Talk:If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others

Issues and errata

• Peter Fitting and others explain the backstory on Dick's popularity in France in several essays contained in On Philip K. Dick: 40 Articles From Science-Fiction Studies (1992).
  • Just a note on how obvious the pre-internet "black hole" is here. There's an enormous amount of information on PKD and France because of this colloquium that took place in June 1987, but there's almost nothing digitized. Makes one wonder just how much information is lost or inaccessible.
  • French science fiction fans were drawn to Dick for different reasons than Americans. Howard (1999) writes: "Dick is especially popular in France. Pascal J. Thomas maintains that one of the principal aspects that lads to Dick's popularity in France is his particular brand of left-wing individualism. For Thomas, Dick's fiction embodies the French suspicion of institutions and depicts an anti-authoritarian stance that is especially palatable to the French. Thomas refers to Dick's anarchic sensibility and his (Dick's) description of defiant attitudes to government and other institutions as the common ground between Dick and his French S.F. fans. He suggests that Dick's interest in paranoia is a point in common between Dick and the French national character. Also among Thomas's claims is that the isolated person who has no one who can empathise with him is emblematic of paranoia, but that paranoia is a sensible outlook under the circumstances Dick describes...According to Thomas it is Dick's particular brand of anarchism - which sees individuals as existing within the fray instead of above the fray - that appeals. He describes Dick's characters as nearly invisible in a situation: i.e., individuals hiding in crowds would be characters with particular appeal to the French." [Note from Viriditas, this is very interesting because Dick was known to suffer from some form of enochlophobia/agoraphobia.]
    • Dick himself answers the question in one of the major Metz interviews.[1] He makes it clear that he believes the reason he is popular in France is simply because his early life was spent reading French novelists. Later on, according to Dick, his science fiction would incorporate elements of these writers, such as Balzac.

• Conference details
  • Bizarre controversy involving Peter Nicholls, Harlan Ellison, and PKD, which continued from 1975-1982, ending upon Dick's death.
    • Culminates in loud argument at the conference, instigated by Nicholls, resulting in Ellison and PKD having a very public fight for an hour. (Sutin)
      • PKD on the subject: "I've met many other SF writers and become close friends with a number of them. For instance, I've known Harlan Ellison since 1954. Harlan hates my guts. When we were at the Metz Second Annual SF Festival last year, in France, see, Harlan tore into me; we were in the bar at the hotel, and al kinds of people, mostly French, were standing around. Harlan shredded me. It was fine; I loved it. It was sort of like a bad acid trip; you just have to kick back and enjoy; there is no alternative. But I love that little bastard. He is a person who really exists."
    • Dispute is seemingly "resolved" after Dick's death in 1982 with a discussion of the history in Science Fiction Review 48 (August 1983).
      • Ellison paints Nicholls here as the bad actor, and casts doubts on many of his unusual claims about PKD
        • Nevertheless, both Ellison and Nicholls shared the same reaction to PKD while he was alive; both thought he was mad as a hatter

• The Divine Madness of Philip K. Dick (2016), by clinical psychologist Kyle Arnold, presents the most thorough summary of the speech that is rooted in both Dick's 1974 experience and his philsophical background. It's interesting to read Arnold's summary of it, as he makes it clear and accessible. TBD.

Re: Philip K. Dick as he might have appeared in 1977

FWIW, it appears that his likeness here was based on his 1977 photographs. When you compare the photos and videos from 1977 to the likeness of the android, they are virtually identical. Viriditas (talk) 22:49, 3 October 2024 (UTC)

I deleted the photograph from the article. I was reading about the speech, and that photograph was creepy and distracting. Coherence0574 (talk) 01:45, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

Sounds like you are susceptible to the uncanny valley. For some odd reason, I don’t experience it and the photo seems fine to me. The reason I included it is because the people who created the likeness appeared to do so based on this exact timeframe, in other words, just before, during, and after the Metz conference. For that reason, I think it should stay, but I will leave it out for now based on reactions from people like yourself. I should also add that the creepiness factor you describe is on topic for PKD, as he wrote about this kind of thing. Viriditas (talk) 02:20, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

The disconnect

It is entirely true that the speech is difficult, if not impossible to follow. That much is clear. Whether it is the product of madness or drugs or something else is unknown. What is most unusual, is that Dick gives an interview to Goullet either before or after the speech (the timeline is unknown) and comes across as perfectly lucid, rational, insightful, and frankly on point. So how can it be that the speech is considered insane, yet Dick comes off as perfectly reasonable and intelligent during the interview? Viriditas (talk) 09:48, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

I've watched the interview twice now, and I can't help but feel that the allegations of madness are completely unjustified and erroneous. There is no semblance of madness in this interview, quite the contrary, actually. This is a sane man, someone who thinks deeply about ideas, and who has given what he says a lot of thought. I can't explain the disconnect between the irrationality of the speech and the rationality of the interview. Was PKD giving a performance of some kind? His letter to his agent suggests that he knew the speech was crazy yet he delivered it anyway. It's as if the speech in the real world and his own science fiction collided in some way. This was, in fact, the theme of the speech. PKD thought he was living out his stories in some way. This is an old cliche in modern literature, such that the writer is somehow creating or modifying the real world in some way with their stories. In many respects, Dick is reprising the central thesis of Ursula K. Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven in his speech, which was supposed to be Le Guin's homage to PKD in the first place. Viriditas (talk) 10:06, 15 October 2024 (UTC)