New Releases: Upon the Dull Earth and Other Stories by Philip K. Dick

New Releases

Available through OverDrive, NetLibrary, and Audible.com – or you can request your library get a give them this “ISBN 9780983089872”!

ELOQUENT VOICE - Upon The Dull Earth And Other Stories by Philip K. DickUpon the Dull Earth and Other Stories
By Philip K. Dick; Read by William Coon
Digital Download – Approx. 4 Hours 18 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Eloquent Voice, LLC
Published: January 31, 2012
When an interviewer asked Phillip K. Dick “What is the most important quality for a writer to have?” he replied “A sense of indignation… A writer writes because it’s his response to the world. It’s a natural process, like respiration… The capacity for indignation is the most important thing for a creative person. Not the aesthetic capacity but the capacity for indignation… And especially indignation at the treatment afforded other people. To see some of the things that are going on in the world and to feel indignant…That is the basis of the writer.” Whatever it was that stimulated his creative juices, we are the lucky beneficiaries, as demonstrated in this collection of five stories, all first published in 1954. In “Exhibit Piece” a long-suffering museum worker becomes a little too attached to his display of mid-twentieth century lifestyle. In “Upon the Dull Earth” a young man refuses to let go of his soul mate, and he creates a chain reaction that he couldn’t have anticipated. In “Progeny” one man’s idea of how to raise a child is challenged by new, more scientific techniques. “The Last Of The Masters” explores a post-apocalyptic world, where anarchists don’t just occupy Wall Street, they occupy the entire planet. Finally, in “Breakfast At Twilight”, a family awakes to find theirs is the only house left on their street, and they are forced to make the most important decision of their lives.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Small Town by Philip K. Dick is PUBLIC DOMAIN

SFFaudio News

Philip K. Dick’s short story, Small Town, is PUBLIC DOMAIN. Here’s a |PDF| of it.

Small Town by Philip K. Dick second publication in the April 1967 issue of Amazing Stories

Small Town was first published in the May 1954 issue of Amazing Stories. Here is the copyright page from that issue:

Table of contents from Amazing Stories May 1954

The fact that the story was not previously known to be PUBLIC DOMAIN is because there was a bogus copyright renewal claim made in 1983. In order for a claim to be properly renewed the first publication date must be cited in the renewal form. It wasn’t. Instead a false first publication date was swapped in.

RE190631 Page 2 (back) includes Small Town:
RE190631 Page 2 (back) Prominent Author, Progeny, Exhibit Piece, Shell Game, A World Of Talent, James P. Crow, Small Town, Survey Team, Sales Pitch, Time Pawn, Breakfast At Twilight, The Crawlers, Of Withered Apples, Adjustment Team, Meddler

As you can see in a scan of the renewal form, pictured above, the renewer has stated that the story was published in the May 1955 issue of Amazing Stories. This is completely false. Here is the table of contents page from Amazing’s May 1955 issue:

Amazing Stories, May 1955 - table of contents

Had the renewer, in 1983, noted the actual first publication date of Small Town the renewal wouldn’t have been valid. By 1983 the copyright had lapsed.

The evidence for bad faith in the copyright process doesn’t end there. Indeed, while story was subsequently republished in Amazing Stories – perhaps lending credence to the idea that the renewer had merely mistaken the first publication for the second, the republication wasn’t until the April 1967 issue of that magazine. And of course a notation in that 1967 re-publication cites the story as having been copyrighted in 1954.

Detail from the April 1967 issue of Amazing Stories, showing that Small Town was copyrighted in 1954

Small Town by Philip K. Dick is PUBLIC DOMAIN!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Philip K. Dick Philosophical Podcast

SFFaudio Online Audio

I’ve yearned for a podcast like this! For years, endless years. And now it is real! As real as their owl.

Do you like their owl?

PKD Philosophical Podcast

Here’s the official description:

“Exploring the paranoid, hallucinatory future worlds of author Philip K. Dick. At the PKD Philosophical Podcast, we attempt to answer the important philosophical questions, like ‘how tasty are martian go-birds?’, and ‘why can’t androids dream of regular sheep like the rest of us?’ Each episode covers one short story, or part of a novel, starting with Philip K. Dick’s early short stories from 1952.”

I want to say that Adam Hulbert and Phil Young have done a pretty good job with the show so far. But my expectations are just too high. The show is just not fantastic, nor in any sense as definitive as I’d like it to be, at least not yet.

