Philip K. Dick – Page 75

A Scanner Darkly is not only a new movie it is a…

A Scanner Darkly is not only a new movie it is also an old Science Fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. When a Hollywood studio adapts one of his novels into a “major motion picture” these days we aural-literary-types are also justly blessed. For both Minority Report and Paycheck Harper Audio released the short stories as audiobook MTIs (movie-tie-ins) as read by Keir Dullea – now, with imminent release of A Scanner Darkly we’re getting what sounds like possibly the best Philip K. Dick Movie-Tie-In audiobook yet! Random House Audio is releasing….

A Scanner Darkly
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Paul Giamatti
CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: RH Audio
Available: February 7, 2006
Price: $34.95 USD
ISBN: 073932392X

Bob Arctor is a dealer of the lethally addictive drug Substance D. Fred is the police agent assigned to tail and eventually bust him. To do so, Fred takes on the identity of a drug dealer named Bob Arctor. And since Substance D–which Arctor takes in massive doses–gradually splits the user’s brain into two distinct, combative entities, Fred doesn’t realize he is narcing on himself.

Dick was no stranger to paranoid drug fantasies. Back in 1972 with his fourth marriage in ruins, an unsolved burglary in his home and a serious amphetamine addiction Dick travlled to Vancouver, British Columbia to be Guest of Honor at V-Con, after delivering a landmark speech he attempted suicide. Desperate, Dick begged and gained entrance to a heroin addiction treatment center called X-Kalay despite the fact he wasn’t addicted to heroin. When he eventually retuned to Calfornia he started work a new novel. A Scanner Darkly was the result. Now 33 years later Dick’s novel is being adapted for audio.

Paul Giamatti (who had a supporting role in the film version of Paycheck) is set to read the unabridged audiobook! His twitchy on-screen persona should make A Scanner Darkly an awesome listen – Giamatti is the epitome of a PKD protagonist. Here’s some evidence of that – back 1994 in an interview conducted for MoviePoopShoot.com interviewer Josh Horowitz talked to Giamatti about the adaptation of Dick’s films:

JH: Speaking of which…is Paycheck more than just a paycheck?
PG: (LAUGH) Well, you know…I mean, I really do like [director] John Woo. I almost did that Windtalkers movie which I never saw.

JH: That kind of movie has to be a no-brainer to do anyway. It’s a big budget film with John Woo based on a story by Philip K. Dick.
PG: Yeah, Philip K. Dick is another reason to do it although they never do his stuff right. They turn them into these big action movies when there’s really no action in them and the heroes in them are nerdy, geeky, loser guys.

JH: So you’re saying Ben [Affleck] should have been your sidekick instead of vice versa?
PG: (LAUGHS) There you go. Exactly. It should be a guy like Steve Buscemi or somebody like that. It’s a weird guy to use as a basis for action movies.

Well said Paul!

You listen to him Hollywood, but even if you dont… please keep adapting PKD to film, we need more of his audiobooks.

posted by Jesse Willis

There’s an old fashioned radio show that may dra…

There’s an old fashioned radio show that may draw your interest. It currently airs on Wednesdays between 3:00pm and 5:00pm – the Philip K. Dick Show airs on KUCI 88.9FM which is the University Of California Irvine’s radio station. Host “djzj” plays music and reads from Philip K. Dick’s work. The show is available only in the streaming audio format for folks who live outside of the UC Irvine area.

“djzj” says this about the show:

“i’m a big fan of pkd and tend to string out a kind of dickian world on the show…i like to think of myself along the lines of the dj in dr. bloodmoney, a pkd book about a post apocalyptic world… i have a co-host ‘baby dragon’ who reads select passages from the pkd opus. i start and end the show with vangelis ‘blade runner’ soundtrack. one of the main things about the show is to promote local bands, socal and so-on. i also talk about things like…was jesus an android? we live in a horror movie…alien rabbits,and anything that randfomaly pops into our heads, i sometimes will air excerpts of pkd himself talking, gleaned from the pkd website…”

Sounds cool!

posted by Jesse

Review of Philip K. Dick Recorded Telephone Interviews

Philip K. Dick Recorded Telephone Interviews
Conducted by John Boonstra
2 CDs – Approx. 111 Minutes [UNABRIDGED EXCERPTS]
Published: 1991
Themes: / Non-Fiction / Science Fiction / Interview /

These discs combine telephone interviews conducted 3/11/81 and 6/28/81. Portions appeared in The Hartford Advocate and The Twilight Zone Magazine. I’ve interviewed dozens of interesting people in the years since, but no conversation has been quite so exhilarating. It was a privilege to have even this brief contact with PKD…”
— John Boonstra

This is a set of 2 CD-Rs with printer paper labels and a photocopy of a handwritten insert written by the interviewer John Boonstra. The packaging and media is straight out of the Staples catalogue. But the content… oh the content… It’s the ultimate! Disc 1 is one long uninterrupted audio track. It starts with a ringing telephone, answered by a “Hello?” And if you’ve heard his voice anywhere else you instantly know it is Philip K. Dick.

