Philip K Dick (An Imagined Interview)

Interviewer’s Notes

Making contact with Phil was no easy task. Many emails went between myself and his current publishers. He expressed adamantly that he did not wish to go through another interview, but would answer questions over email. Upon my first ‘introduction’ email and the first question, he about faced and changed his mind. He simply answered, ‘We can meet if you wish’. I have no idea about his sudden change of heart and his allowing me to actually visit him and speak face to face. I can only surmise that he envisaged the interview as being more productive speaking in the same room, than conversing over email.

He set some rules.

He wished his location to remain a secret - I have purposely left actual description vague.

He allowed me to record him for transcription purposes, but asked that the recording not be published (though as you’ll see, he didn’t want it destroyed).

He asked me to choose my favourite story or novel and bring it along.

Finally, he wanted to see the finalised transcription of the interview and give the go ahead for publication.

The transcription is as close to the original recording as possible. Any grammar incorrectness is simply because it is as things were said.

PART ONE

Late 2005. Somewhere in England.

It’s late afternoon, I easily locate the address. I rap on the door. I’m not really nervous, just wondering what will happen. The door clicks after a few heartbeats.

He has the chain on and peeks around the door. I’m not recording at this time, but I’ll mention what words were said.

PKD: (frowning) Yes?

RH: Hi Phil, I um.. we arranged a meeting. (I finger the book I’m carrying)

PKD: Ah yes. (he disappears for a second, there’s a rattle of the chain, then the door opens). Please come in.

I am lead into a small room.

PKD: Sit down. Would you like a drink?

I am taken aback how quickly I am accepted into his humble abode. Looking back, I suppose he knew what I looked like from my photo. I choose a comfy chair to sit in.

RH: Water, please. Thanks.

He gathers two glasses and disappears into what I presume is his kitchen. He returns a half a minute later with two filled glasses. I am unsure what he is drinking; but that’s none of my business. He hands me one then sits down on the sofa.

He crosses his legs and eyes me silently, swirling his drink.

RH: Phil, this is an honour. I know I’m going to start babbling. (Smiles). I’ve been a big fan of yours since reading The Electric Ant at school.

PKD: One of my early ones.

(Pause)

PKD: I really don’t like email. It’s impersonal. It’s not like a using a typewriter.

In the same email Ian Hocking mentions his podcast of Deja Vu, he also pointed me in the direction of Charless Stross’ Accelerando. Not a podcast, but the full written novel in various formats.

There was a time when authors (or artists, or anyone) bought domain names of their actual name. That time has passed. Now it’s a case of people buying domain names for each piece of their work. Which is a cool idea. Especially since title’s of books are normally pretty unique so that they stand out from the crowd.

Publishing a full book which is available to buy, for free, seems like a good idea on the face of it, but I wonder if it will increase, decrease or not change sales of the physical book? I do prefer to read stories on printed paper, rather than from a computer screen, so I would buy the book (probably without reading the online version). I would like to hope that it will manage to highten the author’s profile, if not increase sales.

Thumbs up to Charles.

(If you are invoved in a similar project, please drop us a line, it’s difficult sometimes to find this kind of information without being pointed in the right direction.)

Dr Ian Hocking has started a podcast of his book Deja Vu. It will come out every saturday and each instalment should last about twenty minutes. The first instalment is already up here.

Deja Vu is a classy debut science fiction thriller which I see assimilar to James Bond. Well worth a read, and now well worth a listen. If you like the podcast, buy the book.

The Snow. It Was Beautiful To Start With …

Adam Roberts’ 2004 novel is one of the most simplest, clean cut premises I’ve ever seen. It’s a present day apocalyptic novel set in a world where the snow starts to fall - and doesn’t stop for a long, long time (just try and imagine that for a moment). Based around a young indian woman - Tira, it follows her journey from the initial decision to do something other than sit at home and watch tv with the snow getting higher and higher, through to her meeting some of the other handful of survivors and how they organise themselves.

Suprisingly, some parts of the novel are censored. People’s names are deleted out, and some expletives have been removed. I can imagine some people getting frustrated at this - especially if it’s a character’s name. But Adam writes it in a way that it is always pretty obvious who is talking, or what the deletion is related to. I would imagine that this is quite a mammoth task, even on top of writing the book itself.

One thing I like about Adam Roberts from his other novels I have read (On and Stone) is that he never ceases to take something quite simple and make it fantastic. Snow. A simple, pretty common substance. He visualises the impact of how a lot of snow would affect the world and the people living on it. I particularly liked the physics and possible visualisation behind the narrative - his snow cities five miles up in the air and how the survivors managed to stay on track with the rising surface of the snow.

