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The Simulacra
Set in the middle of the twenty-first century, The Simulacra is the story of an America where the whole government is a fraud and the President is an android. Against this backdrop Dr. Superb, the sole remaining psychotherapist, is struggling to practice in a world full of the maladjusted. Ian Duncan is desperately in love with the first lady, Nicole Thibideaux, who he has never met. Richard Kongrosian refuses to see anyone because he is convinced his body odor is lethal. And the fascistic Bertold Goltz is trying to overthrow the government. With wonderful aplomb, Philip K. Dick brings this story to a crashing conclusion and in classic fashion shows there is always another layer of conspiracy beneath the one we see.
214 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
About the author
Philip K. Dick
1,759 books20.7k followersPhilip K. Dick was born in Chicago in 1928 and lived most of his life in California. In 1952, he began writing professionally and proceeded to write numerous novels and short-story collections. He won the Hugo Award for the best novel in 1962 for The Man in the High Castle and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year in 1974 for Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. Philip K. Dick died on March 2, 1982, in Santa Ana, California, of heart failure following a stroke.
In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. Although Dick spent most of his career as a writer in near-poverty, ten of his stories have been adapted into popular films since his death, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, and The Adjustment Bureau. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the one hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series.
In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. Although Dick spent most of his career as a writer in near-poverty, ten of his stories have been adapted into popular films since his death, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, and The Adjustment Bureau. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the one hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series.
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May 2, 2024
*** 2024 reread -
There’s a scene in the 1978 film Animal House directed by John Landis and starring the late great John Belushi where Belushi, portraying the character John Blutarski, has named a new pledge Flounder. When Flounder asks brother Bluto why he was so named Bluto belches and asks why not.
PKD wrote the Simulacra in 1963 and interestingly Animal House was set in about the same time. But from that vantage Phil seems to ask, indeed, brother Bluto why not?
Why not throw in about a dozen different plots and subplots and dozens and dozens of characters and enough untangled storyline to wrap up a wub.
There’s just lot going on. And hey, I’m a PKD fan. I like his wacky middle period, I drink in this homebrew with gusto, but even I have to roll my eyes and shake my head at this monumental absurdity.
A military friend of mine who has a sense of humor like a gutter, and who cusses and profanes through life, recently told maybe one of the dirtiest jokes possible to be told in the English language, and when I commented upon him needing therapy, his rebuttal was “but you laughed didn’t you?”
And so from the vantage of the afterlife if Phil were to respond to my review, he could ask me “but you liked it didn’t you?”
****
The Simulacra reveals Philip K. Dick as a nihilist with a sense of humor.
Published two years after the Hugo award winning The Man in the High Castle, The Simulacra may have been a pulpier version of the science fiction classic, as PKD further explored an alternate history theme of fascist domination.
The Simulacra is also reminiscent of Heinlein’s The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (published in 1985, so was Heinlein influenced by PKD?). But mainly, PKD shows how everything is false and any and every institution is susceptible to be taken over by simulacra (personifying and embodying his extended metaphor for all encompassing superficiality) No subject is free from PKD’s unique and stinging satirical observation; the Democratic and Republican parties have merged into one party (showing PKDs amazing powers of prophecy). The perpetual first lady has been portrayed by a series of actresses and the president is an android.
PKD uses absurdist Kafkaesque situations and surreal caricature to form an allegory about the inherent falsity of institutional (especially political) structures. Like the best of PKD, The Simulacra features an eclectic blend of pulp science fiction awesomeness – time travel, Oedipal references, Neanderthals, android politicians, Nazis in togas, telekinetic, hypochondriac musicians, telepathic Martian bugs and a classical jug band duo. A lesser known PKD gem.
There’s a scene in the 1978 film Animal House directed by John Landis and starring the late great John Belushi where Belushi, portraying the character John Blutarski, has named a new pledge Flounder. When Flounder asks brother Bluto why he was so named Bluto belches and asks why not.
PKD wrote the Simulacra in 1963 and interestingly Animal House was set in about the same time. But from that vantage Phil seems to ask, indeed, brother Bluto why not?
Why not throw in about a dozen different plots and subplots and dozens and dozens of characters and enough untangled storyline to wrap up a wub.
There’s just lot going on. And hey, I’m a PKD fan. I like his wacky middle period, I drink in this homebrew with gusto, but even I have to roll my eyes and shake my head at this monumental absurdity.
A military friend of mine who has a sense of humor like a gutter, and who cusses and profanes through life, recently told maybe one of the dirtiest jokes possible to be told in the English language, and when I commented upon him needing therapy, his rebuttal was “but you laughed didn’t you?”
And so from the vantage of the afterlife if Phil were to respond to my review, he could ask me “but you liked it didn’t you?”
****
The Simulacra reveals Philip K. Dick as a nihilist with a sense of humor.
Published two years after the Hugo award winning The Man in the High Castle, The Simulacra may have been a pulpier version of the science fiction classic, as PKD further explored an alternate history theme of fascist domination.
The Simulacra is also reminiscent of Heinlein’s The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (published in 1985, so was Heinlein influenced by PKD?). But mainly, PKD shows how everything is false and any and every institution is susceptible to be taken over by simulacra (personifying and embodying his extended metaphor for all encompassing superficiality) No subject is free from PKD’s unique and stinging satirical observation; the Democratic and Republican parties have merged into one party (showing PKDs amazing powers of prophecy). The perpetual first lady has been portrayed by a series of actresses and the president is an android.
PKD uses absurdist Kafkaesque situations and surreal caricature to form an allegory about the inherent falsity of institutional (especially political) structures. Like the best of PKD, The Simulacra features an eclectic blend of pulp science fiction awesomeness – time travel, Oedipal references, Neanderthals, android politicians, Nazis in togas, telekinetic, hypochondriac musicians, telepathic Martian bugs and a classical jug band duo. A lesser known PKD gem.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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February 1, 2021
"He wandered about the ample pile, or along the garden-terrace, with 'his cogitative faculties immersed in cogibundity of cogitation.'" --- Thomas Love Peacock, Nightmare Abbey
Like the gent above in TLP's story, immerse your brain waves in a cogibundity of cogitation by reading PKD's The Simulacra.
So much PKD craziness, so many plots and subplots, it is as if the great SF author had notes in his bottom drawer for a dozen novels and decided to combine them all into one mind-blowing extravaganza.
You want Nazi conspiracies, you want AI versions of Martians, you want a critique of psychoanalysis, you want intellectual Neanderthals, you want Bach and Mozart played by jug artists? If so, you've found your novel.
One of my favorite parts: Al Miller and his partner Ian Duncan audition at the White House to play Beethoven sonatas on their jugs but, alas, the talent scout tells them "no."
Al and Ian must leave the stage to make way for the next act: a group of dogs all dressed up in Elizabethan costumes for an authentic performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet.
To be or not to be. Or it is, to woof or not to woof. Actually, I would love to see those dogs perform their Shakespeare at the Globe Theater in London.
American New Wave SF author Philip K. Dick, born 1928
November 2, 2021
Ingredients
Paranoia (35%), androids, German, psi powers, monolithic housing complexes, Nazis, time travel, psychiatry, nuclear war, divorce, Martian colonies, breasts, Neanderthals, alien creatures, permitted flavoring and coloring agents. Contents may become separated during reading. Does not contain logic.
Paranoia (35%), androids, German, psi powers, monolithic housing complexes, Nazis, time travel, psychiatry, nuclear war, divorce, Martian colonies, breasts, Neanderthals, alien creatures, permitted flavoring and coloring agents. Contents may become separated during reading. Does not contain logic.
March 30, 2023
One of PKD's more absurd and complex yarns where he presents a world with layers of deep political and corporate conspiracy that even those caught up in it don't fully grok. Due to the presence of the unpredictable factors of time travel and psy powers possessed by certain individuals the seemingly stable totalitarian government is anything but. Yet the masses prefer illusion and the superficiality of the ersatz and trite to the truths of reality and are seemingly content. It's a hollow world where even psychiatric treatment is outlawed, thanks to the big pharma cartels, with the only possibility of escape being emigration to Mars where the best one can hope for is to scratch out a lonely, desolate existence as a farmer.
It would all be quite cynical and gloomy if it weren't for the ridiculous neo-nazis, Neanderthal "chuppers", a classical jug band, remote mind control devices in the form of adorable yet extinct Martian creatures, roving advertisement bots that stalk and literally hunt down people and an utterly paranoid hypochondriac classical musician who plays the piano with his mind and seems to be at the center of it all. Yet he most certainly is not, as there is rarely anybody or anything at the center of a PKD novel, if one can even identify such a thing.
