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Ubik
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"Ubik" Final Thoughts *Spoilers*
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I, too, really enjoyed it. This is one of the best PKD books I've read.
This is and has always been my favorite PKD work. It's mind-bending, clever, imaginative, funny, creepy, surreal, irreverent, psychedelic and poignant all rolled into one.PKD is the king of ideas per page, writing dense, fast and loose but always being able to knock the reader out with a Keanu Reeves moment: "Whoa...!"
And as much as people tout Man In The High Castle as PKD's masterpiece, I think this one is really "it." It's everything I want in a PKD story.
Micah wrote: "And as much as people tout Man In The High Castle as PKD's masterpiece, I think this one is really "it." It's everything I want in a PKD story. "I only read my first PKD a few months ago and that was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. I really enjoyed it, but I must say I much preferred Ubik if I had to compare the two. The next PKD I read is going to be The Man in the High Castle because I've been told such great things about it. I'll let you know where I stand after I've read it.
But back to Ubik! I have to agree with almost all of your adjectives. So much food for thought in this little book.
It's hard to decide for me if I like more this book od Do Androids dream of electric sheep.. I loved Androids on a more emotional level, but i do find Ubik more interesting. I was crazy, so much I wanted to understand what was going on. I had to finish the book in one day because I couln't wait to find out how it was gonna end. Although the ending is very confusing, I love it for that. It just meant that I was going to spend days thinking about it, and I love the book that makes me think, and not just close the last page and forget about it. It lingered in my mind for days. But I don't really think that the author himself knew the answer to that ending and what it ment. I think he just wanted to leave possibilities for us readers to decide.. what is real, and what is not. Even his wife said similar thing.. "we can't be sure of anything in the world that we call 'reality'."
What I found the most amusing in book is 'returning throuh time'. Every time Joe was closer to the Ubik it dissolved into something old, into basic ingridients. And the way his companions, food, everything actually, were decaying. It really made me want to go on and find out what is going on.
I loved the book very much, one of my favourites ever!
I loved it too! I agree that it makes you think and its exciting (at least everything after the explosion) and fun and philosophical. I'd say the only drawback, at least for me, was that I couldn't get emotionally involved with the characters, it didn't seem to have the depth necessary for me. But I love how cognitively involved I had to be always looking for the little details and clues. For each book there is always someone who loves it, someone who hates it, and many others who feels somewhere in the middle, no matter how great we feel the book is. ;)
Geez all these 5 star ratings, I just must have missed something. The details are too fuzzy for me so many months/books removed from reading it though. I just recall being underwhelmed. I've mostly only read short stories that have been adapted into movies. It was better than some of them, but not as good as others.
Nixi wrote: "What I found the most amusing in book is 'returning throuh time'. Every time Joe was closer to the Ubik it dissolved into something old, into basic ingridients. And the way his companions, food, everything actually, were decaying."That's actually another theme PKD returned to several times in different ways. I'm not sure, but I think it was somehow part of his psychological makeup. Martian Time-Slip was another of his works where that theme is heavily explored. It's a much darker, more depressing work (dealing with autism) that left me emotionally drained. I've never been able to go back to it.
Do Androids is another of my favorite works of his, but it's a very different style. Ubik is so much a book of discovery with Joe Chip frantically trying to find out WTF is really going on, while Do Androids is dealing with the nature of humanity in the face of our seemingly unquenchable urge to destroy. Empathy is its chief theme. It's a much better book if you can put the Ridley Scott movie out of your head while reading it (love that movie, but it's not PKD's story). ;)
I really liked Ubik, but it raises so many intriguing ideas and possibilities, that I can't help but imagine other versions (some of which I might like even more) ...... the version that focuses on the global battle b/t the Runciter and Hollis corporations, psis versus nulls?
... the version in which kibbutz culture poses a threat to the capitalist realm of coin-operated appliances? (I loved the door in Joe Chip's apartment.)
...the version in which Pat's talent has more bearing on the story? (The idea of her gift fits the theme of questioning/trying to change reality, but I'm not sure we'd really miss her much if she was removed from the story.)
