Philip K. Dick on Film by Gregg Rickman
This is the second non-fiction book I have read on Philip K. Dick this month. I have had this one on the shelf almost the whole time we have been doing the podcast, but I know how exhaustive Rickmann’s writing about Dick is so I decided to wait until I was further into reading PKD’s catalog before reading it. Plus I am working on an article that does lots of Blade Runner commentary so I decided it was time.
There is a very important reason that this book is needed and it is something we talk about often on the podcast. When it comes to movies and books when things are marketed off handily as PKD-ish or Phil Dickian often they are speaking of the films based on his work and not his stories or novels. They think paranoid action tales with capable heroes on the run from the government or reality are what makes a story in that mold. I admit my own novel Goddamn Killing Machines is more like a PKD film than a novel, and you will have to wait till I get a sequel to see the novel influenced actual Phil dick stuff, but that is an aside.
A Scanner Darkly is the most faithful adaptation to date and it is overdue that a serious Dickhead addresses the difference between the stories and the films. In that sense, it is an important read for serious Dickheads but also I think more important for film nerds who may be looking for a way to understand the catalog of the man who inspired all these important films. It can also highlight what the film industry is understanding and not understanding.
It is well researched with details about the various productions and goes through Blade Runner 2049. Rickman’s understanding of Dick’s work is of course top-notch. If anything is missing in this book is a deeper dive into the missing elements of Man in the High Castle, but that could be me projecting as someone who saw it end, Rickman at the time was seeing a show in progress.
So yeah I am a big fan of Rickman’s work, and this is one I intend to use often as a reference when writing articles. Expect to see it in the footnotes of a couple of articles.
No comments:
Post a Comment