It would all be quite cynical and gloomy if it weren't for the ridiculous neo-nazis, Neanderthal "chuppers", a classical jug band, remote mind control devices in the form of adorable yet extinct Martian creatures, roving advertisement bots that stalk and literally hunt down people and an utterly paranoid hypochondriac classical musician who plays the piano with his mind and seems to be at the center of it all. Yet he most certainly is not, as there is rarely anybody or anything at the center of a PKD novel, if one can even identify such a thing.
June 24, 2024
In 1963, PKD wrote 5 novels (!), the most he had written in a given year. 'The Simulacra' was 'the middle child'.
Dick (of course) did drugs through the '60s; largely amphetamine (as reported). So he churned on both ends. I can't speak to what-all he was pumping in - but what he was pumping out in that decade has maintained a longer shelf life than he may have ever anticipated. The sense that his time has come seems to resonate still.
'The Simulacra' appears to have a bit of residue from the author's 1961 novel 'The Man in the High Castle' (which I've yet to read*). It is set post-WWIII - I'm guessing sometime around the year 2050 - and the US (to its apparent benefit) has merged with West Germany. Society actually seems to be functioning well: Democrats and Republicans have joined forces, becoming one Party (hmm... interesting), voting is compulsory (... nice), no POTUS is allowed a second term, and it seems that citizens do not need to be concerned about their basic needs / human rights being met (... still rather interesting and nice).
* This has been remedied.
The first whiff of something out of whack (during the book's funnier opening section) is learning that the society has become matriarchal. Not that that's the worrisome part but the First Lady is a constant. The President may change but she doesn't; she just gets a new husband every four years.
So there's a wrench in the works; and not just one. And exactly what kind (including shadow forces) takes awhile to figure out. It takes most of the book, actually. This may be one of PKD's most complicated set-ups. This particular amalgam of disparate elements even confuses a number of the characters; 'cause they say so.
Some are confused (or progressively nervous without always knowing why) to such a degree that they suddenly feel the need to go to a psychiatrist. However, a law has just been passed making chemical therapy ok - but none of that face-to-face stuff is allowed. ~ because people might deduce and get to the bottom of things. Bad things.
Meanwhile... it's a common thing in 2050-ish to want to take off for Mars... to lead (oddly enough) a simpler life. Still, being able to 'jump ship' - and to board another ship to get to Mars - may also soon be in jeopardy.
The specifics of this novel which make it prescient are of particular interest and, naturally, help the work stay fresh. Though corporate power is definitely a thing here, I was on the lookout for the addition of something even darker in tandem. But it seems PKD mainly had the military in his 'crystal ball'; not someone as insidious as, oh, say... Charles Koch. (Though there may be the early hint of a black-hearted SCOTUS.)
Ultimately, the novel emerges as a genuine surprise in the PKD canon. To be honest, I'm still processing this tale. (I've been told that most PKD books probably need to be read twice; there's something in that.) But I believe it safe to say 'The Simulacra' is among the author's most underrated work.
Dick (of course) did drugs through the '60s; largely amphetamine (as reported). So he churned on both ends. I can't speak to what-all he was pumping in - but what he was pumping out in that decade has maintained a longer shelf life than he may have ever anticipated. The sense that his time has come seems to resonate still.
'The Simulacra' appears to have a bit of residue from the author's 1961 novel 'The Man in the High Castle' (which I've yet to read*). It is set post-WWIII - I'm guessing sometime around the year 2050 - and the US (to its apparent benefit) has merged with West Germany. Society actually seems to be functioning well: Democrats and Republicans have joined forces, becoming one Party (hmm... interesting), voting is compulsory (... nice), no POTUS is allowed a second term, and it seems that citizens do not need to be concerned about their basic needs / human rights being met (... still rather interesting and nice).
* This has been remedied.
The first whiff of something out of whack (during the book's funnier opening section) is learning that the society has become matriarchal. Not that that's the worrisome part but the First Lady is a constant. The President may change but she doesn't; she just gets a new husband every four years.
So there's a wrench in the works; and not just one. And exactly what kind (including shadow forces) takes awhile to figure out. It takes most of the book, actually. This may be one of PKD's most complicated set-ups. This particular amalgam of disparate elements even confuses a number of the characters; 'cause they say so.
Some are confused (or progressively nervous without always knowing why) to such a degree that they suddenly feel the need to go to a psychiatrist. However, a law has just been passed making chemical therapy ok - but none of that face-to-face stuff is allowed. ~ because people might deduce and get to the bottom of things. Bad things.
Meanwhile... it's a common thing in 2050-ish to want to take off for Mars... to lead (oddly enough) a simpler life. Still, being able to 'jump ship' - and to board another ship to get to Mars - may also soon be in jeopardy.
The specifics of this novel which make it prescient are of particular interest and, naturally, help the work stay fresh. Though corporate power is definitely a thing here, I was on the lookout for the addition of something even darker in tandem. But it seems PKD mainly had the military in his 'crystal ball'; not someone as insidious as, oh, say... Charles Koch. (Though there may be the early hint of a black-hearted SCOTUS.)
Ultimately, the novel emerges as a genuine surprise in the PKD canon. To be honest, I'm still processing this tale. (I've been told that most PKD books probably need to be read twice; there's something in that.) But I believe it safe to say 'The Simulacra' is among the author's most underrated work.
January 22, 2021
Maybe it's just that I've read so many of them at this point, but The Simulacra (written 1963, published 1964) seems to me one of the more P.K. Dickian of PKD novels. Take a look at the very first paragraph, for example, and feel free to let me know in the comments how many characteristically Dickian features you notice. I count at least eight (8):
The interoffice memo at Electronic Musical Enterprise frightened Nat Flieger and he did not know why. It dealt, after all, with a great opportunity; the famed Soviet pianist Richard Kongrosian, a psycho-kineticist who played Brahms and Schumann without manually approaching the keyboard, had been located at his summer home in Jenner, California. And, with luck, Kongrosian would be available for a series of recording sessions with EME. And yet-In any case, I'm often disoriented by how familiar PKD's worlds feel. In The Simulacra, sure enough, there is a lower class of "jobless nomads" known as the Bes, some of whom take up with the right-wing populist movement led by Bertold Goltz; others become obsessed with the images of politicians on TV- such as the Jackie Kennedy stand-in Nicole Thibodeaux- forgetting their personal problems in her White House tours, in a flood of images and nostalgia and fantasy; and the president is a robot- or simulacrum, if you prefer- created by a corporation.
In the background (or is it the foreground?) is a dread of war that's also found in Dick's Time Out of Joint, Dr. Bloodmoney, and most likely a few other of his novels that I'm forgetting. But this is the early 60s, Phil wrote this book shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis, and so it's thermonuclear war in the background (or the foreground), the potential end of human civilization, which Phil the writer at least had a good sense of humor about, as you'll see if you read the book. Observing the beginning of what might be such a war, Nat Flieger echoes a character from Time Out of Joint:
"I don't even know who you're talking about", Nat said. "I can't make out exactly what's going on, what the issues are or who's fighting whom. Do you know? Maybe you can tell me." But I doubt it, he thought. I doubt if you can turn it into something sensible for me- or for anyone else. Because it is just not sensible.And of course advertising is everywhere, especially in the form of flying commercials:
Something sizzled to the right of him. A commercial, made by Theodorus Nitz, the worst house of all, had attached itself to his car.The resemblance between our world and Dick's novels works both ways. I was just reading about Alexei Navalny returning to Moscow, for example. He was poisoned to within an inch of his life, recovered in Germany, and is now returning to Russia, seemingly more determined than ever. For some reason, it struck me as the kind of news item that one of Dick's characters would notice. And if this were one of Dick's novels, we would eventually learn that the real Navalny died years ago, and since then he's been portrayed by a line of sims, paid for by the Putin government to keep up the appearance of...
"Get off", he warned it. But the commercial, well-adhered, began to crawl, buffeted by the wind, toward the door and the entrance crack. It would soon have squeezed in and would be haranguing him in the cranky, garbagey fashion of the Nitz advertisements.
He could, as it came through the crack, kill it. It was alive, terribly mortal; the ad agencies, like nature, squandered hordes of them.
The commercial, fly-sized, began to buzz out its message as soon as it managed to force entry. "Say! Haven't you sometimes said to yourself, I'll bet other people in restauarants can see me! And you're puzzled as to what to do about this serious, baffling problem of being conspicuous, especially-"
He crushed it with his foot.