Here's a question: do you think "ubik" symbolizes one thing/idea?The covers of several editions I've seen call ubik something like "salvation in a spray can," but that seemed to me to be a bit of a stretch.
With the chapter headings, one thing that's ubiquitous in the book is advertising. Does the inclusion of the advertisements suggest that ads affect how we perceive reality? Or are the ads (and the coins) just elements of "realism" or world-building?
Hillary wrote: "Here's a question: do you think "ubik" symbolizes one thing/idea?"Great question.
Quoting from an old comment I posted on the Total Dick-Head blog (worth a look for anyone into PKD), I think Ubik is both a structural and a symbolic force in the book:
"Structurally--that is how it’s used in the development of the story--the product Ubik is the single unifying plot device that keeps the reader on track. It is just about the only thing that continues through the story unchanged. I say unchanged, but of course it does change outward presentation, but the product’s purpose as a restorative, an invigorator, a vitality-giving source remains immutable. It’s cleverly and subtly used so that the reader doesn’t latch onto it until the forces of entropy at work in the story become so distressing that the product’s persistent appearance becomes visible as the key plot devise pointing to the final “what‘s really going on“ revelation.
Symbolically, Ubik represents the counter agent to the forces of entropy. If I might draw a religious analogy, anyone familiar with Tibetan Buddhism might recognize the ultimate bad guy of the story as a vital being, a vampire of the life force [a "hungry ghost"]. Ubik is its opposite, a life-giving restorative that returns the vitality that is being drained away by the agent of entropy."
I think the book's focus on advertising is just part of PKD's humorous reflecting upon the consumer society just getting kicked into high gear back in the Pop era of the '60s.
Nice reflections, Micah. Ubik really does become Ariadne's thread in the second half of the book. I hadn't really thought about Jory as "vampire," but I think that adds some depth to his presence.It's interesting to me that, almost as soon as it's introduced, we start seeing the decayed versions with their presumed danger of poisoning.
I read some Philip K. Dick novels, when I was young, but I never read "Ubik" before. As with most of what Dick wrote, "Ubik" is surreal and imaginative. (Like looking at a Salvador Dali painting.) I found it a little difficult to get into at first, but once I saw where he was going, I was along for the ride.It is hard to say whether Dick meant for Jory to represent evil and Ella to represent good, or they might have been there just to give the story some closure.
I think that Ubik can be interpreted a variety of ways. At the start of each chapter, it is hawked as all things to all people, which could make it a symbol for religion. The descriptions of its benefits are described in snake oil language always with a caveat at the end. Along with the frustrating and unrelenting commercialism of the future world in which "Ubik" is set, it may be a sarcastic swipe at the apathy and depersonalization of modern society.
Penny wrote, "The next PKD I read is going to be The Man in the High Castle because I've been told such great things about it. I'll let you know where I stand after I've read it."I read The Man in the High Castle about a year ago. It was good, but I don't think it was as good as Ubik. The other PKD book I read and really enjoyed was Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.
Also, for those who did enjoy this book, I would also suggest The Door Into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein.
Hillary wrote: "Here's a question: do you think "ubik" symbolizes one thing/idea?"I took this book pretty literally, because that is the type of sci-fi reader I am. From that perspective, Ubik is simply that which counteracts whatever force Jory is using to transfer their half-life over to himself. Maybe it is actually a force in the half-life world, but it could just be an idea: it seems like the only thing that has agency in the half-life world is the mind, and if the mind believes in something strongly enough, maybe Jory cannot take over that mind, it seemed like they were implying that when they said strong personalities sometimes take over weak ones in half-life, and when someone (Joe?) postulated that Ubik might work by faith.
And if that is the case, Ubik then might represent different things to different people in half-life, since their minds might all interpret it differently. However, if that were the case I would think people would see different things: Joe might see a spray can, Runciter might see healing hands, Pat might see a blinding light. Since they all saw a spray can (or balm, or whatever form it was currently in), Ubik might just be a placeholder for whatever force of will they are using to do battle. In which case the advertising makes a lot of sense, because it would buttress up your conviction in the battle.
