Complex Numbers

Dick

Thought that might get your attention.

I can't think of any science fiction or fantasy authors who have been adapted to successful movies/TV more than Philip K. Dick. Tolkien, maybe, but given that his output was basically two stories and some background, it didn't take long to exhaust the source material. Stephen King, certainly, but I wouldn't put him in either of those genres, though his stories often contain elements of both. There might be some author I'm overlooking; if so, I'm sure someone will tell me.

The thing is, I'm not sure why there's so much Dick in the entertainment world. Sure, his stories were often edgy and provocative, but the same could be said for any number of authors. And the original stories didn't really lend themselves to action/adventure fare; they had to be adapted. They were more along the lines of thought-provoking, a feature often attributed to the author's use of mind-expanding substances - which is yet another reason their popularity is a bit surprising.

Some of you might know that my favorite movie of all time is Blade Runner (The Director's Cut version), which, of course, is an adaptation of one of Dick's stories. Off the top of my head, let's not forget Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, and Minority Report. Just now, I looked it up, and there were a lot more as well - probably not all falling into the "successful" category.

There's even a Black Mirror / Twilight Zone - like series on Amazon called Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams. I confess I haven't seen many of those, but the ones I watched were pretty true to Dick.

I also discovered once that there is a such thing as too much Dick. I once watched Blade Runner, A Scanner Darkly, and Minority Report back-to-back, and it took me weeks to recover. Somehow, I think, his drug-fueled themes bleed through to the adaptations, giving us a contact high.

Oh, and let me reiterate that the remake of Total Recall sucked ass. The "sequel" to Blade Runner didn't, but it wasn't great, either. It also wasn't a true adaptation, but basically fanfiction.

Anyway, this is my roundabout way of noting that Amazon's Dick adaptation The Man in the High Castle Season 3 has just come out, all episodes at once; so if I miss tomorrow's entry, it's because I'm still bingeing on Dick. No need to call 911 to report an overdose, though.