...Well, anyway. Biographer Lawrence Sutin says that The Simulacra is perhaps Phil's most complexly-plotted novel, and he's probably right, with apologies to Clans of the Alphane Moon. I felt there were one or two too many subplots myself, detracting from the depth of each and making a few of the characters seem very thin. On the other hand, the book also contains some of Phil's weirdest and wildest ideas, with an ending that Sutin calls "an abysmal fade-out", but which I liked: understated, ominous and funny at the same time. And speaking of humor, I was as usual cracking up on just about every other page, which is not a surprise, because Phil was one of the greatest comedians of the 20th century.
May 8, 2020
Τσεκάροντας τα... κιτάπια μου, βλέπω ότι τελευταία φορά που διάβασα βιβλίο του πολυαγαπημένου μου Φίλιπ Ντικ ήταν τον Ιούνιο του 2017, και μάλιστα δεν ήταν καν επιστημονικής φαντασίας, αλλά ένα από τα λίγα "συμβατικά" μυθιστορήματα που έγραψε, το (κατά τη γνώμη μου) υπέροχο "Η Μέρι και ο γίγαντας". Αν κοιτάξω πότε ήταν η τελευταία φορά που διάβασα κάποιο από τα τρελά ΕΦ βιβλία του, θα πάω αρκετά πιο πίσω, και συγκεκριμένα στον Φεβρουάριο του 2015. Η αλήθεια είναι ότι έχω διαβάσει πάρα πολλά βιβλία του (αυτό είναι το εικοστό τρίτο) και δεν θέλω να ξεμείνω τελείως για τα επόμενα λίγα χρόνια, αλλά δεν μου κάνει καλό να απέχω τόσο καιρό από έναν ιδιαίτερα αγαπημένο συγγραφέα. Και, άλλωστε, πολλά από αυτά που έχω διαβάσει, το μόνο σίγουρο είναι ότι θα τα ξαναπιάσω στα χέρια μου κάποια στιγμή.
Λοιπόν, φτάνει με τις φλυαρίες, και ας έρθουμε στο προκείμενο: Πρόκειται για ένα ιδιαίτερα απολαυστικό μυθιστόρημα, που μπορεί να μην φτάνει το επίπεδο των αριστουργημάτων του, όμως δίχως αμφιβολία προσφέρει απλόχερα τρέλα, δράση, ενδιαφέρουσες ιδέες και κάποιους αξιοπερίεργους χαρακτήρες (έστω και αν δεν έχουν ιδιαίτερο βάθος, τόσοι που είναι). Γενικά γίνεται ένας μικρός χαμός στο βιβλίο, η δομή της ιστορίας είναι κλασικά πολυσύνθετη, η μια τρελή σκηνή διαδέχεται την άλλη, ενώ ο συγγραφέας μας μεταφέρει από τον έναν χαρακτήρα στον άλλο, χωρίς να αφήνει και πολύ χρόνο στους αναγνώστες για να πάρουν έστω και μια μικρή ανάσα. Και η ατμόσφαιρα είναι γενικά κάπως τεταμένη και αγχωτική. Όσον αφορά τη γραφή, είναι πολύ καλή και γλαφυρή, με τη γνωστή κυνική και ίσως απαισιόδοξη ματιά που χαρακτηρίζει τον Φίλιπ Ντικ.
Όπως έγραψα, το βιβλίο μου άρεσε πολύ, έστω και αν δεν αγγίζει το επίπεδο των κορυφαίων στιγμών του συγγραφέα. Πέρασα πολύ καλά και απόλαυσα την κάθε σελίδα και την κάθε σκηνή, αν και οφείλω να παραδεχτώ ότι ο Ντικ άφησε ορισμένα "γιατί" και "πώς" αναπάντητα, σχετικά με τη δυστοπία και τον κόσμο που δημιούργησε. Όμως, δεν θα πρότεινα το βιβλίο σε κάποιον που δεν έχει ξαναδιαβάσει Φίλιπ Ντικ, γιατί νομίζω είναι απαραίτητη μια κάποια εμπειρία με τον τρόπο γραφής και σκέψης του συγγραφέα, ειδάλλως υπάρχει πιθανότητα ο άγουρος αναγνώστης να χάσει τελείως την μπάλα.
Λοιπόν, φτάνει με τις φλυαρίες, και ας έρθουμε στο προκείμενο: Πρόκειται για ένα ιδιαίτερα απολαυστικό μυθιστόρημα, που μπορεί να μην φτάνει το επίπεδο των αριστουργημάτων του, όμως δίχως αμφιβολία προσφέρει απλόχερα τρέλα, δράση, ενδιαφέρουσες ιδέες και κάποιους αξιοπερίεργους χαρακτήρες (έστω και αν δεν έχουν ιδιαίτερο βάθος, τόσοι που είναι). Γενικά γίνεται ένας μικρός χαμός στο βιβλίο, η δομή της ιστορίας είναι κλασικά πολυσύνθετη, η μια τρελή σκηνή διαδέχεται την άλλη, ενώ ο συγγραφέας μας μεταφέρει από τον έναν χαρακτήρα στον άλλο, χωρίς να αφήνει και πολύ χρόνο στους αναγνώστες για να πάρουν έστω και μια μικρή ανάσα. Και η ατμόσφαιρα είναι γενικά κάπως τεταμένη και αγχωτική. Όσον αφορά τη γραφή, είναι πολύ καλή και γλαφυρή, με τη γνωστή κυνική και ίσως απαισιόδοξη ματιά που χαρακτηρίζει τον Φίλιπ Ντικ.
Όπως έγραψα, το βιβλίο μου άρεσε πολύ, έστω και αν δεν αγγίζει το επίπεδο των κορυφαίων στιγμών του συγγραφέα. Πέρασα πολύ καλά και απόλαυσα την κάθε σελίδα και την κάθε σκηνή, αν και οφείλω να παραδεχτώ ότι ο Ντικ άφησε ορισμένα "γιατί" και "πώς" αναπάντητα, σχετικά με τη δυστοπία και τον κόσμο που δημιούργησε. Όμως, δεν θα πρότεινα το βιβλίο σε κάποιον που δεν έχει ξαναδιαβάσει Φίλιπ Ντικ, γιατί νομίζω είναι απαραίτητη μια κάποια εμπειρία με τον τρόπο γραφής και σκέψης του συγγραφέα, ειδάλλως υπάρχει πιθανότητα ο άγουρος αναγνώστης να χάσει τελείως την μπάλα.
August 31, 2022
Classic science fiction published in 1964 in which the government has a simulacrum as a figurehead. It tells a story of maintaining control through sustaining the status quo and limiting access to information. It is quite forward-thinking for its time of publication, anticipating the equivalent of video chat, increased roles for women, environmental degradation, self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, and machines that are mixtures of the biological and the mechanical.
This book in particular explores the idea that the status quo will be maintained until it falls into complete disorganization. The author applies scientific principles to social systems and plays with them in interesting ways. It also anticipates a social stratification based on access to information. The “Bes” are basically at the lowest access level. They only get carefully edited information based on officially approved broadcasts. The “Ges” are the highest level. They know precisely what is going on and they engage in power plays with each other to gain ultimate control over the government. Speaking of government, this future world has the United States of Europe and America (USEA), where Germany and other European countries have joined the US as a single conglomerate.
It includes an ability for people to escape the earth and live on Mars next to a family of simulacra neighbors, the capability of teleporting people from the past, laws outlawing the practices of mental health therapists, and a colony of modern Neanderthals living in the Pacific Northwest. It feels a bit fragmented at first, but once the puzzle pieces come together, it is quite compelling. I always find Philip K. Dick’s works creative and thought-provoking.
This book in particular explores the idea that the status quo will be maintained until it falls into complete disorganization. The author applies scientific principles to social systems and plays with them in interesting ways. It also anticipates a social stratification based on access to information. The “Bes” are basically at the lowest access level. They only get carefully edited information based on officially approved broadcasts. The “Ges” are the highest level. They know precisely what is going on and they engage in power plays with each other to gain ultimate control over the government. Speaking of government, this future world has the United States of Europe and America (USEA), where Germany and other European countries have joined the US as a single conglomerate.
It includes an ability for people to escape the earth and live on Mars next to a family of simulacra neighbors, the capability of teleporting people from the past, laws outlawing the practices of mental health therapists, and a colony of modern Neanderthals living in the Pacific Northwest. It feels a bit fragmented at first, but once the puzzle pieces come together, it is quite compelling. I always find Philip K. Dick’s works creative and thought-provoking.
