))
Philip K. Dick's paranoid classic Ubik: Fluttering at the windowpane of reality
Manage episode 425865150 series 3565351
Content provided by cam and benny feat. rich and Benny feat. rich. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by cam and benny feat. rich and Benny feat. rich or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
Philip K. Dick is a sci-fi legend, but the boys have only ever seen the film adaptations of his work (Blade Runner, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly).
Dick's 1969 classic Ubik has us divided. Benny is mad that major premises are introduced and then abandoned, internal logic is sloppy, and the twist ending is lazy writing. Rich and Cam are charmed by the imperfections and think it heightens the sense of (un)reality.
Is Ubik a metaphor for God? What are the parallels to Gnosticism, and who is the demiurge behind the false reality of half-life? Do people who experience psychotic breaks even know that it's happening? What does Plato have to do with all of this?
“He felt all at once like an ineffectual moth, fluttering at the windowpane of reality, dimly seeing it from outside.”
CHAPTERS
- (00:00:00) intro to the world of Ubik
- (00:08:35) critique of PKD’s worldbuilding
- (00:20:10) Cold storage and half-life suspended animation
- 00:25:00) Why is everything decaying? entropy and platonic essences
- (00:34:43) Joe Chip’s search for Ubik + the battle between Jory and Ella
- (00:43:10) Christian parallels and PKD’s gnostic epiphany
- (00:58:35) Arguing whether the twist ending is lazy writing
- (01:06:28) Is PKD under or overrated?
- (01:09:54) Psychosis, psychedelics, and paranoia
SEND US MAIL:
NEXT ON THE READING LIST:
The Fall - Camus
Hamlet - Shakespeare
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
26 episodes
Share
