PKD is a genius but not always a good writer. Many PKD novels contain truly fantastic ideas, imperfectly executed. Part of this is his style. He throws you headfirst into a weird reality with little exposition; you are expected to pick it up as you go (as with the Nadsat slang in A Clockwork Orange). But I also think that the sheer creativity of the ideas makes it fundamentally difficult for the telling of the ideas to live up to the ideas’ potential – HP Lovecraft explained thus in his refusal to write the Necronomicon: ”If anyone were to try to write the Necronomicon, it would disappoint all those who have shuddered at cryptic references to it”.
The Man in the High Castle is a good example of where PKD can go wrong. An incredibly fascinating premise: an alternate history wherein the Axis powers won WW2, with a core plot them being a banned novel in which the Allies won WW2. But the book is strange, wandering, and hard to follow.
Ubik, however, is perfection. It ties together PKD’s vibrant creativity and dystopian leanings into a well-written package full of slapstick humour, complex characters (though my bar is low in scifi), and deeply unnerving ideas about the nature of reality. It took a re-read for me to appreciate the subtlety involved in the buildup, and the twists were as delightful as they were the first time. Ubik remains one of my favourite novels.
<aside> ⚠️ Heavy Spoilers Below!
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One insect learns to fly, so another learns to build a web to trap him. Is that the same as no flight? (loc 345)
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It isn't the universe which is being entombed by layers of wind, cold, darkness and ice; all this is going on within me, and yet I seem to see it outside. Strange, he thought. Is the whole world inside me? Engulfed by my body? (loc 1703)
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The precog sees a variety of futures, laid out side by side like cells in a beehive. For him one has greater luminosity, and this he picks. Once he has picked it the anti-precog can do nothing; the anti-precog has to be present when the precog is in the process of deciding, not after. The anti-precog makes all futures seem equally real to the precog; he aborts his talent to choose at all. (loc 361)
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JUMP IN THE URINAL AND STAND ON YOUR HEAD. I'M THE ONE THAT'S ALIVE. YOU'RE ALL DEAD. (loc 1725)
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"Herbert is paid a great deal of money annually, by Jory's family, to keep him with the others and to think up plausible reasons for doing so. And - there are Jorys in every moratorium. This battle goes on wherever you have half-lifers; it's a verity, a rule, of our kind of existence." (loc 2957)
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