January 22, 2021
“At this point I’m thoroughly delusional. I’m as mentally ill as it’s humanly possible to be! It’s incredible that I can communicate with you at all. It’s a credit to my ego-strength that I’m not at this point totally autistic. Anyone else in my situation would be.”
3.5 stars. This was a bit sloppy, but it contained some rather unforgettable characters and concepts, and overall it was quite fun to read. Recommended for hardcore PKD fans/completists.
January 17, 2012
3.5 stars
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.
Philip K. Dick is one of those authors who I often enjoy reading for his peculiar ideas, cool technologies, bizarre plots, and neurotic characters. But every time I read one of his stories, I need a break from him — there’s a feeling of frantic paranoia permeating his work that makes me feel like I just need to chill out for a while. If you’ve seen the movie The Adjustment Bureau, which was based on one of his stories, you’ll know what I mean. In that story, the main character discovers that the reality he thought he knew was totally wrong. Instead, there is something big going on behind the scenes and his life is being manipulated by The Unseen People Who Are Really In Charge (TUPWARIC).
This theme is common in PKD’s stories, and The Simulacra is another example. The government of the United States of Europe and America, which appears to be a matriarchy, is a sham — the President is really a simulacrum. When TUPWARIC gives the contract for building the next simulacrum to a different simulacrum company, and Hermann Goering is fetched from the past with a time-travel device, problems ensue and the USEA government is in danger of being taken over by fascists.
Quirky characters include the First Lady who never seems to age, the telekinetic piano player who thinks that a commercial has given him phobic body odor and that he’s becoming invisible, the psychotherapist who has lost his job because a pharmaceutical cartel has managed to have the practice of psychotherapy banned, a couple of brothers who work for simulacra companies and are fighting over an ex-wife, and a couple of guys in a jug band who want to play for the First Lady. Then there’s the reclusive group of Neanderthals, descendents of radiation-exposed humans, who live in Northern California and seem to be waiting for something important to happen...
The Simulacra juggles a huge set of characters and several subplots which at first seem unrelated but which Dick successfully brings together into a coherent whole by the end of the novel, which is not necessarily a guarantee with PKD. The whole thing is chaotic, zany, creative, funny, and contains Dick’s usual undercurrent of frenzied paranoia. With so much weird stuff going on, I thought that a plot disaster was imminent, but Dick pulls it off. The Simulacra ends at the climax, though, and a sequel would probably have been well-received.
I listened to Brilliance Audio’s version of The Simulacra, which was read by “Golden Voice” and “Voice of the Century” Dick Hill. Mr. Hill, who is always superb, handled all of those characters and that madcap plot with ease. And you should hear him play a jug.
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.
Philip K. Dick is one of those authors who I often enjoy reading for his peculiar ideas, cool technologies, bizarre plots, and neurotic characters. But every time I read one of his stories, I need a break from him — there’s a feeling of frantic paranoia permeating his work that makes me feel like I just need to chill out for a while. If you’ve seen the movie The Adjustment Bureau, which was based on one of his stories, you’ll know what I mean. In that story, the main character discovers that the reality he thought he knew was totally wrong. Instead, there is something big going on behind the scenes and his life is being manipulated by The Unseen People Who Are Really In Charge (TUPWARIC).
This theme is common in PKD’s stories, and The Simulacra is another example. The government of the United States of Europe and America, which appears to be a matriarchy, is a sham — the President is really a simulacrum. When TUPWARIC gives the contract for building the next simulacrum to a different simulacrum company, and Hermann Goering is fetched from the past with a time-travel device, problems ensue and the USEA government is in danger of being taken over by fascists.
Quirky characters include the First Lady who never seems to age, the telekinetic piano player who thinks that a commercial has given him phobic body odor and that he’s becoming invisible, the psychotherapist who has lost his job because a pharmaceutical cartel has managed to have the practice of psychotherapy banned, a couple of brothers who work for simulacra companies and are fighting over an ex-wife, and a couple of guys in a jug band who want to play for the First Lady. Then there’s the reclusive group of Neanderthals, descendents of radiation-exposed humans, who live in Northern California and seem to be waiting for something important to happen...
The Simulacra juggles a huge set of characters and several subplots which at first seem unrelated but which Dick successfully brings together into a coherent whole by the end of the novel, which is not necessarily a guarantee with PKD. The whole thing is chaotic, zany, creative, funny, and contains Dick’s usual undercurrent of frenzied paranoia. With so much weird stuff going on, I thought that a plot disaster was imminent, but Dick pulls it off. The Simulacra ends at the climax, though, and a sequel would probably have been well-received.
I listened to Brilliance Audio’s version of The Simulacra, which was read by “Golden Voice” and “Voice of the Century” Dick Hill. Mr. Hill, who is always superb, handled all of those characters and that madcap plot with ease. And you should hear him play a jug.
September 15, 2018
Fake Dudes
Philip K. Dick apparently liked The Simulacra a lot, and so do I. It’s very difficult to summarize the plot of this novel, which is an extension of one of Dick’s short stories, Novelty Act, because there really happens a lot to a lot of people and in the end, we are still none the wiser.
The United States has now become the USEA since West Germany joined it sometime in the nineties, the Democrats and the Republicans have merged into one Party – that is not far off the mark with regard to present-day developments in my country –, and the President is actually – I can say it here because it is always mentioned on the book jacket – an android. Parts of the U.S. are inhabited by Neanderthal men, so-called chubbers, who are descendants of people exposed to nuclear radiation in the wake of a war, and the government has been enabled to make use of the technology of time travels. The First Lady, Nicole Thibodeaux, uses this technology to bring Hermann Göring from the past – for what particular reason never becomes quite clear in the course of the novel; or I simply didn’t get it –, and then there is Bertold Goltz, charismatic leader of a fascist movement, who is also able to undertake trips in time. The population is divided into the mass of Be’s, who don’t know more about what is going on in their world than what the media tell them, and the elite of Ge’s, who are Geheimnisträger, and most people live in great blocks of apartments, subjected to petty rules and regulations, and required to constantly do relpol tests, i.e. tests which eventually allow conclusions as to their loyalty towards the states and its official dogmas, and which also force them to expose themselves to official indoctrination because to fail in a test means to lose your place in those prestigious buildings. There is the chance of emigrating to Mars, especially with the help of ramshackle spacecraft ensuring a one-way trip, but this is frowned upon and there is no way to return.
Add to this a psychokinetic piano player who is obsessed with the idea that he exudes deadly body odours – at least, unlike many others, he worries –, the last Freudian psychoanalyst in a world where everyone seems to have a few screws loose – enough to fix an android with –, two brothers vying for one woman, and two classical jug players who want to make it into the White House with their performance, and you can imagine that The Simulacra will prove a page-turner.
Critical readers may find fault with Dick’s tendency to believe in conspiracy theories because after all, a successful conspiracy on a large scale involves more intelligence, co-operation, foresight and self-restraint than any of our present-day politicians will ever possess, but nevertheless, the author is very good at pointing out the major dangers to freedom and individuality of our time, and much of what he wrote in 1963 certainly rings true today. For example, he shows how big business corporations increase their power over the government, forcing it to pass laws in their own interests: Here we have the Chemie A.G. who manages to make the President oust psychoanalysis in order to dominate the market with the sale of psychotropic drugs. Dick also underscores the fact that working for a big corporation might not give you the same degree of self-fulfilment as working for a smaller firm:
Also, Dick’s vision of life in those big apartment blocks, with its mechanisms of emasculation and control, gives us a glimpse of what the modern world is turning into. Likewise, he is well-aware of the fact that modern-day democracy, especially with the advent of super-natural political associations like the EU, often leaves but the illusion of participation to the voters:
It is details like these that make The Simulacra, like many other PKD writings, such a compelling read. On a personal note, I also like what Dick writes about the Israeli Premier, because it shows that he has a clear understanding of the special situation of this little country which often depends on itself for its mere survival:
This is, of course, a minor detail in a novel which is, strictly speaking, all over the place, but it struck me as a very likeable one. All in all, I’d highly recommend this novel to anyone who has already read a little bit of PKD and who wants to explore his less-known works.
Philip K. Dick apparently liked The Simulacra a lot, and so do I. It’s very difficult to summarize the plot of this novel, which is an extension of one of Dick’s short stories, Novelty Act, because there really happens a lot to a lot of people and in the end, we are still none the wiser.
