In keeping with my "No Book Left Behind" policy, I've read six novels in the past month and a half. While they aren't epic tales, they aren't picture books either and they each have three things in common: They are well written, wildly fantastic, and are all Philip K. Dick novels.
Philip K. Dick's twin sister died shortly after birth. He struggled with her absence throughout his entire life, commonly speaking of having an emptiness in him, a hole, a void that his sister should occupy. His books have been turned into a slew of almost entirely horrible movies: Blade Runner ("Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" in it's paper form, and the only good adaptation,) Total Recall, Minority Report (based on a 10 page short story,) Next, Paycheck, and A Scanner Darkly. Being dead for twenty-five years, PKD was only fortunate enough to see Blade Runner hit the silver screen. He attributed his prolific writing style, of his one-hundred-twenty-one short stories and forty-four novels, to his immense appetite for drugs. Up until two months ago, I had read only a handful of his short stories and a few novels. Then my OCD kicked in.
Not only did I decide I needed to read them all, I decided that it would be best to read them in the order they were written. I've been purchasing the old paper back editions with their fabulously bad covers, failing spines, and yellowed pages off eBay and Amazon market place. Planning ahead, I keep the next novel at the ready so I can start it immediately upon finishing the previous one. Although I may be making this task sound like a chore, from the rigid structure and rules I have adopted, I am enjoying every word, twist, and derive no satisfaction from the quantity of the books I've finished. No, this is more of a pleasurable quest.
When I finished "Eye in the Sky", "Cosmic Puppets" had not yet arrived. I did however have "Time Out of Joint" in my possession, which was the next-next in line. I waited a few days, anxiously checking the mail, but when it didn't arrive by the weekend, I forged ahead. This decision to go out of order hurt my OCD heart.
"Cosmic Puppets" arrived today and I considered (but refrained from) bumping the current novel back to it's proper place in line, and returning to the plan. Does refraining get me some sort of OCD medal of courage? Even if I plan on returning to the original pattern and making sure this never happens again?
1 comment:
First, I applaud you for learning how to read.
Secondly, I applaud you for taking the time to read, even in OCD fashion.
I don't take time to read these days and I feel more dummerer each day that goes by because of it.
Now if I could only read the damn Word Verifications. PNKZOM yeah that's it, even though it looks like PKJSNSLAKKL because of the damn squigglies and such. I think I am just getting old. Olderer and dummerer. Great.
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