People suffering nervous breakdowns often do a lot of research, to find explanations for what they are undergoing. The research, of course, fails. It fails as far as we are concerned, but the unhappy fact is that it sometimes provides a spurious rationalization to the disintegrating mind. The mentally disturbed do not employ the Principle of Scientific Parsimony: the most simple theory to explain a given set of facts. They shoot for the baroque.
I really like PKD! He's on my list of topics for a future issue ... I've not read Valis, but I liked A Scanner Darkly, The Man in the High Castle and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. I've read a few of his short stories, too - definitely worth checking out, as I'm sure you have.
This quote reminds me of the truism that medical students learning about exotic illnesses diagnose themselves accordingly - or, to put a more 21st Century spin on it, the resultant effect of a Google search for 'why my back hurts' ... it's research that always fails, unless by its purpose was to create an irrational panic. In that case, it works every single time.
Hope you enjoy it - the author was suggested to me years ago by Cindy, who used to work in Highland Books and always kept the cool ones aside for me. Her husband, Wayne, was a great fan of Christopher Moore.
People suffering nervous breakdowns often do a lot of research, to find explanations for what they are undergoing. The research, of course, fails. It fails as far as we are concerned, but the unhappy fact is that it sometimes provides a spurious rationalization to the disintegrating mind. The mentally disturbed do not employ the Principle of Scientific Parsimony: the most simple theory to explain a given set of facts. They shoot for the baroque.
P.K. Dick, Valis
I really like PKD! He's on my list of topics for a future issue ... I've not read Valis, but I liked A Scanner Darkly, The Man in the High Castle and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. I've read a few of his short stories, too - definitely worth checking out, as I'm sure you have.
This quote reminds me of the truism that medical students learning about exotic illnesses diagnose themselves accordingly - or, to put a more 21st Century spin on it, the resultant effect of a Google search for 'why my back hurts' ... it's research that always fails, unless by its purpose was to create an irrational panic. In that case, it works every single time.
Thanks for the book suggestion! My copy of "Lamb" arrived today.
Hope you enjoy it - the author was suggested to me years ago by Cindy, who used to work in Highland Books and always kept the cool ones aside for me. Her husband, Wayne, was a great fan of Christopher Moore.