Appearance
Time out of joint
This book has a great set-up - a man who slowly starts to realize that his "reality" is just a sham. There is a long (compared to the length of the book) build up, where piece by piece, he starts accumulating information that leads him to finally break out of his world. It is at this point where you figure the story can really take off. Instead, it ends, pretty much in short order. It's sort of like opening a huge beautifully wrapped present and then finding there's a gift certificate inside. Not so bad, but, it brings the experience down. Worth a read.
Time out of joint
Finally found this book again, after so many years. My god, when I was watching Jim Carrys "The Truman Show", I knew exactly where the storyline had originated. Only hope the PKD estate got some thanks. I mean, cmon, the guy is living in the distant future, but has the life and is made to believe that he is in somebodys idea of nostalgia heaven. Anyway, PKD is the man, and more and more people now know it. The difference between geek and hipster really is only 20 years, not a bad clip.
Time out of joint
This is one of Dick's early novels and one of his easiest reads. His handling of the cracks that gradually appear in his "real" world is simply beautiful and is great literature. This is a book that I have disposed of and then later bought again and reread several times. I recently bought the Japanese language edition to practice my Japanese with.
Time out of joint
This is one of PKD's finest. The idea that the first two-thirds of the book are more "mature" than the last third is outrageous. The fact that this is SF should not make people give excuses for liking it. PKD was an SF writer, and while the beginning of this book does not read like science fiction, it certainly does not mean that the last third is childish or juvenile. SF can be just as mature as normal fiction (and at its best, it far surpasses the hights that non-science fiction can rise to). This is an excellent work, and one of the 4 or 5 best PKD ever wrote.
Time out of joint
Ragle Gumm is the all time winner of the 'Where's the Little Green Man' contest. Everyday he fills out the contest entry forms from the newspaper and mails them in before the deadline. He's famous and there's something dreadfully important about his entries being accurate and timely. Ragle lives with his sister and brother in law. Although Ragle thinks he is living in 1959, he discovers some magazines in a ruined lot that are dated 1997. He's not sure whether he is being kept prisoner in this small town, or whether he's paranoid or worse, a Lunatic.
Time out of joint
That Dick could be as popular as he is now without his works containing some literary merit seems impossible. The characters are drawn in settings with about as much detail as viewing them in immediate experience would provide. Words are twisted or invented to represent objects or ideas - real and familiar- though not previously experienced except on the printed page. Floods of recognition are released in the reader's mind by the loving representation of the "lowly" objects of everyday life. Dick becomes a friend invited into lunch discussions with colleagues, or to be "haunted" by when in moments of quiet contemplation. If you are at all thoughtful you will enjoys his writings. If these qualities are not representative of "literary value" they should be. For they are the qualities sought after by ordinary people - like me. Dick, as a philosopher, avoids the error commited by many of the "great" ones. Ideas cannot affect us only though the cerebrum and its logic. The limbic system and associated areas generating emotion are intimately intertwined with the cerebrum in development. The experience of reading the TIME OUT OF JOINT has left me with only one regret: how I wish Sammy could have known I was in the Tree House listening in on his crystal set.