I enjoyed both The Man in the High Castle and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, but I'd probably give Flow My Tears the edge.I couldn't help thinking of John Cage and his music after reading Man in the High Castle. The I Ching plays a role (and PKD used it in writing the book), and the idea of aleatory or chance-based composition is particularly strong.
Although there's some feeling of randomness in Ubik, it doesn't seem "deliberately random" in the same way -- and in the end, it seems most things in Ubik have plausible explanation(s).
I think it's interesting I interpreted Ubik so differently, especially the advertisements. The way it says "Perfectly harmless if used as directed." seemed so completely ominous to me that I truly feared Ubik in the beginning. It was everything, a breakfast sweetener, a stimulant, a cleaning agent, and I don't know what else, but all the while it was hiding some threat, that if used in any way other than how it was directed, it would be dangerous, possibly deadly, or habit forming or who knows?
So I never thought of it as being the savior in a spray can. I saw it as a double edged sword. It will perform as advertised, but it isn't really there to help you. It's there to help the company or entity that produced it just like other consumer products, especially sketchy chemical ones.
It did however throw me for a loop when in the final chapter, the italicized text at the beginning was not an advertisement. It was a declaration equating Ubik, to God if memory serves. It was a library book for me and I've returned it already, or else I would quote all these things I'm referencing. Can anyone post what it said in the final chapter? That Itallic part?
F.F. wrote: "Can anyone post what it said in the final chapter? That Itallic part?""I am Ubik. Before the universe was, I am. I made the suns. I made the worlds. I created the lives and the places they inhabit; I move them here, I put them there. They go as I say, they do as I tell them. I am the word and my name is never spoken, the name which no one knows. I am called Ubik, but that is not my name. I am. I shall always be."
I didn't think that final quote necessarily controverts ubik as ominous/double-edged sword; I couldn't help thinking of the Baghavad Gita by way of Oppenheimer when I read it.
That's a good point, F.F. I do remember being afraid of it at the beginning, especially when Joe thought it would eat out his insides. But then as it became the only hope, it made me think that the warnings were all part of the malicious force, trying to trick you into not taking it. That doesn't really make sense, since I think even Runciter (or Ella?) was adamant about using it exactly as directed. But since it ultimately does work, what do you think the reason for the ominousness is?
I always read those "safe if used as directed" bits as PKD's comic little jab at consumerism, a wry grin, not a warning so much.
I thought a lot about the symbolism of Ubik regression. Ubik was what saved him in the end, but only in the spraycan form (which is ironic since aerosol spray is harmful to our environment). In the regressed forms it seemed toxic, not just ineffective. I still haven't figured it out but it just keeps nagging at me that there has to be something... the imagery of having something harmful be re-worked into something useful and "life" saving keeps coming back to me days later.
Thank you much for posting that R!I thought the warning portions of the adverts were also meant to be a jab at consumerism, but the question is, would you compare it to the debatably superfluous safety labels on things like buckets, urging you not to keep water in them in case a baby falls in? Or would you compare it to a pesticide on your garden, for which you are supposed to wear full respiratory and eye protection while applying?
I took it as the latter, in my mind I compared Ubik to the street drug "bath salts," those all purpose chemical compounds made of anything and everything that were advertised as bath salts, incense, cleaning agent... etc. These came about after PKD's time... But my interpretation of it was that Ubik was inherently dangerous. That its true form and most common use was exceedingly harmful, like Bath salts. While the other uses, may be safe, the nature of the product is quite sinister.
Unlike a bucket, whose purpose is completely friendly and domestic. I do still think its important to heed the warning about the babies in the buckets though. That would obviously be a tragedy, but the nature of the warning seems unlike that of the Cover your A@@ approach that the bucket manufacturer took.
Now as for the final chapter's italic part... I am not sure. It is still ominous. Sort of gloating... Beats me! I'm thinking of it as a "what am I" riddle.
Though I don't know how much the author intended the reader to look into it.
Alicja wrote: " I'd say the only drawback, at least for me, was that I couldn't get emotionally involved with the characters, it didn't seem to have the depth necessary for me. But I love how cognitively involved I had to be always looking for the little details and clues. "that was the split for me, Alicja: i had no connection to any of the characters, so while i found what was happening to be an interesting puzzle, i didn't care who it happened to. i think people who are fascinated by the complex puzzle structure are able to overlook the cardboard-thin characters.
