This time in America—1960 to 1970—and this place, the Bay Area of Northern California, was totally fucked. I’m sorry to tell you this, but that’s the truth. Fancy terms and ornate theories cannot cover this fact up. The authorities became as psychotic as those they hunted.
Philip K. Dick, The Valis Trilogy
“Ha! No wonder the State panicked. How are they supposed to control a population that knows it’ll never die? When that was always their last big chip, when they thought they had the power of life and death. But acid gave us the X-ray vision to see through that one, so of course they had to take it away from us.”
“Yeah, but they can’t take what happened, what we found out.”
“Easy. They just let us forget. Give us too much to process, fill up every minute, keep us distracted, it’s what the Tube is for, and though it kills me to say it, it’s what rock and roll is becoming—just another way to claim our attention, so that beautiful certainty we had starts to fade, and after a while they have us convinced all over again that we really are going to die.”
Thanks, this is great. Dick was amazing: 44 novels and 121 short stories, many of which were highly original. Although given his drug use, I wonder how far some of them were fictional from his viewpoint.
Excellent Bus choice! Dick's works have been adapted for the screen more than most science fiction authors... I find it very interesting, though, how the adaptations deviate from the original source material. Probably the original stories are just too... weird for straight adaptations.
I think his weirdness is exactly the reason why the adaptations are so different. Though, to be fair, it's not for nothing the expression 'the book is better than the movie' is so commonly used! Another 'impossible to film' author is Thomas Pynchon, though PT Anderson's 'Inherent Vice' is a brilliant version of that novel.
Glad you liked the Stop - I'm finding Volume 3 to be even more fun than the previous two!
Thanks! Though I wish it didn't resonate, I guess that's part of the aging thing. I've also (for the first time EVER) actually appreciated the lyric from 'Closer to Fine' (Indigo Girls):
And I went to see the doctor of philosophy
With a poster of Rasputin and a beard down to his knee
He never did marry or see a B-grade movie
He graded my performance, he said he could see through me
I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind
Got my paper and I was free
When people cheered that last line freshman year I just shook my head at what I saw as their naïveté. Now (though I fully appreciate that I've only benefitted from my education and have a family, career and lifestyle in no small part as a result), I'm looking from my place of privilege and asking a few questions about decisions ....
This was an especially good one Bryan ... but that video from Colossus has got to be straight SciFi
It's unbelievable. But real!
This time in America—1960 to 1970—and this place, the Bay Area of Northern California, was totally fucked. I’m sorry to tell you this, but that’s the truth. Fancy terms and ornate theories cannot cover this fact up. The authorities became as psychotic as those they hunted.
Philip K. Dick, The Valis Trilogy
“Ha! No wonder the State panicked. How are they supposed to control a population that knows it’ll never die? When that was always their last big chip, when they thought they had the power of life and death. But acid gave us the X-ray vision to see through that one, so of course they had to take it away from us.”
“Yeah, but they can’t take what happened, what we found out.”
“Easy. They just let us forget. Give us too much to process, fill up every minute, keep us distracted, it’s what the Tube is for, and though it kills me to say it, it’s what rock and roll is becoming—just another way to claim our attention, so that beautiful certainty we had starts to fade, and after a while they have us convinced all over again that we really are going to die.”
Thomas Pynchon, Vineland
LOVE Vineland - my favourite Pynchon. A great excerpt!
Thanks, this is great. Dick was amazing: 44 novels and 121 short stories, many of which were highly original. Although given his drug use, I wonder how far some of them were fictional from his viewpoint.
Excellent Bus choice! Dick's works have been adapted for the screen more than most science fiction authors... I find it very interesting, though, how the adaptations deviate from the original source material. Probably the original stories are just too... weird for straight adaptations.
I think his weirdness is exactly the reason why the adaptations are so different. Though, to be fair, it's not for nothing the expression 'the book is better than the movie' is so commonly used! Another 'impossible to film' author is Thomas Pynchon, though PT Anderson's 'Inherent Vice' is a brilliant version of that novel.
Glad you liked the Stop - I'm finding Volume 3 to be even more fun than the previous two!
Love the quote. It resonates strongly.
Thanks! Though I wish it didn't resonate, I guess that's part of the aging thing. I've also (for the first time EVER) actually appreciated the lyric from 'Closer to Fine' (Indigo Girls):
And I went to see the doctor of philosophy
With a poster of Rasputin and a beard down to his knee
He never did marry or see a B-grade movie
He graded my performance, he said he could see through me
I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind
Got my paper and I was free
When people cheered that last line freshman year I just shook my head at what I saw as their naïveté. Now (though I fully appreciate that I've only benefitted from my education and have a family, career and lifestyle in no small part as a result), I'm looking from my place of privilege and asking a few questions about decisions ....
Glad you're on The Bus!
Great quote, Bryan! 😂😭
Thanks! It's uncomfortably relatable!