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."

Amazon's "The Man In The High Castle"...Sort Of Like "Little House On The Prairie"

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Let me explain.

For those of you who have seen both the 1970s TV series Little House on the Prairie and Amazon's TV series The Man in the High Castle, you're probably thinking there's absolutely nothing these two productions could possibly have in common.

There was at least one thing they had in common--they're both based on books.

I remember back in elementary school, so that would be the mid-1970s, a new television series was about to begin. I was excited about it because during that time our teacher was reading to us Laura Engles Wilder's series. I couldn't wait to see all those stories we'd heard read to us portrayed on the small screen. But because I was so young, I didn't realize that, though the characters were the same, the stories would be different. I mean, if they followed the books, there's be no way the show could continue for more than one season.

The show came on. I watched a few episodes then became disinterested. I didn't continue to watch it because it wasn't like the book.

Fast-forward several decades. Last year I read Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle. It's a great work of fiction. The premise is genius--America in the 1950s where Japan and Germany won WWII and how things might have been.

I found out that Amazon was making the story into a series and so I watched it. Just like Little House on the Prairie, some of the characters were the same, but the new TV series expands on the Philip Dick's original source material, expands on it a lot.

I hope I've matured in the years since elementary school. At least, I think I have. This time I didn't let the fact that so much was different from book to series ruin the show for me. And even though both shows were similar to me in one way, there were many, many ways in which they differed.

Namely, Ms. Wilder didn't use so many swear words to get her point across...

* Photo used without permission from: http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=PV_ShortUrl?_encoding=UTF8&node=2676882011

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

Philip K. Dick's "The Man In The High Castle"...A Book Review

In February I attended a literary symposium and one of the first panels of the day and the first panel on which I was a part was on the writings of Philip K. Dick. On the panel with me were several Hugo Award winners (well, one had won a Hugo last year and another won his just last week...), a filmmaker and other noted guests.

I was out of my league, I knew it, but I ended up having a great time. I had read several Philip K. Dick novels. It became clear that I had a lot more to read. In the Dealer Room a gentleman was selling paperback and hardcover novels and it was from him I bought The Man in the High Castle. 

If I were to give an elevator pitch of the book it would go like this: imagine the United States if Hitler's Germany and Japan won WWII. What would life be like for those living in the states?

The book answers this question very effectively. Americans carry on with their lives, but if you're Jewish, you want to stay clear of the the east coast and especially the southern states where German influence and rule is in full swing. Japan rules the west coast states and those people living there must deal with Japanese customs.

What I loved about this book is how it focused on very few characters. As the stories unfold and intertwine, an interesting subplot develops. A man living in Cheyenne, Wyoming wrote a book, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, which describes a reality in which America and Britain won WWII. The book fascinates and aggravates almost everyone. We eventually get to meet the author as one of the characters interacts with him, though the result of their meeting doesn't answer many questions or tie up any loose ends. In fact, the ending is somewhat ambiguous. I was left feeling that the lives of these characters could fill several books.

This is a relatively short read, but I took my time because I didn't want to miss anything. I wanted to really enjoy it.

Since I attended that panel on the writings and importance Philip K. Dick had on the world of science fiction (and if you don't believe he did, check out his IMDb page: HERE and see how many stories you know that he wrote...), I've bought another Philip K. Dick novel that I'll be starting hopefully soon. I'm preparing my self so that if I'm ever asked to be part of another panel on this particular author, I'll be ready.