Join Us In 2019 At LTUE...We're Talking About The 1980s Version Of 2019

Many times, the spectacle of something overwhelms the details and those who should get more credit don't. One of the biggest examples of this, for me, is TV producer and writer Glen A. Larson. He was responsible for so many shows that helped form my childhood and impressionable years and changed popular culture for decades.

In literary terms, another name that sometimes gets lost in his creations is Philip K. Dick. Since I sometimes run with literary types, many of my friends know, and are familiar with his works, but for most, they only know the names of the movies that were born from his words. Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall, and more recent The Man in the High Castle, and Electric Dreams--all these and more came from Philip K. Dick.

The New York Post wrote an article about how Blade Runner and The Running Man predicted live in America in 2019. Dick did not write The Running Man (that was Stephen King), but both envisioned a society in the year we've now reached. You can read the article by clicking: HERE. It's interesting. In my opinion it reaches to prove some of its points, but still an interesting article.

In a few weeks, the 2019 version of Life, the Universe, and Everything, or LTUE will take place in Provo, Utah. On Saturday, February 16 from 12 noon to 12:45pm a group of panelists will discuss the writer and those films. Here's the panel write-up from the LTUE website:

If you want to go the website directly, click: HERE. You'll find this panel on Saturday's schedule.

I'm looking forward to this one. I've been on panels before with Mr. Wells and Mr. Parkin (Scott Parkin and I were on a previous Philip K. Dick LTUE panel a few years ago...). If you're in the area and want to learn more, or you'd like to contribute, stop in and say, "hello."

Philip K. Dick's "Blade Runner"...A Book Review

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A few months back I was a panelist at a writing symposium. The topic: The works of Philip K. Dick. I had read a couple of his works, one of which was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I spotted Blade Runner at the local library so I dowloaded the audiobook, forgetting I had already read the book.

I'm glad I read it again.

Ever since I was on that panel, I have a new-found respect for an author I already thought was amazing. I hope to read many more of his stories in the future.

Blade Runner is a classic in every sense of the word. It's a study not only in human behavior, but in the philosophy of how a society will interact with artificial intelligent life forms of their own creation. The most fascinating part of the book for me was when the book's protagonist, Rick Deckard is taken to a faux police station for questioning. As a bounty hunter Rick's job is to eliminate an advanced android, the Nexus-6. The conversation between Rick, a human, and the police chief, an android is worth the price of admission. What if an android doesn't know it's an android and believes it's human? There are many philosophical questions found throughout the pages.

The world in which the book is set is dreary and grim where the existence of living animals is a rare exception and Rick's desire to obtain something that is alive causes him to make rash decisions. The animals fetch exorbitant prices and their robotic counterparts are expensive as well. I found it interesting that mankind's desire to have animals in the world continues, even if they're counterfeit. They continue to exist, as if technology can overcome the extinction of many species. It makes sense that androids, so life-like that it requires elaborate tests to identify them, interact and live among humans. At least, in the world Philip K. Dick created, it makes perfect sense.

Reading the novel made me want to watch the 1982 classic, but I did not. In a way I'm glad--I like the written story better, and that's saying a lot because the film is stunning. If you haven't read Blade Runner or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, you really should.

* Photo used without permission from: https://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/516036.Blade_Runner