Status Updates From The Collected Stories of Ph...

Stand-by + What'll We Do With Ragland Park? - A short story followed by its sequel.

In which the two sides of Donald Trump (the media mogul and self-interested propaganda kind and the brainless "I do what I want, fuck-o") are pitted against one another.

This is one of the bigger swings PKD has taken. Really big ideas and sprawling worldbuilding that ends up kind of whiffing, but you have to respect the attempt

The Days of Perky Pat - This snuck up on me. This is one of the funniest fucking things I have ever read in my life that sneakily reveals a surprising amount of depth.

In a post-apocalyptic future, communities have formed around playing with what are essentially Barbie dolls.

Will expand more in the actual review but I'm like, in awe of this. PKD was INSANE for this one.

Orpheus with Clay Feet - If I had a nickel for every time Philip K Dick wrote himself as a character in one of his own stories I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice

Waterspider - This is an absolutely batshit story in a collection of batshit stories. Can't spoil even the basic plot without giving the basic gist away.

I'll mention this fun factoid: There's a part in this story where PKD NEEDS the reader to see a name and recognize it as a popular real-life SF writer. Could have used anyone. He chose Poul Anderson. I think that speaks volumes about his place in the field.

If There Were No Benny Cemoli - This story is in a fascinating dialogue with, of all things, Dune-- I think. Where Dune warns against cults of personality, Dick contends that any meaningful social change requires an avatar to pin their hopes to, a model to prove its possible. An icon must emerge.

Very interesting, but I would argue it's too complicated. Also, newspapers don't work like that.

War Game - Agreed wholeheartedly, Philip. Monopoly sucks!

No but this was absolutely fucking wild. He was a madman for this one. He couldn't have known was Disney was going to become or how the military-industrial complex started to get its hooks into Hollywood, and yet he somehow hit this bullseye from beyond the grave. What the fuck

Explorers We - Works as kind of a goofy SF horror story but considers a potential first-contact scenario with aliens that I'd never thought of before. Very fun twist. Memorable.

The Unreconstructed M - This is such a PKD story. Dizzying worldbuilding, paranoia, distrust of everything around him (especially police).

Pairs well with Minority Report, a more high concept version of the way technology and policing might intersect. This is perhaps why SF writers are drawn to detective stories, there will always be room for criminals to manipulate tech and their pursuers.

Minority Report - This probably needs a full dedicated review