I will admit the logo is absolutely fantastic, as you can see above.

The audio itself is way, way overproduced, with added echoes and trippy (useless) sound effects.

Also, the website is buried, buried, on get this…. Facebook … YUCK!

PKD Philosophy Podcast Facebook page

But the ambition, the ambition! The potential for a podcast like this is terrific!

Now my main problem with the show, other than the extensive, unnecessary and frankly annoying sound design work, is the lack of homework done by the hosts.

For instance, in the first episode Adam and Phil lay down references to Ulysses 31, which was an early 1980s anime series based on The Odyssey that they apparently both saw. It’s a reference they both get and chuckle about and that’s it. I had to look it up. And maybe the connection is strong if you’ve seen the show. But I just don’t see it at all. Myself I’d have gone with the original, The Odyssey itself (particularity Book X which features a minor goddess turning men turn into pacifistic pigs). I’d relate a brief outline of the story and let that fuel the discussion. They don’t do that.

Adam and Phil ask a question about this line that comes near the end of the story:

“A very foolish thing,” it said. “I am sorry that you want to do it. There was a parable that your Saviour related—”

The guys are wonder which parable the wub was going to relate asking: “Could it be the story of Judas? Could it be the story of Lazarus?” Could it be the story of Cain and Able?” And I will admit that this is a ponderer. It definitely isn’t the story of Cain and Abel, that’s old testament guys – get it straight – they just let it all lie there as an unanswered question. They don’t even try to answer it. Terrible! Terrible! DO YOUR HOMEWORK GUYS!

Myself, when I read that line, I always think of Matthew 26:26 where Jesus suggest his disciples eat some bread as if it were his body (While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”).

But that isn’t really a parable as much as it is a straight up metaphor. It’s closer to the parable form in John 6:35 in which Jesus says:

“I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry”

That fits the story, but again it isn’t exactly a parable as much as it is a metaphorical statement. I like the “comes to me” part though.

Perhaps Luke 14:7-11, an actual parable, would be better:

When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

The other idea I had was Matthew 8:28-33:

“When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. “What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?” Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. The demons begged Jesus, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.” He said to them, “Go!” So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men.

I admit that I don’t know which of these parables, if any, Dick was actually referring to, but I at least did my homework. DO YOUR HOMEWORK GUYS! DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

Adam Hulbert and Phil Young also take a stab at the title’s meaning. This is a problem that vexes me too. Dick loved to use literary allusions, and he loved the word “beyond”. I’m betting Beyond Lies The Wub is a variation of some poem with a line reading “beyond lies the _______”. But I haven’t found that yet.

And then Adam and Phil talk about the name “wub” itself.

I’d say, wub = love. As in “I wub you vewy much.”

But where is the talk about Circe and her animals? That’s something Dick comes back to in Strange Eden. Where is the discussion of the visual pun of Peterson the captain and all the crew sitting at the table and eating? Get it? Peter-son? As in the disciple Peter at The Last Supper. Where is the discussion of the immortality of the soul? What the hell is an optus and why don’t you care? And more importantly, for a podcast about philosophy in PKD stories, where is the discussion of the metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, and epistemology at work in this story?

Here are the first four episodes:

Ep1. Beyond Lies The Wub |MP3| –We discuss Philip K. Dick’s first published short story. Adam muses on the relative delectability of Martian go-birds, and Phil tries not to use the sweepings of his semantic warehouse to discuss space truckers. Readings by Stephanie Carrick. Music by A

Ep2. The Gun |MP3| –We discuss Philip K. Dick’s second published short story. Adam cautions on the dangers of basing romantic decision on fairybread come-downs, and Phil plays with hand-held nukes. Readings by Stephanie Carrick. Music by Adam Hulbert. Intro by Luke ‘voiceo

Ep3. The Skull |MP3| –We sidestep the vast reaches of space and delve into the exotic landscape of midwest America for some slem-gun-toting timetraveller-stand-offs at high noon. Watch yer don’t get yer truck shot full of holes… Readings by Luke ‘Voiceover’ Mynott.

Ep4. The Little Movement |MP3| –When good toys go bad! This episode we discuss Philip K. Dick’s story about a wind-up toy soldier revolution on 1950’s earth. And feature some of Luke ‘ Voiceover’ Mynott’s finest work to date…

Podcast feed:

http://www.weirdfictionrecords.com/pkdpodcast/pkd-pp-feed.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals: Blackstone Audio, Brilliance Audio, Macmilian Audio

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Check out this freshly scanned batch of audiobooks from Blackstone Audio, Brilliance Audio, and Macmilian Audio. Personally I’m most excited about the two Dick titles (despite the terrible covers) and The Lost World in part because how great the cover is! I can highly recommend Immortality, Inc as we talked about it on SFFaudio Podcast #144 – sadly its boring cover belies the exiting contents and the terrific narration that lies beneath it.

