Friday, May 16, 2008

All I Really Need To Know I Learned From PKD

Reader Torley Linden sends in this great photo and list:

All I really need to know I learned from Philip K. Dick:

* It never happened. Or did it?
* Androids used for slave labor have issues.
* Real animals make us feel better about ourselves.
* It's easier to believe a lie than dismiss the truth.
* When in Rome… well, we're all living in Rome.
* You, too, can change your personality like clothing.
* Horselover Fat is not a porn star's name.
* Superior mutants are sexy.
* Nazis are always evil, no matter what universe you're in.
* Telepaths are a complicated lot.
* Paranoia is ideal for the adventurous.
* Sometimes, it's OK to go insane.
* Some memories are best left repressed.
* Words control people.

To which I would add:

*Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not after you

Please add your own lessons learned from PKD in the comments section.

This would make a great t-shirt!
Thanks Torley!

13 comments:

absinthia said...

Use what you have at hand before it regresses...
^_^

Elias said...

Find your true self before your true self finds you.

If it glliters then it’s gold.

Telepathy and precognition will do you no good.

Anonymous said...

Just because you're an under-employed, substance addled, square peg of a man doesn't mean you won't save the world and get the girl.

All evidence that you may be living in a simulated reality, no matter how seemingly trite, hallucinatory or just plain goofy, should be pursued with relentless credulity.

With the exception of Nazis, German stuff is cool.

Living on other planets actually kinda sucks.

It turns out that in the end, the only person you can really trust is, oddly enough, your boss.

Elias said...

There's always a nice, educated, sympathetic cop.

Reality is a state of mind, California is a police state, there's always a John Dowland song recapitulating current state of affairs.

Anonymous said...

"Now the world has created me, I am now creating the world."

▓▒░ TORLEY ░▒▓ said...

I love these comments, you guys are great... greater. David, you Total Dick-Head you, thanks for posting this! I'll link the Flickr picture here.

Elias said...

To be on the safe side, just use it as directed

Unknown said...

If you're trapped in a horrific distopia, take comfort - it might not be real.

You might just be sleeping with your twin sister. Mmmm, twincest.

Robert Cook said...

This photo was taken by Gary Panter or his then-wife Nicole (former manager of L.A. punk band the Germs), who visited Dick in the late 70s and took several pictures of Dick, alone and posing with Panter. Dick is seen in the photos wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with one of Panter's drawings.

Gary Panter is a renowned illustrator, fine artist and designer, and he has drawn for 70s L.A. punkzine SLASH, he designed PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE for Pee Wee Herman, and he has published many cartoon stories of his character JIMBO, a sort of punk Candide. Recently, a huge two-volume slip-cased monograph on his work has been published, with one volume consisting solely of excerpts from Panter's sketchbooks, while the other volume features his illustrations, paintings, constructions, and contains several articles about him and an interview with him.

I go into all this just to point out the photograph comes from a known source, a source with his own impressive c.v.

Anonymous said...

Not only are things not what they seem to be, quite often they're not what they don't seem to be as well.

Jerry said...

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.

Darryl Mason said...

* Your toaster may be plotting to kill you.

* Coin-operated front doors should not be fitted with speaking computers that drip attitude and sarcasm.

* Empathy is everything.

* Those who promise The Cure sometimes also manufacture The Cause

* That lone dog barking frantically in the early morning just might be trying to warn you of an alien invasion.

* You can write about a reality in fiction and watch it come true in the supposedly real world.

* Books, newspapers, cat litter bags, when left unsupervised for short periods of time, can self-replicate.

* If you spend too much time alone, experimenting with drugs like PCP and mega-doses of vitamins, you can convince yourself that you have the ability to travel back in time and visit yourself, as a much younger person.

* If you're researching a Philip K Dick biography, do not spend years trying to read all the books of and about religion and philosophy that he read because it will all make about as much sense to you as it did to him, in the end.

Anonymous said...

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