FACT SF Reading Group

October 2006

October 3: A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

On October 3, 2006 the FACT reading group discussed A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick. Of 6 people who attended the discussion, only 2 people finished reading, or rather re-reading it. Some others had read it long ago when it first came out. One reader commented that he enjoyed "A Scanner Darkly" back then, but it didn't seem as good the second time around. This change in perspective was attributed to the reader's head being in a different place than it was a couple of decades ago. :-)

Two readers said they liked this book because they like books about paranoia. One reader could really relate to the paranoia, experienced by the protagonist; in her view, paranoia was inseparable from the 1965-75 drug era that she thought Philip Dick portrayed so well. Paranoia pervaded her childhood in the 50s (House Un-American Activities Committee); she was also forced to go to a very strict fundamentalist church and could not speak to anyone forthrightly about her concerns. Every idea in her head had to be kept hidden from adults. So she said she could relate quite well to the paranoia the protagonist is experiencing.

One thing she found missing in the book's portrayal of the drug subculture of the 60s was the musical motif. This time period was intensely focused on music, but there's no mention of music in the book. However, Philip K. Dick captured a lot of the realities of the drug era really well. As an example, she said, "there were people who were a little on the speed-freaky edge, who would really start motormouthing, and you have big chunky paragraphs full of blathering on and on, which was really typical of some people."

Another member of the group disliked this book for pretty much the same reasons that caused the previously mentioned reader to relate well to it. He said, "I found this book difficult to read. It was dealing with a culture that's completely not optimistic, and so nothing good was going to happen in the book. It was very depressing. The book has occasional humor in it, for example, the story about the older brother who was a bug. Philip Dick does a good job of getting into people's heads, but I did not want to get into these people's heads. I could not sympathize with them. I didn't want to think like them. " That's despite the fact that he liked some of Philip K. Dick's earlier books like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? As far as portrayal of a split personality, there have been better books on that, too, in his opinion.

The group universally agreed that A Scanner Darkly is not a science fiction book, and that it was chosen for reading only because it was written by an author who is known for writing science fiction. :-) There are a few science fictional elements in this book but they don't lead anywhere. Regardless, I personally found this book a very engaging read. The depiction of paranoia the three roommates go through is really fascinating. And I liked how it demonstrated the ultimate ironic consequences of the war on drugs. It would be hard to illustrate these statements without revealing significant plot details, so here is a link to my full review. It contains heavy spoilers.

-- Elze Hamilton

October 17: Howard Who? by Howard Waldrop

Nine people gathered at A. T.'s house in north Austin for this meeting. Our topic was Howard Who?, the recent 20th anniversary edition of local author Howard Waldro's first collection. Six of us had read Waldrop before, and four had heard him read his work aloud at ArmadilloCon. Seven of us read this book for the discussion.

The book contains Waldrop's best known early story, "The Ugly Chickens", which is about a graduate student's search for a fowl that had been thought extinct. We found this story to be surreal, unusual, and memorable, with the most classic sf story structure in the book. The researcher and the people he interrogates are realistic characters. The information about the "extinct" bird is presented painlessly. Most of us found this to be among our favorite stories. One member suggested that we also should read Avram Davidson's "The Odd Old Bird," which covers similar territory well.

We liked "Green Brother" and "Mary Margaret Road-Grader," two stories with Native American themes. Both stories had clever ideas, were well-told, and were just the right length.

The strongest reactions were elicited by "Horror ,We Got," a Holocaust conspiracy story with time travel elements. Many people used the word "uncomfortable" in describing their reading experience. The author achieved his intended results too well here. When a few of us who had read this book over a decade ago noted that we had forgotten the story in the meantime, the others in the group felt relieved. They want this story gone from their heads.

Other stories in the book explored ideas alternate history, alternate science, vampires, cowboys, music, and Sumo wrestling.

The final story in the collection is one of its best, "Heirs of the Perisphere." It explores the postapocalyptic adventures of animatronic characters from a theme park. A couple of people commented that this resonates with the work of Waldrop's friend Chad Oliver.

We found that a few of the stories contained so many obscure (to us) cultural and historical references that footnotes would have been a huge help in understanding them. "God's Hooks!," in particular, went over all our heads. Some of us felt that the unconventional structure of some of these tales (particularly "Ike at the Mike") did not technically qualify them even as stories.

We had an interesting time wrapping up the discussion of the book as a whole. We liked the clear prose style and strong Southern voice, and we appreciated the many places this book took us. We did not find any unifying themes. Most of the stories could be called surreal. We felt that many of the stories contained enough fresh ideas to make ten or more stories. And these stories were so dense that it was hard to read several of them in one sitting.

We did not feel comfortable calling Howard Waldrop a science fiction or fantasy author, and decided that he is a Southern fabulist. We disagreed about how the stories in this book fit within Waldop's body of work. Some of us feel these stories are his early accessible best stuff, and others feel that these works have been surpassed by the stories he wrote later as his craft matured.

After the meeting, several of us had a nice dinner at Pok-E-Joe's.

-- A. T. Campbell, III