Boonstra conducted by telephone these two interviews. Boonstra was better prepared than we have any right to expect – he was familiar with the vast majority of his subject’s writing and anxious to engage someone who he clearly admired greatly. Dick himself is full of life, overflowing with funny anecdotes, eager to talk and expound and is a true delight to hear in such an unfiltered setting.

Admittedly the sound quality isn’t great. A constant tape hiss mars both interviews, but the voices are both loud and clear, and in stereo. Dick’s voice comes out of the left speaker and Boonstra’s out of the right. They talk for nearly two hours over the course of the two interviews and I was riveted the entire time. Unfortunately the last portion of the first interview is completely cut off and the first portion of the second interview is entirely missing. Boonstra prompts Dick now and again with well researched questions and Dick never shies away, giving us the inside dope on many aspects of his professional and private lives as well as explaining the research that went into many of his later books including, The Cosmic Puppets, The Man In the High Castle, Martian Time-Slip, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, The Galactic Pot-Healer, Confessions Of A Crap Artist, VALIS, The Divine Invasion, The Transmigration Of Timothy Archer and others.

If you like Philip K. Dick’s novels you’ll love these interviews! I just wish there were more of them. Unfortunately Dick died less than a year after the second interview was recorded. I got two CD set from Zack Wood: click here to check out his site and tell him SFFAUDIO sent you!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Here’s a really cool 29 minute radio documentary o…

SFFaudio Online Audio

Here’s a really cool 29 minute radio documentary originally produced for WZBC Boston radio by Benjamen Walker entitled “Saint Phil.” Host Benjamen Walker argues for the canonization of PKD. He talks with authors Jonathan Lethem and Josh Glenn about the Science Fiction genius Philip K Dick. He also gets “UBIK” tattooed on his body. You can listen to the MP3 at the WTRO Radio site by clicking HERE!.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Martian Time-Slip By Philip K. Dick

Martian Time-Slip
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Tom Parker
6 Cassettes – 9 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
ISBN: 0786113529
Date Published: 1998
Themes: / Science Fiction / Mars / Politics / Time-travel / Mental Illness / Aliens / Philosophy /

On the arid colony of Mars the only thing more precious than water may be a ten-year-old schizophrenic boy named Manfred Steiner. For although the UN has slated “anomalous” children for deportation and destruction, other people–especially Supreme Goodmember Arnie Kott of the Water Workers’ Union -suspect that Manfred’s disorder may be a window into the future.

While the Mars of our reality is a fascinating planet in its own right, the Mars of fiction is far more accessible, and nearly as alien! Ray Bradbury’s Mars was a walk through the pastoral and allegorical mind of Bradbury’s youth. Edgar Rice Burrough’s Mars, a fantasyland where many buckles were swashed and princesses were saved. But Philip K. Dick’s Mars is the strangest of them all, a place where everyday reality is malleable and where political corruption continues as it does on Earth. Martian Time-Slip, as read exceedingly well by Tom Parker, is a poignant and utterly fascinating journey both across the newly colonized Martian landscape and through the lives of its varied central characters. A journey not to be missed, I have no doubt that eventually the real colonists on the real Mars will be reading Philip K. Dick’s Martian Time-Slip – and a few of them may even be listening to Parker’s excellent performance of this amazing novel.

More and more it seems you can count on Blackstone Audio to pick a great book, match it with an appropriate narrator and follow through with high production values. Martian Time-Slip just adds to this reputation. It comes in a library style clamshell binding with a cool cover featuring the original art from the paperback release. And to top it all off this superb production includes every single word in the book, including the teaser back cover. There is little else to say except: Martian Time-Slip, highly recommended!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Here’s an interesting episode of WNYC’s The Brian …

Here’s an interesting episode of WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show:

“When Life Imitates Science Fiction”
Wednesday, January 07, 2004, 13 Minutes
LINK TO THE WNYC SHOW: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/01072004

When did science fiction and reality become indistinguishable? Guest Steven Shaviro discusses the relevance of science fiction stories of Philip K. Dick, William Burroughs, K.W. Jeter, and Bruce Sterling to modern life.

Posted by Jesse Willis