Customer Reviews

The Dark Haired Girl

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This collection of correspondence, along with some lectures by Phillip K Dick, published after his death, tell a very interesting and disturbing story of the man. A lot of ideas from his letters can be found in the novel "A Scanner Darkly" This is worthwhile reading both to learn about a world most of us barely knew existed, and because it will make us contemplate our own lives.

DHG is of biographical interest to us hardcore PKD fans, and I doubt it would mean much to those who are not familiar with his life. This book covers an interesting and gloomy period (circa. 1970) of PKD's life, and deals with people and events that are given little attention in that seminal biography, Sutin's Divine Invasions. As the above reviewer has noted, the material forms what would later be A Scanner Darkly. The book itself (esp. the cover art) is very tasteful, and the book is quite rare, so it is one for collectors. PKD one said that his poetry was terrible, and the poem in this book is living proof of that:-)

The two major essays in this book, "The Android and the Machine" and "Man, Android, and Machine" are also in the more complete "Shifting Realities of PKD" so I would recommend that book over this one for those reasons, but for those of us who have to have them all...

This was not one of Phil's greatest books. Virtually all of his Science Fiction and at least 1 "mundane" novel deserve more stars that this. (I use the term "mundane" in the usage of S.F. fandom to refer something without any S.F. elements. Nothing Phil did or thought was "mundane" in the more typical usage of the word.)

However, I gave it 4 stars because of the considerable importance of the DHG in one of the sub-texts that runs through almost all of Phil's work: Who is human and who is android and what does it mean to be human?

For part 2 of this review, please read my review under Open Your Eyes (Abre Los Ojos) DVD edition.