What sci-fi books did PKD read?

[Notepad]

And he was a fan of The Jagged Orbit by John Brunner. The old paperback has a quote by him on it.

[David]

John wrote: "In the Exegesis, PKD mentions Cordwainer Smith - which got me reading his collected short stories. I'd highly recommend them. Everything is set in one future - it's quite remarkable."

Cordwainer Smith was brilliant. If you like his stories don't miss his novel, Norstrilia. One of my early favorites. I definitely need to reread it at some point.

[Byron 'Giggsy']

just read Dick's realist/mainstream novel Humpty Dumpty in Oakland. In it the main character Jim Fergesson runs into an inconsequential character stuck at a desk all day and waiting potential customers. This character, Carmichael, mentions Brain Wave by Poul Anderson. He asks Jim if reads 'these things' and holds up the book. Jim blankly says no. A little later in the conversation the book is brought up again and Carmichael points out the fake/unreleasitic notions in sci-fi (time travel, faster than light travel, etc.. saying the writers just fake this stuff as they go along and how he'd like to be a consultant to sci-fi writers to get the science right.. he asks Jim again is he reads 'this stuff' and again Jim says no.

so it appears the main character has no interest in science fiction, this character with only this one scene laughs at the implausibility but also seems to enjoy them as he says he has read probably 50 in the last month.

Hard to tell if Dick is making of Brain Wave, or if it is just a random example, or he mentioned it specifically because it is a title he enjoys. Since the book gets decent reviews even today, I have a feeling he like it and would have chosen something more obviously bad if he wanted to mock a bad pulp sci-fi.

[Steven]

Camp Concentration by Disch gets mentioned a lot in the letters, biographies, etc. As a child I think we was obsessed with the Oz books.

[David]

Tessa his wife said he was a big fan of A Canticle for Lebowitz.

[Jim]

Simon wrote: "I know that PKD was quite good friends with Robert A. Heinlein who helped him out financially and championed his work. Although PKD certainly didn't share his political and social view..."

Simon wrote: "I know that PKD was quite good friends with Robert A. Heinlein who helped him out financially and championed his work. Although PKD certainly didn't share his political and social view..."

That's was a pretty big putdown of the early SF fans by PDK. but I can see where he didn't want to be associated with the typical pulp SF and the fans who read it and why he wanted to write his own type of SF. I assume that by mentioning their names he considered Heinlein and A.E. Van Vogt more favorably.

[Jim]

David wrote: "He was quite fond of Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano."

I'm curious to know where you had heard that. I think it's significant because Vonnegut was a unique writer in the field himself and "Player Piano" was published in 1952 when PDK was just starting to write SF. This novel presented a view of the future where computerized machines were displacing human workers and an idea, I think, would have resonated with PDK.

[Jim]

Notepad wrote: "There's a couple interviews out there where he states AE Van Vogt was a favorite, and a huge influence.

Doesn't surprise me as I find they have a very similar style of prose/writing."

I'm looking at van Vogt in the late 40's and early 50's when PDK was reading SF and just starting to write it I can see where "Slan" may have been an influence. In that story a new breed of super humans are being hunted down and killed by normal humans. But I wonder what PDK thought when van Vogt adopted the ideas of General Semantics into his Null-A stories.

[Jim]

John wrote: "In the Exegesis, PKD mentions Cordwainer Smith - which got me reading his collected short stories. I'd highly recommend them. Everything is set in one future - it's quite remarkable."

I have always been a big fan of Cordwainer Smith and my biggest complaint is that he wrote such a small amount of stories. I think Smith's quirky style of prose and the unique universe he placed his stories in would appeal to someone who also wrote his own brand of unique SF.

[Jim]

David wrote: "Tessa his wife said he was a big fan of A Canticle for Lebowitz."
I can see were a novel concerning the post-apocalyptic rebuilding of the United staes based on a distorted version of Catholicism would tie in with PDK's own use of the theme of nuclear armageddon and unique views of Christianity.

[Simon]

Jim wrote: "I can see where it didn't want to be associated with the typical pulp SF and the fans who read it and why he wanted to write his own type of SF."

Yeah I view PKD as a clear break with traditional SF and a precursor to the "New Wave" along with Alfred Bester, Samuel Delany etc.

[Jim]

Simon wrote: "Jim wrote: "I can see where it didn't want to be associated with the typical pulp SF and the fans who read it and why he wanted to write his own type of SF."

Yeah I view PKD as a clear break with ..."

I think that PDK really embraced a literary form of SF with 1961's "The Man in the High Castle". The work that followed reverted back to more familiar SF tropes but done in his unique way that made you think deeply about what you were reading.

[Mark]

Bester and Dick were earlier. Delany did not start until the early 60s.

[Simon]

I do know that, I still view those three authors as kindred spirits.

[Adrien]

pun intended