The United States has now become the USEA since West Germany joined it sometime in the nineties, the Democrats and the Republicans have merged into one Party – that is not far off the mark with regard to present-day developments in my country –, and the President is actually – I can say it here because it is always mentioned on the book jacket – an android. Parts of the U.S. are inhabited by Neanderthal men, so-called chubbers, who are descendants of people exposed to nuclear radiation in the wake of a war, and the government has been enabled to make use of the technology of time travels. The First Lady, Nicole Thibodeaux, uses this technology to bring Hermann Göring from the past – for what particular reason never becomes quite clear in the course of the novel; or I simply didn’t get it –, and then there is Bertold Goltz, charismatic leader of a fascist movement, who is also able to undertake trips in time. The population is divided into the mass of Be’s, who don’t know more about what is going on in their world than what the media tell them, and the elite of Ge’s, who are Geheimnisträger, and most people live in great blocks of apartments, subjected to petty rules and regulations, and required to constantly do relpol tests, i.e. tests which eventually allow conclusions as to their loyalty towards the states and its official dogmas, and which also force them to expose themselves to official indoctrination because to fail in a test means to lose your place in those prestigious buildings. There is the chance of emigrating to Mars, especially with the help of ramshackle spacecraft ensuring a one-way trip, but this is frowned upon and there is no way to return.
Add to this a psychokinetic piano player who is obsessed with the idea that he exudes deadly body odours – at least, unlike many others, he worries –, the last Freudian psychoanalyst in a world where everyone seems to have a few screws loose – enough to fix an android with –, two brothers vying for one woman, and two classical jug players who want to make it into the White House with their performance, and you can imagine that The Simulacra will prove a page-turner.
Critical readers may find fault with Dick’s tendency to believe in conspiracy theories because after all, a successful conspiracy on a large scale involves more intelligence, co-operation, foresight and self-restraint than any of our present-day politicians will ever possess, but nevertheless, the author is very good at pointing out the major dangers to freedom and individuality of our time, and much of what he wrote in 1963 certainly rings true today. For example, he shows how big business corporations increase their power over the government, forcing it to pass laws in their own interests: Here we have the Chemie A.G. who manages to make the President oust psychoanalysis in order to dominate the market with the sale of psychotropic drugs. Dick also underscores the fact that working for a big corporation might not give you the same degree of self-fulfilment as working for a smaller firm:
”After all, a small firm was much like a small family. Everyone rubbed elbows in close, personal fashion and on many psychological levels. It was much more elaborately intimate than the depersonalized human relationship held by employees and employers of cartel-sized operations.”
Also, Dick’s vision of life in those big apartment blocks, with its mechanisms of emasculation and control, gives us a glimpse of what the modern world is turning into. Likewise, he is well-aware of the fact that modern-day democracy, especially with the advent of super-natural political associations like the EU, often leaves but the illusion of participation to the voters:
”Now there was just the one party, which had ruled a peaceful and stable society, and everyone, by law, belonged to it. Everyone paid dues and attended meetings and voted, each four years, for a new der Alte – for the man they thought Nicole would like best.
It was nice to know that they, the people, had the power to decide who would become Nicole’s husband each four years; in a sense it gave to the electorate supreme power, even above Nicole herself.”
It is details like these that make The Simulacra, like many other PKD writings, such a compelling read. On a personal note, I also like what Dick writes about the Israeli Premier, because it shows that he has a clear understanding of the special situation of this little country which often depends on itself for its mere survival:
”It was not customary for him to cringe before anyone; he had come a long way to this post, and success for him would not have been possible if he had been made any other way but this His was not a position for a coward; Israel was – had always been – a small nation, existing among huge blocks that could, at any given moment, efface her.”
This is, of course, a minor detail in a novel which is, strictly speaking, all over the place, but it struck me as a very likeable one. All in all, I’d highly recommend this novel to anyone who has already read a little bit of PKD and who wants to explore his less-known works.
April 1, 2013
It's tough to give a book like this a rating. On one hand, PKD uses some really brilliant SF concepts here. Take the apartment buildings, HOA gone mad in a way that's almost eerily plausible. And then there's how the cult of personality has inhabited politics to the point where the First Lady is a perpetual office, and citizens vote on a husband for her. Plus there are some great, further out there concepts, like the jalopies that can fly you to Mars, but not back, and the simulacra themselves. I do expect to see a bit of future blindness in older SF (this was originally published in 1964), so it doesn't bother me too much to see Freudian psychonalysis so uncritically embraced, or to see that the Cold War is apprently still going on.
But concepts will only take you so far. Although there are quite a few interesting scenes, they don't ever coalesce into a whole novel. The individual storylines are too interwoven to not belong together, but they still don't really make up much of anything. And I can't really say anything great about the characters. Kongrosian and Nicole are fabulous, memorable characters, but few of the others are. Especially grating is how PKD handled Julie, whose only role in the book is to set up a conflict between brothers while they bargain, with each other, over who will possess her. I don't think I have ever been more desperate to see a storyline end than when she was told directly that she'd go with who she was told, her own feelings on the matter be damned.
So we have good concepts, but with characters who are uninspiring and a story with little payoff. PKD has done much better. But it's worth the read, if only for the scene at the end of the book with the resurgent Neanderthals.
But concepts will only take you so far. Although there are quite a few interesting scenes, they don't ever coalesce into a whole novel. The individual storylines are too interwoven to not belong together, but they still don't really make up much of anything. And I can't really say anything great about the characters. Kongrosian and Nicole are fabulous, memorable characters, but few of the others are. Especially grating is how PKD handled Julie, whose only role in the book is to set up a conflict between brothers while they bargain, with each other, over who will possess her. I don't think I have ever been more desperate to see a storyline end than when she was told directly that she'd go with who she was told, her own feelings on the matter be damned.
So we have good concepts, but with characters who are uninspiring and a story with little payoff. PKD has done much better. But it's worth the read, if only for the scene at the end of the book with the resurgent Neanderthals.
March 10, 2015
-Todos los ingredientes añadidos, sí, pero al plato le falta algo.-
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. En un futuro en el que la tecnología, los fármacos y la política intrusiva de las corporaciones han entrado en la sociedad y en los propios individuos, Nat Flieger es un empleado de la Electronic Music Entreprise que debe encargarse del contrato de grabación de un famoso y elusivo músico psicocinético soviético, Egon Superb es uno de los pocos doctores que todavía aplica el obsoleto psicoanálisis y que además está a punto de ser declarado ilegal aunque sea cada vez más necesario en realidad, Vince Strikerock es un burócrata profesional comprometido con que la asamblea general del gran bloque comunal de apartamentos Abraham Lincoln se desarrolle a la perfección y nadie la estropee con preguntas o comentarios fuera de lugar, e Ian Duncan es un estudioso de la Historia fascinado con los cambios políticos y sociales que habían tenido lugar en el mundo a lo largo de los años, pero en especial los de su propio país, donde es la Primera Dama la que realmente ostenta el poder pero donde algunos desean subvertir el orden de las cosas.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. En un futuro en el que la tecnología, los fármacos y la política intrusiva de las corporaciones han entrado en la sociedad y en los propios individuos, Nat Flieger es un empleado de la Electronic Music Entreprise que debe encargarse del contrato de grabación de un famoso y elusivo músico psicocinético soviético, Egon Superb es uno de los pocos doctores que todavía aplica el obsoleto psicoanálisis y que además está a punto de ser declarado ilegal aunque sea cada vez más necesario en realidad, Vince Strikerock es un burócrata profesional comprometido con que la asamblea general del gran bloque comunal de apartamentos Abraham Lincoln se desarrolle a la perfección y nadie la estropee con preguntas o comentarios fuera de lugar, e Ian Duncan es un estudioso de la Historia fascinado con los cambios políticos y sociales que habían tenido lugar en el mundo a lo largo de los años, pero en especial los de su propio país, donde es la Primera Dama la que realmente ostenta el poder pero donde algunos desean subvertir el orden de las cosas.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Read
September 27, 2011Jeepers, this was goofy, even for a Philip K Dick book. And like a lot of his books, all over the place: sentient alien tape recorders, neanderthals coming back to life, transporting car lots that sell junk space ships to send you to mars, time traveling, variety shows and jug bands, pet aliens, illegal psychiatrists, simulacra neighbors and government, spam flies, telekinetic hypochondriac pianists and all sorts of wacky stuff I've probably forgotten all about.
What's with this guy's obsession with apartment complexes? Martian Time-Slip had to do with mammoth apartment complexes, and I think the Game-Players of Titan did too. Did Dick get jipped by his landlady or something? Was his sink clogged at the time and the super wouldn't fix it so he decided to write about twenty novels on evil apartment complexes? I don't get it.
