the timboucher experience

Today I finished Philip K. Dick’s The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. It was good, but not amazing. So far, I’d rank it towards the bottom of the ones I’ve read. It is, however, the first of his books which I’ve read that he wrote before he had that so-called mystical experience (c. 1974), which formed the basis of some of his later works. I can’t tell if his later books are just better, or if maybe having that experience gave him a better understanding of what it was he was really after. I’m guessing its probably a bit of both.

I think this Palmer Eldritch book was written in something like 1964. It must have been a real kick in the pants back then. In a way, I wish I could have had the pleasure to read his novels at the time when they actually came out, so I could a little better appreciate the cultural context which spawned them. Fortunately, it seems like all of his stuff is just as equally relevant today though. But still, I imagine it would have been more superb of a mind-fuck to read them at the time. I read somewhere that John Lennon was so enamored with this Palmer Eldritch book that he wanted to make a movie of it. But apparently never did.

Next on my list is Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. As far as I know, this one came out in 1974, so I take that to mean it is his final novel before he started having all his mystical freak-outs. This is the novel which he later found out supposedly has all these weird coincidences with the Book of Acts (in the Bible), which he claimed to never have read. Also, he claims to also have lived out certain events of this book inadvertently, several years after he wrote it. So that can only add to its mystique.

I’ve read a bunch of goofy reviewers of Dick’s books on Amazon and stuff, who recommend “not reading too much” of his books all at once. I disagree. I think they should be read in an absolute frenzy, as quickly as possible. I like to devour them in a span of 24 hours. They seem better that way somehow.

Oh, I also found that the official site of his estate has a nice feature with all his novels. They have all the different collected cover graphics of all the editions of his books. It’s really amazing to see how different they are. And to see how goofy the design/graphic work on the modern ones are as compared with the old ones. I think, with the old ones, there was no pretense, no trying to elevate them above “pulp” status. Just straight out good old-fashioned sci-fi illustration. Nowadays, there is this whole movement to “legitimize” him and you end up with these stupid overly intellectualized graphics. Which call to mind annoying words like “cyberspace” and “fractals” and which are supposed to instill the “anguished fractured worldview” yadda yadda yadda. Complete nonsense, in other words. I think the original covers are much more appropriate.

• Plug your wires into my stigmata
• The “Miracle” of Stigmata
• Plug your wires into my stigmata
• Paranormal news
• Connections between Philip K. Dick & John Lennon