Hillary, i agree completely that there were a whole lot of potentially more engaging stories stuffed into the nooks and crannies of this one!
the adverts at the top of each chapter cracked me up... the "use only as directed" bits were definitely a sly grin at ad culture in general, and i think also a clue to Joe that he needed to figure out the use of ubik before haphazardly applying it to everything. i figured they were ads in the background of the world Joe was moving through, like on billboards or magazines, glimpsed to one side but not central to the plot.
When I left off in first impressions, I thought this book was about to get great...my suspicions about the characters being dead had just been confirmed and then...it didn't get great. Not for me anyway. I wanted to like it, I liked the setup with the psi and anti-psi talents, half-life etc. But it just didn't do it for me. I agree with Michelle and Hillary about there being a lot of potential other tacks that PKD could have taken and I think I would have enjoyed it more if he had taken a different tack.
I wanted more on the morals and experience of half-life. I wanted the puzzle to have a satisfying conclusion. Want, want, want - I know... And perhaps if I had enjoyed it just a little but more I would go back and reread and find more of what I was looking for first time round.
The product Ubik was excellently sinister (agree there F. F.), but the fact that it turned out to be a good thing annoyed me a bit. I was interested by the question of what Ubik was...but if it was a manifestation of strength of will, or faith, or similar, then would it even have worked on Joe, who seemed less than convinced of its properties?
The other thing that bothered me a little was that the internal logic of the regression process seemed a bit off. The initial manifestations were mouldy coffee, dry cigarettes, etc - which was decay, not regression, which seemed clumsy. But perhaps I missed something here and there were three processes at work.
Also, the writing continued to bother me. I do think there were some stunning passages of description in this book, but for me they were undermined by the clunky dialogue and too much overt exposition.
Worst of all, I just didn't care. Sorry Runciter...are you dead? Aren't you? I just don't give a Joe Chip. :-(
20 years ago, I read a little bit too much PKD - after a while it got repetitious: He (always) juggles several tiers of reality: You never know where reality ends and an internal, imaginated world starts. But after all these years, I'm ready once again to read this scifi grandmaster's novel.PKD is full of ideas and injects them into his excellent world building. E.g. everything asks for coins to be operated - even doors to appartments need coin to let you out. PKD discusses mercantile philosophy and consumption relations a little bit - so much for the brain :)
There is a very good analysis of this novel (though only in German) available at http://www.epilog.de/texte/roberts-ad...
In summary, I loved this book and I think it is well placed in the Gollancz' "SF Masterworks' series. Currently, it found it's place between Dangerous Visions and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
More in my review
Okay, so here is my main question(s) about the ending. Jory said he was creating their entire world, right? And he wasn't strong enough to prevent the Ubik or the regressions? But if that is the case, why create these worlds in the first place? Why not just suck their energy - is it because he had so much fun toying with them? Do we assume this is why Runciter and the entire team were allowed to believe they were still alive, and it was the other that was dead, just to toy with them?For everyone experiencing Jory's artificial world, is it likely that they would only have memories of the explosion on Luna and then immediately taking Runciter/the team to Earth - wouldn't there be a gap where they were all dead and having half-life experiences before Jory was connected to them?
Despite my questions and possible quibbles with the execution, I really enjoyed the idea of trying to present what kind of "life" the mind might have in cryogenic storage. The questionable reality and regressions were great devices, I almost feel like you could do something similar writing a story from the perspective of someone with Alzheimer's. And I recently had this type of experience reading Girl in Need of a Tourniquet: Memoir of a Borderline Personality. I thought the movies Inception and Memento did great jobs along similar lines creating the experience of an alternate reality through the movie medium.
Michael wrote: "Okay, so here is my main question(s) about the ending. Jory said he was creating their entire world, right? And he wasn't strong enough to prevent the Ubik or the regressions? But if that is the..."My take on it is that living without a life is not living at all. Jory needed the energy of the preserved dead to avoid his half-life dissipating, but I think he wanted more than just to survive. He yearned to interact with other humans, although he was dysfunctional at doing so. He created the fantasy world so that he would not be alone.