Kongrasian is a great character (there's a particularly vivid scene in which he projects his internal objects into objects and visa versa), and I like the idea of Nicole: it was an interesting take on a sort of eternal Jacqueline Kennedy figure that the public, via media, comes to adore uncritically.
But like Dr. Futurity, I think the laying-on-thick bizareness of this story works against itself. It's probably silly to complain about realism and logic in a Dick story, but for the most part I can suspend my disbelief, or change it in accordance with the world he creates. But in the Simulacra, we have a world where one figure, Nicole, has been First Lady and in affect in power for 90+ years. The President changes every 4 years or so, and, by the way, there are companies that create simulacrum people. And yet the populace apparently never sees a connection between these three facts until the earth-shattering revelations are revealed. It's a bit silly.
Also a bit silly and extraneous was the time-travel bit with Goering and the Nazis and the Age of Barbarism. I have no idea what was going on in this sub-plot, but it didn't go anywhere anyway, and getting in contact with a Nazi to change the past seems like a stupid idea, Philip Dick novel or not.
Ultimately this offering was a mish-mash of various previous Dick plots and tropes of past and future novels: Nazis, simulacra, conspiracy government, emigrating to Mars, deformed beings, telekinesis, blah blah blah. It's not his best and it's a step back from Martian Time-Slip, but it was wacky enough to be fun to read.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I keep on thinking the cover of this book is a silhouette of a toy cowboy, when it's obviously a busty chick: tHe SIMuLaCRa!
What's with this guy's obsession with apartment complexes? Martian Time-Slip had to do with mammoth apartment complexes, and I think the Game-Players of Titan did too. Did Dick get jipped by his landlady or something? Was his sink clogged at the time and the super wouldn't fix it so he decided to write about twenty novels on evil apartment complexes? I don't get it.
Kongrasian is a great character (there's a particularly vivid scene in which he projects his internal objects into objects and visa versa), and I like the idea of Nicole: it was an interesting take on a sort of eternal Jacqueline Kennedy figure that the public, via media, comes to adore uncritically.
But like Dr. Futurity, I think the laying-on-thick bizareness of this story works against itself. It's probably silly to complain about realism and logic in a Dick story, but for the most part I can suspend my disbelief, or change it in accordance with the world he creates. But in the Simulacra, we have a world where one figure, Nicole, has been First Lady and in affect in power for 90+ years. The President changes every 4 years or so, and, by the way, there are companies that create simulacrum people. And yet the populace apparently never sees a connection between these three facts until the earth-shattering revelations are revealed. It's a bit silly.
Also a bit silly and extraneous was the time-travel bit with Goering and the Nazis and the Age of Barbarism. I have no idea what was going on in this sub-plot, but it didn't go anywhere anyway, and getting in contact with a Nazi to change the past seems like a stupid idea, Philip Dick novel or not.
Ultimately this offering was a mish-mash of various previous Dick plots and tropes of past and future novels: Nazis, simulacra, conspiracy government, emigrating to Mars, deformed beings, telekinesis, blah blah blah. It's not his best and it's a step back from Martian Time-Slip, but it was wacky enough to be fun to read.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I keep on thinking the cover of this book is a silhouette of a toy cowboy, when it's obviously a busty chick: tHe SIMuLaCRa!
![Profile Image for Ed [Redacted].](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1429513592i/3968676.jpg)
June 19, 2012
Disjointed and rambling tale of government and corporate plots. The USEA (US and Germany) Government is run by an actress and an android. Cro-Magnon or some other Early Modern Humans have re-appeared in Northern California (I may have met some, come to think of it). Emigration to Mars now takes place in homemade and technically illegal craft called jalopies. This is a weird and wild story, even for Philip Dick.
The book contains most of the usual suspect PKD ideas; time travel, Nazis, androids, paranoia, people not who they seem to be, government plots, corporate plots, etc.
There are a ton of great ideas and I enjoyed the book however it is a bit more rambling than some of PKD's better books. It is worth reading but I wouldn't place it too high on the list. I would say definitely not an entry level PKD book.
The book contains most of the usual suspect PKD ideas; time travel, Nazis, androids, paranoia, people not who they seem to be, government plots, corporate plots, etc.
There are a ton of great ideas and I enjoyed the book however it is a bit more rambling than some of PKD's better books. It is worth reading but I wouldn't place it too high on the list. I would say definitely not an entry level PKD book.
December 9, 2015
“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Like a lot of Dick's novels, 'The Simulacra' was messy. I mean messy and complex and absurd and filled with fractals and digressions. Genius in parts, yes. But mostly messy genius. It felt like I was driving a BMW assembled by the art/pit-crew from Mad Max, perhaps.
I loved the concept of it. Dr. Superb, the only remaining psychotherapist in a world filled with the crazy and cranky. He wrote this novel like he just invented the 3 or 4 main characters, starved them a bit, and set them on a collision course and, of course, sat back and watched and wrote.
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Like a lot of Dick's novels, 'The Simulacra' was messy. I mean messy and complex and absurd and filled with fractals and digressions. Genius in parts, yes. But mostly messy genius. It felt like I was driving a BMW assembled by the art/pit-crew from Mad Max, perhaps.
I loved the concept of it. Dr. Superb, the only remaining psychotherapist in a world filled with the crazy and cranky. He wrote this novel like he just invented the 3 or 4 main characters, starved them a bit, and set them on a collision course and, of course, sat back and watched and wrote.
December 5, 2023
“Strength. The strength of being, he thought, and opposite that the peace of non-being. Which was better? Strength wore out in the end, every time; so perhaps that was the answer and no more what was needed.”
Another novel full of ideas developed with ingenuity and art by Philip K. Dick. “This is what Christ did; he worried about other people.” “‘Worry’ is the translation of the Greek Agape, and the Latin Caritas. Christ stands empty-handed; he can save no one.” “But I see what you mean, Joe said. About worry. Concern; that’s closer to it. I felt it concerned me. It did concern me. Caritas.”
Another novel full of ideas developed with ingenuity and art by Philip K. Dick. “This is what Christ did; he worried about other people.” “‘Worry’ is the translation of the Greek Agape, and the Latin Caritas. Christ stands empty-handed; he can save no one.” “But I see what you mean, Joe said. About worry. Concern; that’s closer to it. I felt it concerned me. It did concern me. Caritas.”
January 2, 2017
Bir növ olaraq yaşadığımız dünyaya layiqik? Dünyanın sahibləri bizlərik? Bəlkə təbiətin yolunda qarşısına çıxan bir başqa əngəlik, onla sülh içində yaşamasaq əvvəl axır bizdən qurtulacaq. Bir şeylər etməsinə ehtiyac duyulmadan. Çünki növ olaraq sonumuzu öz əllərimizlə gətirəcəyik. Təbiətsə, yoluna davam edəcək. Həmişə olduğu kimi.
July 28, 2024
brrrr lo dirò finché campo... Dick e Vonnegut i due più importanti scrittori di fantascienza, sicuramente i più letti, sono uno l'antitesi dell'altro
August 18, 2011
Fueled by prescription amphetamines, and in a burst of creative effort rarely seen before or since in the sci-fi field, cult author Philip K. Dick, in the period 1963-64, wrote no less than six full-length novels. His 13th since 1955, "The Simulacra," was originally released as an Ace paperback in 1964 with a cover price of 40 cents. The book, written in Dick's best middle-period style, gives us a pretty whacky look at life in the mid-21st century. David Pringle, in his "Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction," aptly describes the work as "an overpopulated novel which flies off wildly in too many directions," and indeed, readers may need a flowchart to keep track with this one. According to my careful count, the book features no less than 56 named characters (not to mention several unnamed), and the manner in which Dick interweaves their stories in an ingenious manner is one of the book's main strengths.