Blackstone Audio - Berserker Prime by Fred Saberhagen

Blackstone Audio - Destiny's Road by Larry Niven

Blackstone Audio - The Engines Of God by Jack McDevitt

Blackstone Audio - Farseed by Pamela Sargent

Blackstone Audio - Immortality, Inc. by Robert Sheckley

Blackstone Audio - The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Blackstone Audio - Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon

Blackstone Audio - Power Play by Ben Bova

Brilliance Audio - Against The Light by Dave Duncan

Brilliance Audio - The Crack In Space by Philip K. Dick

Brilliance Audio - Penultimate Truth by Philip K. Dick

Brilliance Audio - Resurrection by Arwen Elys Dayton

Brilliance Audio - Wild Cards 1 edited by George R.R. Martin

Macmilian Audio - Shadows In Flight by Orson Scott Card

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #146 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG – Eight O’Clock In The Morning by Ray Nelson

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #146 – Eight O’Clock In The Morning by Ray Nelson, read by Gregg Margarite. This is a complete and unabridged reading of the short story (16 Minutes) followed by a discussion of it with Jesse, Gregg Margarite and Ray Nelson himself!

Talked about on today’s show:
This story was suggested by a listener [thanks], Eight O’Clock In The Morning, a terse procedural aspect of the text, Ray is a fan of bare bones writing, alien forks and knives, inspired by flies, a new adaptation of Eight O’Clock In The Morning (on IMDB), John Carpenter’s They Live, occupy wall street, the 1% aren’t just mean, one of the best short story adaptations, Nada = nothing, a traitless character, a modern fable, The Twilight Zone, sowing a distrust of television, “Work Eight Hours, Play Eight Hours, Sleep Eight Hours”, Ray co-wrote The Ganymede Takeover with Philip K. Dick, Gregg likes it, The Ganymede Takeover has been translated 15 times, Ray and Phil are a hit in France, Edgar Allan Poe owes his classical status to Baudelaire, the short story form itself, Again, Dangerous Visions, Hillside School in Berkley, CA, Ray went to school with Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. Le Guin, France, 1950s, Harlan Ellison, Jean Paul Sarte, book smuggling, Henry Miller, Ray gave Phil acid twice, Philip K. Dick’s acid trips (and flashbacks), answers vs. questions, public and private realities, Ray loves radio theatre, the new audio drama, Tim Heffernan, The Drama Pod, The Cosmic Circle on KPFA, live broadcast, live TV, Saturday Night Live, Your Show Of Shows, Mel Brooks, Woody Allan, Larry Gelbart, the last unsafe TV show was Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, anthology series, The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, Carleton E. Morris, radio drama in Canada, Carleton E. Morris, Prairie Home Companion, appointment radio, X Minus One, Dimension X, Escape, Suspense, I Love A Mystery, BrokenSea’s OTR Swag Cast, The Temple Of The Vampires, Bill Hollweg, The Quantum Door, Gregg gets to be Rod Serling, Jake Sampson: Monster Hunter, Egypt, Texas, Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, paperbook publishing is tough, we want ebook and audiobook editions of , iambik.com, $0.30, William Blake, Laser Books, pseudonyms, RayNelson.com, cartoonism, American Window Cleaner Magazine, “Inflate my girl James … the Viagra is kicking in.”, the propeller beanie, Flying Down To Rio, the 1939 Worlds Fair, The World Of Tomorrow, Elektro the smoking robot, Treasure Island, Hitler’s swastika farm at the world’s fair, The Old Beatnik, Herb Caen, how the beatniks got their name, Jack Kerouac, a synchronistic view of the universe, theology, the University Of Chicago, my Edgar Allan Poe drawing, why don’t people draw more often?, every little kid knows how to draw, essay writing, the death of newspapers, the smell of a used bookstore, How To Fuck Like The Stars aka How To Do It, drawing, writing and smuggling pornography, the Wikipedia entry on Ray Nelson, “Push where it gives”, singing black spirituals in a cowboy suit in Paris, Ray “Tex” Nelson aka Tex The Singing Cowboy, Jeffrey Lord’s Richard Blade, Harlequin Books, Slave Of Sarma by Jeffrey Lord (read by Lloyd James), California Ray, Allen Ginsberg, “I wrote verse. I wrote verse and verse as I went along.”, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Howl, the San Fransisco Renaissance, Sex Happy Hippie, Robert Silverberg, Lawrence Block, Donald E. Westlake, Marion Zimmer Bradley, I, Lesbian by Lee Chapman (aka Ray Nelson and Marion Zimmer Bradley), copyright, fanzines, the smell of a mimeograph machine, Ray Bradbury, Clark Ashton Smith, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Weird Tales, H.P. Lovecraft is more like a blogger than a 1950s writer, Farnsworth Wright, Astounding Stories, Pickman’s Model by H.P. Lovecraft, extraterrestrial monsters, cosmic horror, L. Sprague de Camp, H.P. Lovecraft in a dress, flipped his lid, the Fascinators are fascinating, the adaptation of They Live, Frank Armitage, scripting They Live, the sunglasses, the venetian blind glasses, Blade Runner, Total Recall, John Carpenter’s The Thing, The Thing From Another Planet, John W. Campbell, John Carpenter’s music, Roddy Piper doesn’t look like an everyman, the five minute fight scene works great!, Keith David, Seeing Ear Theatre, Tales From The Crypt |READ OUR REVIEW|, Eight O’Clock In The Morning is a kind of Lovecraftian tale, The Lurking Fear, “anything includes everything.”

