Three books by Philip K. Dick

The last three science fiction books I read were all by Philip K. Dick, and I think I have read enough of his work to be considered a Dickhead :D I finished The Man in the High Castle (1962) yesterday, and before that, The Zap Gun (1967) and The Penultimate Truth (1964). The Man in the High Castle was my favourite of the three.

All three have a lot in common - alternate post-WW2 outcomes are explored in each. The world has been divided up into various factions, each with its own mechanics for manipulating reality. Often times events are presented simultaneously where the characters don't realize that they are responsible, much like an artist doesn't realize how they can affect a viewer or a politician makes a decision that affects the outcome for citizens. I actually thought The Zap Gun and The Penultimate Truth were in the same universe, but a quick check proved that to not be true. The books were written co-currently and are very similar to each other. The Penultimate Truth was my least favourite, mostly because the last five or six chapters explain the plot and I found it too long and wordy. It shows signs of overwriting and once the plot twist comes, loses all momentum, and then ends on a cliffhanger.

Truth is based on some earlier short stories (especially "The Defenders") and feels cobbled together. What spoils a perfectly decent plot about a government conspiracy is the clunkiness of the way everything is named. Dick uses the same words across his works in a genius stroke of continuity, but they come across as not having been read out loud:

Artiforg (artificial organ)
Aud (short for audio)
Autofac
Pac-Peop (Pack-Peep? Pee-op?)

The most aggravating word is the form of transportation called a flapple. I even noted the use of disemflappled, which sounds like what happens when an iPhone user switches to Android. I actually kept reading artiforg as artifrog, which started to make more sense. The technology in the book is also painfully clunky - predicting a far off future where robots and cable TV exist. It's hard to remember that the concept of cable was pretty futuristic at the time.

In comparison, The Zap Gun was much better, but the relationship between the main character, Lars, and a Russian love interest, Ms. Topchev, disappears shortly before the end of the book. This leaves the story feeling unresolved. Same with Truth and Castle - both just stop. Apparently there was going to be a sequel to Castle, but it never happened.

Back to Castle, the use of the I Ching as a plot device was really interesting and added a fortune telling quality that's usually filled by a piece of magical technology (an oracle appears in The Zap Gun as well, but it's a piece of technology). I liked the modes of deception in Castle (most of the characters have multiple realities as well). One of the characters, Frank Frink, has changed his name in order to escape persecution for being Jewish. His estranged wife, Juliana, experiences a transformation after giving a mysterious truck driver a ride, and even objects have multiple lives. Perhaps one of the reasons I liked Castle so much was the loving attention paid to material culture - the piece of paper that makes an object "authentic", the way clothing and gifts are used, interior design. If I had read Castle earlier, all this would have flown over my head.

Not so much with the other two books, but the world of Castle is an incredibly racially divided one (Germans and Japanese control the world, and each takes about a third of the US). Some characters spout some racial slurs that were popular, although probably still not socially acceptable back in the day. I don't believe it reflects on the attitude of the author though.

Edge of Tomorrow

We saw Edge of Tomorrow tonight and really liked it. It was an easy movie to get into, despite that I don't really like Tom Cruise. I didn't know anything about it except that it was a science fiction Groundhog Day. Happily it's much more than that, and the restarting plot is played for humorous effect which really took the grim edge off the movie. The tone was similar to Children of Men or something from the Jason Bourne series (it also made me think of Starship Troopers but far less satirical and gleefully violent). The transformation of Cruise's character, Major William Cage, from coward to hero is a good one. I want to read the original book/manga now - All You Need Is Kill - which is probably very different.

It's funny, because I have a half-written review of Pacific Rim on my phone and the two movies have similar plots, yet Pacific Rim was such a flop and poorly made movie in my eyes. It was surprisingly boring for an action movie that promised monsters versus robots. How can anyone possibly screw that up?

The movie didn't work at a camp level, nor did it really work on an action level either. The characters lacked depth and were way too predictable. It's baffling that such a CGI fest could be so beautiful but dull and emotionally empty at the same time. Each frame could have been pulled from a concept artist's portfolio, but yet each is stripped of any fantasy or wonder. The Jaegers looked neat, but are so woefully slow and clumsy that it's confusing as to why they are humanity's only hope. Even operating them is clumsy, as the pilots have no safety protection and flail about like puppets. Clearly, the world's A+ engineers were all in the same building when a kaiju sat on it.

As soon as the voiceover started at the beginning, I knew it was going to be a bad movie. It should have started the moment the hero, Raleigh Becket, is recruited from a construction site. It was a huge mistake to reveal the kaijus up front. Mako's determination to not be treated as a child could have been stronger (and why the heck was Stacker holding on to her one shoe all these years? Wouldn't he have given it back?) but really the only notable thing in the character development department. I'm willing to give a movie a pass and take hand waving and bad science with a grain of salt if it at least entertains, but by the time Mako and Raleigh are off to battle the level 5 kaiju, I was checking my phone and wondering when it would all just ennnnnnnd.