In the crazy world that Dick depicts, the U.S. and Germany have merged to become the U.S.E.A.; the country is in awestruck love of First Lady Nicole Thibodeaux, who has somehow remained ageless for her 73 years in office (a character most likely based on then-First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy); giant drug and simulacra (think: robots identical to humans) cartels hold almost limitless power; northern California has turned into a "chupper"- (think: radiation mutant) filled rain forest as a result of atomic war; and the government is able to make use of the von Lessinger principle to travel backward and forward in time. Against this backdrop, Dick introduces us to some of his sympathetic "little people" with big problems. Dr. Egon Superb, the world's last practicing therapist, wonders why he alone has been allowed to continue, when all other practitioners have been outlawed. Brothers Vince and Chic Strikerock, employed at rival simulacrum companies, become caught up in a love triangle and government plots. Richard Kongrosian, a psychokinetic pianist on the verge of psychotic collapse, worries about his turning invisible, as well as his "phobic body odor." Nat Flieger, a record company exec, travels to northern California to record Kongrosian and observes the chupper community there. Bertold Goltz, street agitator and time-traveling radical, attempts to bring the government down. Ian Duncan and Al Miller, with their classical-music jug-band act, finagle a way to perform before the First Lady in the White House. And, in a sadly underdeveloped subplot, Nazi bigwig Hermann Goering is brought forward 100 years in an attempt to alter history. Somehow, Dick manages to keep all these story lines percolating and interweaving, throwing out interesting bits of speculation and background color along the way, such as insectlike advertisements that burrow into cars and homes to spread their annoying messages, and a machine to which penitant folks offers confessions (the "confessionator") that is more like a lie detector than anything else. The author's pet themes of deceitful governments, the real truth behind the apparent truth ("What's unreal and what's real?" Ian asks succinctly at one point, neatly summarizing just about the entire Dick oeuvre!), and the dubious merits of drugs are given major play here, and some of the author's pet passions, such as classical music (Dick, it should be remembered, managed a record store and programmed a classical music program for the radio in the early '50s) and cigars (a good dozen or so cigars are referred to by name throughout the novel), are strongly represented. Good as it is, "The Simulacra" is not a perfect work. Ultimately, the plottings of Goltz and of National Police head Wilder Pembroke are convoluted to the point of being impossible to fathom, several characters just kind of peter out (such as Israeli P.M. Emil Stark and "conapt" resident Edgar Stone), and the novel doesn't so much wrap up neatly as abruptly come to an end. Dick could easily have kept the multiple plot threads weaving for another few hundred pages here, had he so chosen, or written a nice sequel (a common temptation for most sci-fi authors, and one to which Dick never succumbed). Still, the book is compulsively readable, often very funny, endlessly imaginative and, in all, a real hoot. It has also managed to provide me with a line that may become my new catchphrase: "How are you going to work...that into your Weltanschauung?"
In the crazy world that Dick depicts, the U.S. and Germany have merged to become the U.S.E.A.; the country is in awestruck love of First Lady Nicole Thibodeaux, who has somehow remained ageless for her 73 years in office (a character most likely based on then-First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy); giant drug and simulacra (think: robots identical to humans) cartels hold almost limitless power; northern California has turned into a "chupper"- (think: radiation mutant) filled rain forest as a result of atomic war; and the government is able to make use of the von Lessinger principle to travel backward and forward in time. Against this backdrop, Dick introduces us to some of his sympathetic "little people" with big problems. Dr. Egon Superb, the world's last practicing therapist, wonders why he alone has been allowed to continue, when all other practitioners have been outlawed. Brothers Vince and Chic Strikerock, employed at rival simulacrum companies, become caught up in a love triangle and government plots. Richard Kongrosian, a psychokinetic pianist on the verge of psychotic collapse, worries about his turning invisible, as well as his "phobic body odor." Nat Flieger, a record company exec, travels to northern California to record Kongrosian and observes the chupper community there. Bertold Goltz, street agitator and time-traveling radical, attempts to bring the government down. Ian Duncan and Al Miller, with their classical-music jug-band act, finagle a way to perform before the First Lady in the White House. And, in a sadly underdeveloped subplot, Nazi bigwig Hermann Goering is brought forward 100 years in an attempt to alter history. Somehow, Dick manages to keep all these story lines percolating and interweaving, throwing out interesting bits of speculation and background color along the way, such as insectlike advertisements that burrow into cars and homes to spread their annoying messages, and a machine to which penitant folks offers confessions (the "confessionator") that is more like a lie detector than anything else. The author's pet themes of deceitful governments, the real truth behind the apparent truth ("What's unreal and what's real?" Ian asks succinctly at one point, neatly summarizing just about the entire Dick oeuvre!), and the dubious merits of drugs are given major play here, and some of the author's pet passions, such as classical music (Dick, it should be remembered, managed a record store and programmed a classical music program for the radio in the early '50s) and cigars (a good dozen or so cigars are referred to by name throughout the novel), are strongly represented. Good as it is, "The Simulacra" is not a perfect work. Ultimately, the plottings of Goltz and of National Police head Wilder Pembroke are convoluted to the point of being impossible to fathom, several characters just kind of peter out (such as Israeli P.M. Emil Stark and "conapt" resident Edgar Stone), and the novel doesn't so much wrap up neatly as abruptly come to an end. Dick could easily have kept the multiple plot threads weaving for another few hundred pages here, had he so chosen, or written a nice sequel (a common temptation for most sci-fi authors, and one to which Dick never succumbed). Still, the book is compulsively readable, often very funny, endlessly imaginative and, in all, a real hoot. It has also managed to provide me with a line that may become my new catchphrase: "How are you going to work...that into your Weltanschauung?"
August 6, 2017
I Simulacri
... non c'è motivo di discutere i gusti degli altri, soprattutto alle otto del mattino.
P.K.Dick, I Simulacri
Primo libro di Dick che leggo.
Al di là della cura del testo, il libro mi è piaciuto. Ho sentito molto parlare di Dick e, quindi, lo conoscevo esclusivamente per “sentito raccontare” (e che racconti! :)) e limitatamente agli adattamenti cinematografici delle sue opere. Anche se I Simulacri mi è stato spiegato non essere una sua opera maggiore, ho trovato la storia coinvolgente e, soprattutto, ci sono degli spunti veramente interessanti. Interessanti le idee, interessante lo sviluppo di alcuni personaggi.
Non entro nel dettaglio perché non riuscirei a non essere “spoilerosa”; mi limito solo a dire che, se questo non sarà l'inizio di una lunga storia d'amore, sarà di certo l'inizio di un'assidua frequentazione! :)
3,5 stelle e 5 occhialini! :)
... non c'è motivo di discutere i gusti degli altri, soprattutto alle otto del mattino.
P.K.Dick, I Simulacri
Primo libro di Dick che leggo.
Al di là della cura del testo, il libro mi è piaciuto. Ho sentito molto parlare di Dick e, quindi, lo conoscevo esclusivamente per “sentito raccontare” (e che racconti! :)) e limitatamente agli adattamenti cinematografici delle sue opere. Anche se I Simulacri mi è stato spiegato non essere una sua opera maggiore, ho trovato la storia coinvolgente e, soprattutto, ci sono degli spunti veramente interessanti. Interessanti le idee, interessante lo sviluppo di alcuni personaggi.
Non entro nel dettaglio perché non riuscirei a non essere “spoilerosa”; mi limito solo a dire che, se questo non sarà l'inizio di una lunga storia d'amore, sarà di certo l'inizio di un'assidua frequentazione! :)
3,5 stelle e 5 occhialini! :)
May 4, 2018
Philip K. Dick is known for strange ideas and equally bizarre writing. This is not an exception. I didn't quite get what he was trying to say in this and sad to say I didn't overly enjoy it due to the unusual and hard to follow ideas and plot. He's an author whose books I always greatly like or dislike.
August 22, 2023
The Simulacra (1964): Phil Dick's paranoid interpretation of a future riddled with forged illusions; yet another counterfeit reality with one foot planted in a prophetic analysis of modern political culture and the other foot in the supernatural.
The plot was a tough chew for the majority of this book, with too many elements that I struggled to keep up with. I loved the final third, where the strangeness gets dialled up a notch and my favourite character, Richard Kongrosian, steals the spotlight. The mess gets cleared away and in its wake is a narrower focus which slows the pace down to a respectable level.
It is in the final third that I decided the plot didn't need to excite me because the plot is never really the point. The point becomes Phil's focus on societies falseness and its effects on mental health, a point that much of Phil's work explores particularly well whether he intends to or not. An accidental therapy and an observation on a changing medical climate.
Phil writes himself into a lot of his characters, and Kongrosian's paranoia and anxiety gives the impression that he is Phil's conduit for exploring his own society induced demons. It is as though Phil was constantly trying to figure out his mental health problems in his fiction, especially in his later novels which some people complain about being overly complex and nonsensical but which I think is half the charm. A true representation of declining, unstable schizophrenia.
Of course, Phil's other tropes are present here, too. German flavoured totalitarianism, classical music, mysterious dark haired girls and a Jungian exploration of collective unconsciousness. Jung's influence is all over this book, with themes of identity in a false world infecting every aspect from plot to character writing to world building.
