swatstikas, obviously). i mean, even a series based on the ‘electric sheep’ world would’ve sounded more interesting to me…
daryl gregory’s a new one for me, & 'pandemonium' sounds extremely weird. must admit, opting to feature sinead o’connor in a novel sounds almost guaranteed to result in a story guaranteed to feel dated in no time. similar to (tho not nearly as bad) as josh bazell’s decision to feature sarah palin in his second book, ‘wild thing’?! i mean, we loved ‘beat the reaper’, but, dude! c’mon! :) …
I believe it cleaned up at the awards (Hugo or Nebula or both) when it was first published, which is probably why it was named with that honor.
To me there are better books and books that might be riper for adaptation. Palmer Eldritch or Ubik, perhaps. Whether they'd work as ongoing TV shows I don't know. For Man in the High Castle my problem with it is that they kind of need, even when aiming for a smaller audience, to add something like a resistance movement. And Dick knew that was a clichéd concept even then. As well as not really being true to how the world works.
Pandemonium was actually published in 2008. My guess would be that the author was a teenager in the nineties and he drew on that for some plot elements. Book's not bad. It does an imperfect but better than 2000s average at keeping control of its tone through to the end.
Haven't read Wild Thing yet. I remember at the end of Beat the Reaper the lead character fucked his leg up pretty bad to save his life. I hope he gets that treated, especially if he has to deal with Sarah. Talk about fight or flight!
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