PKD Book Club Restart

March 7, 2016 5:52 PM

I had proposed this before (http://fanfare.metafilter.com/5438/PKD-Book-Club), but now that I can actually post book posts, I'll get this started again.

I'm thinking 2 weeks between posts, since his books are mostly short.

Here's the list I proposed last time, let me know if anyone has any other ideas:
Solar Lottery
Eye in the Sky
Time Out of Joint
The Man in the High Castle
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Clans of the Alphane Moon
Dr. Bloodmoney
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Ubik
A Maze of Death
We Can Build You
Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
A Scanner Darkly
VALIS
The Divine Invasion
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

posted by hobgadling (9 comments total)

Lesser known books have had a hard time getting off the ground in Fanfare. I would suggest starting with one of the ones more likely to attract attention to see how many people show up on a good day.
posted by tofu_crouton at 6:02 AM on March 8, 2016

tofu_crouton Fair enough, maybe start with Androids just to kick the tires on this one?
posted by hobgadling at 8:45 AM on March 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

If we start with Androids, can we make it "book only" to prevent any Vangelis derails?

While we wait, there is a PKD "walking simulator" game, which has been recently released (in parts) by French/German TV-station ARTE. The first three (of four) episodes can be downloaded for free (last episode will be released next week). The webpage is French but the game itself has audio/text in English, too. There is an English webpage but it doesn't have the download option. Also there is an option to buy the complete game, which bundles all four episodes together.
posted by KMB at 4:23 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've scheduled Androids for 3/28, to give everyone enough time to get it and (re)read it.

KMB My thoughts on the movies has been that we might do a run through of all the stuff based on his writing after getting through the list of books. There's also his short stories and the Exegesis, so this book club can go on for a long while.
posted by hobgadling at 6:01 AM on March 9, 2016

I've got a bad history with finishing books by deadlines, but I'll take a shot. There's even some in your list I've never read!

I'd suggest Radio Free Albemuth either before VALIS/Divine Invasion/Timothy Archer or after them.
posted by Zed at 2:25 PM on March 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Actually, Radio Free Albemuth is probably a good one in the early to mid going, probably right after The Man In The High Castle (also, it won't butt up against VALIS, with which it shares so many similarities that might as well be the same story told from a different perspective-- RFA is one of my personal favorites of Dick's)
posted by KingEdRa at 2:32 AM on March 14, 2016

There's a recent graphic novel adaptation of Androids.

Would talking about it, too, after discussion of the novel itself is dying down be welcome? (I'm a Fanfare newb.)
posted by Zed at 10:16 AM on March 14, 2016

Small suggestion about structuring: We have either one single thread (like this here) or a new one every now and then to discuss the timing and the title of the next book (I prefer the single-option, because there shouldn't be much to discuss; hobgadlin's list above is a great starting point and once it's finished I wouldn't wonder very much if a big face in the sky appears to tell us what to do next but only we are able to see it!!). Just to get some basic management going on and keep everybody informed. I also wouldn't want to use the book-threads for it, because of the long time they are open and there might be some late-comers with some opinions about previous books and they might not like it to park their comments behind some "we are done here, what's next?"-posts.

The events here are good, too, but only as some sort of reminder because I would have missed the recent "Solar Lottery" if not for curiosity. Unless I'm missing a vital page where the club-activities are better listed? Right now I use browser-bookmarks to navigate the club-section...

We could even discuss some other media in between, like the suggested graphic novel, short stories, or movies (or that game I mentioned above). Seeing that the schedule right now is a book every 3 weeks, we could have 1 or 2 "other" posts sprinkled in between.
posted by KMB at 2:19 AM on April 2, 2016

What, no Dr. Futurity?

Dr. Futurity was the first PKD I ever read. This...was not a good choice.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:50 PM on April 18, 2016