It seems I usually only enjoy science fiction when it's built upon a deeper foundation. A philosophical one. If you are the same, I'm sure you're also a Phil Dick enthusiast and can appreciate the uniqueness of his themes.
As with most of Phil's work, there is a dry humour to the thing. His pessimism and delusions make for a serious piece of literature and yet there's a Martian creature called a Papoola whose empathic abilities are abused by salesmen to coerce people into buying dodgy space craft. It's this humour that makes Phil so readable. It is as though the psychological nightmares are being soothed by the chuckling touch of whimsy.
I'll summarise by saying that, while The Simulacra is middle-of-the-road PKD, it does contain the ingredients we all love about his work, and for that reason alone it is worth a read.
"Do you know what the true basis of political power is? Not guns or troops but the ability to get others to do what you want them to do. By whatever means are appropriate."
The plot was a tough chew for the majority of this book, with too many elements that I struggled to keep up with. I loved the final third, where the strangeness gets dialled up a notch and my favourite character, Richard Kongrosian, steals the spotlight. The mess gets cleared away and in its wake is a narrower focus which slows the pace down to a respectable level.
It is in the final third that I decided the plot didn't need to excite me because the plot is never really the point. The point becomes Phil's focus on societies falseness and its effects on mental health, a point that much of Phil's work explores particularly well whether he intends to or not. An accidental therapy and an observation on a changing medical climate.
Phil writes himself into a lot of his characters, and Kongrosian's paranoia and anxiety gives the impression that he is Phil's conduit for exploring his own society induced demons. It is as though Phil was constantly trying to figure out his mental health problems in his fiction, especially in his later novels which some people complain about being overly complex and nonsensical but which I think is half the charm. A true representation of declining, unstable schizophrenia.
Of course, Phil's other tropes are present here, too. German flavoured totalitarianism, classical music, mysterious dark haired girls and a Jungian exploration of collective unconsciousness. Jung's influence is all over this book, with themes of identity in a false world infecting every aspect from plot to character writing to world building.
It seems I usually only enjoy science fiction when it's built upon a deeper foundation. A philosophical one. If you are the same, I'm sure you're also a Phil Dick enthusiast and can appreciate the uniqueness of his themes.
As with most of Phil's work, there is a dry humour to the thing. His pessimism and delusions make for a serious piece of literature and yet there's a Martian creature called a Papoola whose empathic abilities are abused by salesmen to coerce people into buying dodgy space craft. It's this humour that makes Phil so readable. It is as though the psychological nightmares are being soothed by the chuckling touch of whimsy.
I'll summarise by saying that, while The Simulacra is middle-of-the-road PKD, it does contain the ingredients we all love about his work, and for that reason alone it is worth a read.
"Do you know what the true basis of political power is? Not guns or troops but the ability to get others to do what you want them to do. By whatever means are appropriate."
July 14, 2024
This is the 15th P K Dick novel I have read. Why do I read him? Because he was, in my opinion, a prophet. Like the Old Testament prophets he saw visions, though his were not brought to him by messengers from God but by a combination of amphetamines and his own precocious understanding of the world.
If you read The Similacra today, it feels eerily similar to what is going on with politics on this very day, during this very summer.
Set in the mid 21st century, the “permanent” First Lady (who is in fact the fourth) is mostly brought to the public through the media. The President is a simulacrum. There is only one political party and one Network for news.
If you are feeling tired of being on Earth, you can catch a space taxi to Mars. A complete plot for the novel can be found on Wikipedia. I suggest you read the book.
If you read The Similacra today, it feels eerily similar to what is going on with politics on this very day, during this very summer.
Set in the mid 21st century, the “permanent” First Lady (who is in fact the fourth) is mostly brought to the public through the media. The President is a simulacrum. There is only one political party and one Network for news.
If you are feeling tired of being on Earth, you can catch a space taxi to Mars. A complete plot for the novel can be found on Wikipedia. I suggest you read the book.
October 18, 2012
Hmm. This wasn't my favourite PKD novel to date. All the elements were there - exclusive time travel, dissatisfied middle-aged men whose society keeps the wool firmly tucked over their frustrated eyes, bungling psys, wry humour, a totalitarian political system of control, a keen sensitivity for the arts, nazis, baits and switches, and just enough future lingo to leave me wanting more... but somehow they didn't really come together. All the elements of the story felt a little disjointed, a bunch of clever ideas tangled together, but no warmth of connection and settling-into-place as the story progressed. An ominous future hinted at, but not illuminated, little of that fascinating depth of psychology I look forward to when reading PKD's work. Also felt like it just finished as the plot was revving up. Oh well! On to the next one.
April 9, 2016
K. Dick'ten yine bol komplolu siyasi bir bilimkurgu. Ancak bu kez içinde her türden BK ögesi var; zaman yolculuğu var, robotlar var, paralel evrenler var, üstün yetenekli mutantlar var, ışınlanma var; var oğlu var. Bu yüzden de, biraz amaç eksikliği -ve araç fazlalığı- çekiyor bence. Yine de her zamanki gibi çok güzel.
"Politik gücün asıl temeli nedir, biliyor musunuz? Silahlar ya da askerler değil, insanlara yapmalarını istediğiniz şeyi yaptırabilmektir. Her ne yolla olursa olsun."
"Politik gücün asıl temeli nedir, biliyor musunuz? Silahlar ya da askerler değil, insanlara yapmalarını istediğiniz şeyi yaptırabilmektir. Her ne yolla olursa olsun."
March 26, 2021
I notice this is 'early middle' PKD, perhaps a warm-up to the better Martian Time Slip, and the masterpiece Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.
Many of the same tropes, starting off very light-hearted and goofy (classical jug band music- that joke got old fast), ending in a meditation on the finitude of homo sapiens.
Midway through, I thought I was reading the greatest SF novel of all time. By the end, (of course!), I was in WTF mode (and so was PKD).
For the record, I don't think Dick was a reverse time-traveling genius who predicted "der Alte system" we are now living under, but he tapped into political myths which are perennial.
Many of the same tropes, starting off very light-hearted and goofy (classical jug band music- that joke got old fast), ending in a meditation on the finitude of homo sapiens.
Midway through, I thought I was reading the greatest SF novel of all time. By the end, (of course!), I was in WTF mode (and so was PKD).
For the record, I don't think Dick was a reverse time-traveling genius who predicted "der Alte system" we are now living under, but he tapped into political myths which are perennial.
“Maybe things will pick up when the next der Alte takes office,” Janet said.
Regarding her keenly, Nicole said, “How is it that you know about that?”
“Everybody in the White House is talking about it. Anyhow,” Janet Raimer bristled, “I’m a Ge.”
“How wonderful,” Nicole said sardonically. “Then you must lead a truly delightful life.”
“May I ask what this next der Alte will be like?”
“Old,” Nicole said. Old and tired, she thought to herself. A worn-out stringbean, stiff and formal, full of moralizing speeches; a real leader type who can drum obedience into the Be masses. Who can keep the system creaking along a while longer. And, according to the von Lessinger technicians, he will be the final der Alte. At least, most likely. And they are not certain quite why. We seem to have a chance but it is a small one. Time, and the dialectic forces of history, are on the side of—the worst creature possible. That vulgar buttinski, Bertold Goltz.
November 17, 2021
PKD jak ho máme rádi, a to včetně psychóz, rosolovitých mimozemšťanů, emigrací na Mars, mutantů, jaderných zbraní, sekt i alternativních historicko-politických teorií a skutečností. Jen je tedy Simulakra ještě o řád nepříčetnější než jeho známější klasiky. Např. alternativní realita je skoro ad absurdum, včetně Spojených států evropsko-amerických (USA + Německo) s jakýmsi podivným matriarchálně-gerontokraticky-kartelově-kolektivně-konspiračním vedením. A do toho se přidávají "drobné radosti", jako jsou otravné všudypřítomné létající reklamy, které se vám vkrádají do soukromí, stát používající stroj času (spiknutí s Göringem a Izraelem je součástí toho všeho) nebo kolektivní domy jako vytržené z tuzemské normalizace (povinné politické testy, společná zábava...). A to je jen část motivů v knize skrytá, včetně toho, že vše popsané je jen "pozadím", nikoli dějem samotným. Ten už si musíte užít sami. Zároveň bych nedoporučoval číst anotaci, která nechutně napovídá a je zavádějící.
July 7, 2024
The Simulacra reads like someone asked a stupid AI to write a PKD novel. This is not a compliment
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