What R. said. Jory's hanging on the last of a declining life, but it's not really a "life" if no one else is there. It's a kind of desperate existence, both needing the other people there to experience something approximating a non-half-life existence, while needing to feed on those same lives to stay consciously viable.
Ubik and PKD are definitely reminders of when drugs were an experimental event rather than just a pleasure/escape phenomenom. The caveats at the end of each Ubik ad promo remind me of the side-effects list at the end of every prescription drug commercial on TV right now... this drug will help you feel better unless it kills you. Safe if used as directed. And considering PKD's drug usage, the tie-in seems especially ironic.Sociology will tell you that the media, and advertising, are our gods, and create our reality. Gender issues, race issues, age stereotypes, patriotism and political issues... the media forms our thoughts for us, beginning with Barney, safe only if taken as directed. I think PKD was fully aware of this.
One quote I really enjoyed -
She advanced toward him and retreated, a difficult maneuver which Mrs. Frick alone could carry off. It had taken her ten decades of practice.I love the way PKD plays with philosophy ie, if a tree falls in the forest / if we leave Baltimore is the supermarket still there. Or, the concept of (thing)-ness and essences -
The form TV set had been a template imposed as a successor to other templates, like the procession of frames in a movie sequence. Prior forms, he reflected, must carry on an invisible, residual life in every object.I have been reading Dante's Purgatory at the same time I read Ubik, and the idea of the half-life began to blend eerily with the trials of Purgatory. This has been fun :)
"You are a spray can."
Although I really enjoyed this, I do wish that more of the characters were fleshed out. They seemed like they could have been so great! I bet Runciter's Psionics could have really added to the mystery.
I just finished it and have a feeling similar to postcoital bliss over it. Total mind crush on Philip K Dick. Wow.
Micah makes alot of great points, UBIK has long been at the top of my list for PKD works. I think it is more complete and with a greater integrity than Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Has anyone compared and contrasted this work with the VALIS books?
Really enjoyed this book. Not sure what his beliefs were but there was definitely a strange spiritual undertone in it. Ubik's meaning of "everywhere" originally got me thinking about a presence of God in their after life and the final quote pretty much solidified the idea to me. You could even take the warnings (though they were tongue in cheek) about Ubik to be warnings against the misuse of religious beliefs, misinterpreting the Bible for example.
On the other hand, an aerosol Ubik can and its usage in the story don't really fit into anything religiously symbolic. It was more tied to Ella's powers than anything.
I'm definitely confused a little but I enjoyed mulling it all over.
I liked but did not love Ubik. I wonder if the writer for the "A Christmas Carol" episode of Doctor Who was familiar with Ubik. It has a similar cryogenic storage technique - except those folks are actually revived and interact physically.Looking forward to more PKD.
I love this book. It is my absolute favourite work of fiction. I first read it in 1985 and it completely blew me away. I loaned that copy out and didn't get it back, so I had to buy it again. I've read it a few more times since.
Ubik. From the amazing imagination of PKD. A man before his time. Some of the concepts explored could easily relate to events and situations today. Mass marketing. Cryogenics. Death in the digital beyond.A must read for all sci-fi lovers.
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
VALIS (other topics)Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (other topics)
Girl in Need of a Tourniquet: Memoir of a Borderline Personality (other topics)
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (other topics)
Dangerous Visions (other topics)
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In the First Impressions thread there were a lot of similar comments. The most prevalent comment made by those who didn't like it was that although the idea was really clever, the book didn't flow well and therefore didn't really work in the end.
Personally, I loved it! It's on my favourites shelf and I can't wait to read it again knowing what was really going on the whole time. I didn't notice any of the problems in pace or style that were so often commented on by others. I loved the ideas, I really enjoyed running around with Joe Chip trying to work out what was going on, and I thought the ending was well done.
The concept of half-life is really interesting and I think it could present like real life to us. The most annoying argument in philosophy 1 was always the "brain in a vat" argument which counters so many clear and logical ideas. It's the same kind of idea here I think. Just a brain in half-life.
What do you think? Did it work for you or are you one of those who didn't like it so much?