The people interaction is spot on, with indepth characters, and even does multiple representations from different angles. The set out of the book is quite original and gives you many perspectives of the main characters and events - especially with how people percieve events.

Adam Roberts is a pleasure to read and this is an ideal example of a post apocalyptic story with a distinct twist of lemon (and without nuclear holocausts).

SciFi Wire has reported that Graham King’s Initial Entertainment Group has bought the internation rights to Revolution Studios’ upcoming SF movie Next, based on Philip K. Dick’s short story The Golden Man.

It is to star Nicolas Cage and Julianne Moore.

I bet Phil is secretly smiling down on us at his popularity nowadays, a complete turnaround from when he was alive.

Big Dumb Object has mentioned that Christoper Priest has put a movie page up on his site.

As BDO says, if the movie is your first exposure to Christoper Priest, then check out a his books. Personally I would say (in this order) The Affirmation, The Dream Archipelago and The Space Machine. Though you can’t really go wrong with any of his novels, and starting at the beginning of his published work and sequentially working through them shows how he has progressed. You can see in his early novels that he was ‘experimenting’ and getting to grips with his overall vision of his stories.

Some of his books are more like novellettes which come back to back with another story of his.

The first audience screening of A Scanner Darkly in progress has been shown in Houston. As mentioned before this movie is an adaptation of a Philip K Dick book of the same name.

Starring Keanu Reeves, Winona Rider and Woody Harrelson it promises to be somewhat of a difficult to market movie. A snippet from one of the review on Ain’t It Cool reads, ‘The audience is not pandered to in any way. Complicated story ideas are rendered faithfully, directly, and without obvious techniques to clarify Dick’s convoluted story.‘

Comments on the effects were interesting, where it was mentioned that they weren’t overly done and managed to portray a reality where physics is only a little bit whacked.

This, for me, is one of the most eagerly awaited movie releases in years.

Interzone Issue 201:
Waiting with bated breath to be delivered.

I’ve also noticed people having a look at this page - I’ll review it once I get back to my snailmailbox. Can’t wait!

Well, I’m finally back, and am reading this (another) awesome issue of Interzone.

(In the meantime, you can check out earlier issues here).

Cover artwork by Fahrija Velic
Blimey, this artwork is the best I’ve seen yet in any issue of Interzone; vibrant colour, well drawn, a bit vague, it almost looks like a photograph. The artist does himself proud.

The issue itself looks the best so far too, never has an Interzone looked so sexy (I apologise, but I can’t think of any other word). Interzone has now grown from a small child, being a bit childish, not all colour, with a recycled paper feel - to a full colour, glossy, robust and beautiful to look at publication.

Novella:

After the Party by Richard Calder
Illustrated by David Senecal

Stories:

Harsh Oases by Paul Di Filippo
illustrated by Vincent Chong

Sheila by Lauren McLaughlin
illustrated by Kenn Brown

Boy Twelve by Jessica Reisman
illustrated by Stefan Olsen

Wax by Elizabeth Bear
Illustrated by Ian Simmons

Detective Crown Investigator Abigail Irene Garrett is an investigator who is based in New Amsterdam. She is a witch and carries her complimentary wand with her to do witchy things with. The story follows her as she investigates some nocturnal killings and disappearences. There is a suprise or two during the narration and I particularly liked the rich descriptions of a dark, almost turn of the century era. She has close liasons with two characters and there is some thigh blood sucking involved.

Wax is a good twist on a detective story and seems to be set (I would say) in current times, even though it appears to be the turn of the last century. I would hazard a guess that it’s because witches, wands and spells are present, that maybe scientists are a bit slower, i.e. no automobiles or anything like current technology.

This is one short story which I feel could be expanded into a full length novel, and as such seems to be a bit vague, leaving lots of questions - even so, it is a good read and one which has lingered in my mind (which is good).

There is also a complimentary story to be published in a future Interzone entitled Wane - of which I’ve been trying to work out exactly what will be in it, and I can’t. I hope it includes the same characters, in a similar environment, but expanded upon.

Features:

Interface
Editorial stuff
David Langford’s Ansible Link (news & gossip)

Interlocutions
Nick Lowe’s Mutant Popcorn (films)
Dave Mathew’s SF Magazine Round Up
John Clute’s Scores (on Brian Aldiss)
Book Reviews

A technicolor widescreen production, published outside america.