[Leica] Phil Dick and Lem

[abridge at gmail.com (Adam Bridge)]

I'm a HUGE Jack Vance fan. He's nearly blind now, and in relatively
poor health as I understand it. But his body of work is wonderful.
Gene Wolfe, who wrote the extraordinary "Book of the New Sun", says
that his Book of Gold was patterened after Vance's "Tales of the Dying
Earth". And there's always his classic novella "The Dragon Masters".

I had a difficult time with "Solaris" as a college student - I was
more into "Ringworld" and that genre - but I think the 2nd film caught
the emotional feeling of "Solaris" very well. I haven't seen the first
version but it's on  my Netflix list.

Ohhhhh A Bertram Chandler and his time-twisting gyroscopes pushing
along his space tramp steamers!

I highly recommend the work of Paul Park whose Starbridge Chronicles
trilogy is worth searching for in used book stores: "Soldiers of
Paradise", "Sugar Rain" and "The Cult of Loving Kindness".

I'm behind on his newer work.

And now back to our more visual discussions.

Thanks for remembering Lem.



On 3/28/06, Marc James Small <msmall@infionline.net> wrote:
> At 09:45 PM 3/28/06 -0600, Arche, Harvey wrote:
> >I've been hearing about Lem for 30 years, and searched for copies of his
> books. When I found them they were English translations from the French
> translations of the original Polish, and sorry to say, I couldn't hack
> reading them. So they sit on my shelves out of reach, to my great regret.
> Are there now decent English versions? Been reading (and re-reading) Phil
> Dick since '72.
>
> I never liked Lem that much but I read a lot of his stuff in the 1960's;
> little of it left much of an impression.
>
> In the summer of 1970, I met Avram Davidson in the flesh in Novato,
> California -- Novato is home to Lucasfilms and produced Huey Lewis and the
> News and, just between us folks, I am a 1968 graduate of Novato HS.
> Davidson gifted me a couple of Jack Vance books and STRONGLY advised me to
> go and visit  Dick in the East Bay, but other things, such as returning
> East to college, intruded, and I never did so.  I have been reading Dick
> since the early 1960's and his MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE really, really
> grabbed me when I encountered it in 1964.
>
> Phil Dick is an acquired taste.  He spins his tales with a rather bizarre
> twist.  But, damned, if he wasn't one hell of a writer -- and I am STILL
> waiting for the local rag to turn out a homeopape!  THAT was one brilliant
> concept.
>
> There are still a few Phil Dick books I've failed to score, though I have
> worked my way most joyfully through the five volumes of his accumulated
> short stories and the single volume of his non-fiction essays.  A Bertram
> Chandler died in 1985 and I did not read the final book he published until
> this past summer, just to have one bit left to enjoy.  I feel the same way
> about Phil Dick, and hope that there will always be another story or
> another book to read.
>
> Marc
>
> msmall@aya.yale.edu
> Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!
>
> NEW FAX NUMBER:  +540-343-8505
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>
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