PKD: Five Novels of the 1960s & 70s (Library of America)

This July Library of America will release its second volume of PKD. The volume will include such classics as Martian Time Slip, Dr. Bloodmoney, Now Wait for Last Year, and A Scanner Darkly.

I'm very pleased that Dr. Bloodmoney was included as it is one of my favorite PKD novels. I think this one has a strong sense of lightness, optimism, and humor that sometimes gets overlooked when people think of PKD. You'd never know that the book is such a light-hearted affair (for PKD) given the first Ace cover. One of my favorites. Little Bill floating in the sky. Is this before or after he was in the Owl?

It also contains one of my favorite novel endings, with the vermin device hopelessly chasing after the evolved Bulldogs. I always laugh when I think of this scene. Any idea if this one will ever be made into a movie?

As regards to the other choices, I agree with Mr. Gumm that The Penultimate Truth could (should for me) have been included rather than (or in addition to!) Now Wait For Last Year. I think The Penultimate Truth speaks to so much more that's going on in our day and age than Now Wait For Last Year. I view it as a lens through which we can look at the "War on Terror," or maybe the "War on Terror" is a lens through which we can read Penultimate Truth. I intend to flesh that argument out, as well as others regarding the Penultimate Truth's continuing relevance, in future posts.

However, you can't really go wrong with any of these picks. Especially A Scanner Darkly, which I find continually haunting.

Philip K. Dick, Curtis Mayfield & The Matrix

I've been reading The Penultimate Truth by Philip. K. Dick and I was struck by a number of things.

First of all, the book's influence on the film The Matrix seems profound. Of course, I have read that PKD was an influence on the film before, but surprisingly, not one mention of PKD is found on the Wikipedia article about the film. What's up with that!!? Clearly the Tom Mix is the literary precursor of the Nebuchadnezzar. And the whole plot of the Matrix, with machines living off the generated power of enslaved humans is taken directly from the Penultimate Truth. Except that in the movie, the Yance-men are replaced with robots. But given PKD's M.O. one could argue that the Yance-men are robots. Indeed, Yancy is just a simulacrum through which the above-ground elite feed their lies to the people underground. I'm sure this has been noted before in blogland, and if so, someone point me in the direction.

On a side note, for Penultimate Truth lovers out there, check out Curtis Mayfield's classic "Underground" from his album Roots. Here you'll find PKD's influence on Chicago Soul. I have no proof that Curtis Mayfield ever read PKD, but if I were to create the soundtrack for a Penultimate Truth film, it would open with "Underground."