From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V18 #219 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Wednesday, December 15 2010 Volume 18 : Number 219 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Philip K. Dick and other questions [Jeremy Osner ] Re: Philip K. Dick and other questions [Rex Broome ] Re: Philip K. Dick and other questions [2fs ] Re: Philip K. Dick and other questions [Tom Clark ] Re: Philip K. Dick and other questions [cgalbraith ] Re: Philip K. Dick and other questions [Steve Schiavo ] Re: Philip K. Dick and other questions ["Danny Lieberman" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:17:53 -0500 From: Jeremy Osner Subject: Re: Philip K. Dick and other questions I don't read a lot of SF/F either, I think that is about the only PKD book I've read; but you might want to suggest to Curt that he check out the Making Light blog at http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/ -- I've seen people ask for recommendations on the Open Threads there and get what seemed like useful leads. Jeremy 2010/12/13 Jill Brand : > Hi All! > > Since I'm not a SF or fantasy reader (and, please, I don't really want to be > schooled again on the difference), I am posing this question to people in > the know (like lots of you). My son Curt just read Do Androids Dream...for > a lit class and really liked it, so I was wondering if you could suggest > another one or two for him. God, it was almost 10 years ago when you were > giving me suggestions for my middle-school avid reader. Uggh. > > And speaking of time flying, does anyone have anything to say about UC Santa > Barbara and Berkeley (and Stanford, but that's a little pipe-dreamy)? Those > are the 3 west coast schools Curt is applying to for particle physics. > Sometimes feg suggestions are the best. > > Jill ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:05:34 -0800 From: Rex Broome Subject: Re: Philip K. Dick and other questions On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 5:42 PM, Jill Brand wrote: > > And speaking of time flying, does anyone have anything to say about UC > Santa Barbara and Berkeley (and Stanford, but that's a little pipe-dreamy)? > Those are the 3 west coast schools Curt is applying to for particle > physics. Sometimes feg suggestions are the best. > Our very own Blatzman went to UCSB... you there, Blatzy? - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:17:18 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: Philip K. Dick and other questions On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 7:42 PM, Jill Brand wrote: > Hi All! > > Since I'm not a SF or fantasy reader (and, please, I don't really want to > be schooled again on the difference), I am posing this question to people in > the know (like lots of you). My son Curt just read Do Androids Dream...for > a lit class and really liked it, so I was wondering if you could suggest > another one or two for him. God, it was almost 10 years ago when you were > giving me suggestions for my middle-school avid reader. Uggh. > > And speaking of time flying, does anyone have anything to say about UC > Santa Barbara and Berkeley (and Stanford, but that's a little pipe-dreamy)? > Those are the 3 west coast schools Curt is applying to for particle > physics. Sometimes feg suggestions are the best. Actually the list of "Selected Works" at the Wikipedia entry for Dick is a pretty good one. - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.wordpress.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:43:26 -0800 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: Philip K. Dick and other questions On Dec 13, 2010, at 5:42 PM, Jill Brand wrote: > And speaking of time flying, does anyone have anything to say about UC Santa Barbara and Berkeley (and Stanford, but that's a little pipe-dreamy)? Those are the 3 west coast schools Curt is applying to for particle physics. Sometimes feg suggestions are the best. I have quite a few friends who went to UCSB (all for Computer Science) and speak very highly of the experience. From what I've heard Cal is extremely difficult to get into, especially for science, but I'm sure he'll sail through considering his pedigree. :) - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:33:59 -0800 From: cgalbraith Subject: Re: Philip K. Dick and other questions Hmmm... I hate Fantasy fic but am a fan of Sci Fi. Of course there is "The Man in the High Castle" - a classic, but I remember being fond of "Radio Free Albemuth" and, in particular, "Valis." Particle Physics huh. I can say the UC system is great, Berkeley has the top rep but why not Stanford? They're the ones with the friggin' atom smasher thingy that you can see from the freeway. (Spoken in the most ignorant artist, not scientist, way.) I'm a great believer in "they can't tell you "yes" if they don't know you're out there." - - c On Dec 13, 2010, at 6:17 PM, Jeremy Osner wrote: > I don't read a lot of SF/F either, I think that is about the only PKD > book I've read; but you might want to suggest to Curt that he check > out the Making Light blog at http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/ -- > I've seen people ask for recommendations on the Open Threads there and > get what seemed like useful leads. > > Jeremy > > > 2010/12/13 Jill Brand : >> Hi All! >> >> Since I'm not a SF or fantasy reader (and, please, I don't really >> want to be >> schooled again on the difference), I am posing this question to >> people in >> the know (like lots of you). My son Curt just read Do Androids >> Dream...for >> a lit class and really liked it, so I was wondering if you could >> suggest >> another one or two for him. God, it was almost 10 years ago when >> you were >> giving me suggestions for my middle-school avid reader. Uggh. >> >> And speaking of time flying, does anyone have anything to say about >> UC Santa >> Barbara and Berkeley (and Stanford, but that's a little pipe- >> dreamy)? Those >> are the 3 west coast schools Curt is applying to for particle >> physics. >> Sometimes feg suggestions are the best. >> >> Jill ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 