We Can Remember It for You Wholesale

I started reading an English translation of a French writer's biography of Philip K. Dick (1928-1982), and already it's like back-to-back episodes of the original Twilight Zone.

Just about everybody knows Dick's handiwork -- not only is his fiction interesting and strange, but it provides the inspiration and basis for several movies:

Blade Runner (1982)
Total Recall (1990)
Open Your Eyes (1997)
Minority Report (2002)
Paycheck (2003)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
A Scanner Darkly (2006)
Next (2007)

Pretty good showing for a dead writer. So far, his father, a returning World War One vet, scares little Phil half to death by putting on his gas mask when he's a wee'un, inspiring all sorts of fears that make their way into his writing. Next, a more grown up Phil's first wife theatens to destroy his precious record collection (ditto.), leading him to divorce her immediately. Second wife is cool, but not cool enough to prevent him from running off with wife number three, even though they have successfully navigated a series of eerie visits by two FBI agents during the Cold War. All this transpires in the first fifty pages. Which reminds me of the lines from "The Message," by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five: "It makes me wonder how I keep from going under." As it turns out, Dick did go under in 1982 in his early fifties, just about the same time Blade Runner and "The Message" were released.

Here, post-Dick, was a rap song with a point, and I still remember every aspect of it. A snippet of the lyrics:

My son said, Daddy, I don't wanna go to school
'cuz the teacher's a jerk,
he must think I'm a fool
And all the kids smoke reefer,
I think it'd be cheaper if I just got a job,
learned to be a street sweeper
Or dance to the beat, shuffle my feet
Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps

'cuz it's all about money,
ain't a damn thing funny
You got to have a con in
this land of milk and honey

I guess not everybody wants to "run with the creeps," huh? At least that's something. On the other hand, also about the same time there was David Bowie's "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)." Must have been artistic sensitivity to the unfolding 80s. In 2007, I seem to know several of these ugly creatures who mutated and faded but never seem to go away completely -- residing in Metro Detroit and elsewhere.

Finally, a plug for Children of Men (2006), a science fiction drama set in 2027 by novelist P.D. James. Besides this, I also look forward to seeing Notes on a Scandal (2006), Factory Girl (2006), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), and others.

Today's Rune: Strength.

Sayonara!