Eight O'Clock In The Morning by Ray Nelson

They Live - based upon The Story Eight O'Clock In The Morning by Ray Nelson

Got A Light Buddy?
The Children

They Live - Indian poster art

They Live - illustration by Jeremy Wheeler

THEY LIVE poster from Printed In Blood

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Influence of RADIO DRAMA on comics and vice versa

SFFaudio News

EC ComicsThere’s a fascinating article by Kurt Kuersteiner HERE titled “OTR: The Evil Influence Behind EC.” In it Kuersteiner maps some of the many stories swiped from radio drama series and turned into EC Comics.

It came to me at the perfect time too. I’ve just been getting into EC comics over the last few months. Having grown up under the censorship of the Comics Code Authority I didn’t really know what I was missing. Now though, reading these pre-code comics, I can now see that my intellectual growth had been greatly stunted.

I’d have been a far smarter person if I’d been able to buy and read comics like these as a kid.

My favourite such tale so far was published in the July/August 1953 issue of Weird Fantasy (issue number 20). It’s called The Automaton. At first it seemed to me like a mashup of a Philip K. Dick’s The Electric Ant, Alfred Bester’s Fondly Fahrenheit and George Orwell’s 1984. But looking at the chronology that can’t be what it is. First off Philip K. Dick was just getting started around then. And while he was a comics reader The Electric Ant wasn’t published until 1969.

And while by 1953 Bester had already been working in comics – he hadn’t yet written Fondly Fahrenheit. So the story is definitely Orwellian and very cool, and certainly like a couple of Dick and Bester tales that were yet to be written. But then again, maybe it was inspired by a radio drama that I’ve not heard yet. Anybody know of one like this?

As it stands The Automaton is set in the futuristic dystopian world of Los Angeles in 2009. Our protagonist is XT-751, a man recounting his story of being sent to a northern labour camp after a suicide attempt. Suicide is illegal in this world because the state owns every person from the cradle to the grave.

I actually have been thinking about The Automaton for months now. And after reading Kuersteiner’s article it somehow gelled into a post. It’s just been something I could’t quite shake. The story is not only extremely thought provoking, and still timely, but also extremely frightening. And maybe a lot of the rest of it is that it is about as far away from superhero comics as you can possibly get. Best of all it’s told in just seven pages – that’s a highly distilled story.

The only credit for The Automaton is for the artist, Joe Orlando, but maybe he wrote it too?

From EC Comics - Weird Fantasy #020 - The Automaton Page 1

From EC Comics - Weird Fantasy #020 - The Automaton Page 2

From EC Comics - Weird Fantasy #020 - The Automaton Page 3

From EC Comics - Weird Fantasy #020 - The Automaton Page 4

From EC Comics - Weird Fantasy #020 - The Automaton Page 5

From EC Comics - Weird Fantasy #020 - The Automaton Page 6

From EC Comics - Weird Fantasy #020 - The Automaton Page 7

Posted by Jesse Willis