23:18:33 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: Philip K. Dick and other questions On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 10:33 PM, cgalbraith wrote: > Hmmm... I hate Fantasy fic but am a fan of Sci Fi. The usual distinction is whether yr "impossible" is rooted in scientific plausibility or not...but there are borderline cases, of course. Dick, in fact, could rarely care much about whether his situations were plausible scientifically - he (like many of the '60s new-wave SF folks) was more interested in speculating on human nature than on science per se. He's not interested in "wow cool they'll build something that can make helium into an enormous rocket and fly to Jupiter!" On the other side, though I'm not a huge fantasy fan, there are those who move beyond yr stereotypical wizards'n'dragons crap to posit worlds wherein magic is a sort of alternate physics: it has rules, it behaves regularly, it's just really different (and, typically, more subjective) than real-world physics. > Of course there is "The Man in the High Castle" - a classic, but I remember > being fond of "Radio Free Albemuth" and, in particular, "Valis." > The thing about Late PKD is that...how to put this delicately...he more or less lost his mind. But...his work from that period is quite instructive on what that means and does not mean. First, he was well aware that he was becoming rather unhinged from reality - and his private notes (the infamous "Exegesis") explore the extent to which that was one plausible explanation...versus a host of others, including wholly fantastical theses argued with rigorous logic (as in: God had visited Dick and revealed to him that in fact we are still living in Roman times...) Dick is sort of the SF Syd Barrett: an obviously brilliant man whose mind was both utterly fucked-up by drugs but whose creativity and insight was also sharpened and broadened by them. (In Dick's case, there were quite possibly underlying personal problems - possibly including childhood sexual abuse, as several biographers speculate.) Regardless: Dick's most implausible fiction (in terms of quotidian reality) nevertheless contains some of his most insightful glimpses into unsolvable paradoxes and riddles about reality and human perception, reminding us that regardless of how firmly we believe that the world out there exists (Dick himself wrote "reality is that which, when you ignore it, will not go away"), the way in which we take that world in, via our senses, interpreted in the light of memory and attitude and circumstance, is anything but objectively verifiable...which is why yr postmodernists (Baudrilllard et al.) love his stuff... - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.wordpress.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:24:21 -0600 From: Steve Schiavo Subject: Re: Philip K. Dick and other questions On Dec 13, 2010, at 9:17 PM, 2fs wrote: > Actually the list of "Selected Works" at the Wikipedia entry for > Dick is a > pretty good one. Even the "minor" novels have some great stuff. I'd go with Ubik and work back, then forward. - - Steve ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:24:57 -0800 From: cgalbraith Subject: Re: Philip K. Dick and other questions On Dec 13, 2010, at 9:18 PM, 2fs wrote: > On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 10:33 PM, cgalbraith > wrote: > >> Hmmm... I hate Fantasy fic but am a fan of Sci Fi. > > > The usual distinction is whether yr "impossible" is rooted in > scientific > plausibility or not...but there are borderline cases, of course. > Dick, in > fact, could rarely care much about whether his situations were > plausible > scientifically - he (like many of the '60s new-wave SF folks) was more > interested in speculating on human nature than on science per se. > He's not > interested in "wow cool they'll build something that can make helium > into an > enormous rocket and fly to Jupiter!" > > On the other side, though I'm not a huge fantasy fan, there are > those who > move beyond yr stereotypical wizards'n'dragons crap to posit worlds > wherein > magic is a sort of alternate physics: it has rules, it behaves > regularly, > it's just really different (and, typically, more subjective) than > real-world > physics. > So I'm a fan of Jonathan Carroll, Neil Gaiman and Lucius Shepard, among others, who "posit worlds wherein magic is a sort of alternate physics." (Nice wordage btw.) Would you place them as fantasy fiction writers? Is Borges fantasy fiction? I'm curious because I have never been able to read the dragon/elf etc., type books or even Tolkein or Harry Potter, but I lap up this kind of writing - what I always heard called "magical realism." Just asking. - - c ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:40:31 -0800 From: Tom Clark Subject: Feggy Flowers More Kimberly love http://www.rose.org/2011-winner-walking-on-sunshine/ - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 02:15:01 -0500 (EST) From: "Danny Lieberman" Subject: Re: Philip K. Dick and other questions All good suggestions made so far, personal faves include The Man In The High Castle (won the Hugo award) The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch Ubik Confessions of a Crap Artist (non-SF and probably OOP) The Transmigration of Timothy Archer D. > > Hi All! > > Since I'm not a SF or fantasy reader (and, please, I don't really want to > be schooled again on the difference), I am posing this question to people > in the know (like lots of you). My son Curt just read Do Androids > Dream...for a lit class and really liked it, so I was wondering if you > could suggest another one or two for him. God, it was almost 10 years ago > when you were giving me suggestions for my middle-school avid reader. > Uggh. > > And speaking of time flying, does anyone have anything to say about UC > Santa Barbara and Berkeley (and Stanford, but that's a little > pipe-dreamy)? Those are the 3 west coast schools Curt is applying to for > particle physics. Sometimes feg suggestions are the best. > > Jill ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V18 #219 ********************************