Matryoshka Dolls

I am quickly rereading Ubik. As I go I am going to have a running commentary (or at least that is my plan), a kind of dialectical journal. I will write a quote and then digress on whatever comes to mind. This seemed to bother some of you when I did this during “Till We Have Faces,” but “Oh, Well.”

All quotes come from The Library of America edition of Ubik, unless otherwise noted.

“Is a stranger tuning in on you? Are you really alone? That for the telpaths . . . and then the queasy worry about precogs. Are your actions being predicted by someone you never met? Someone you would not want to meet or invite into your home? “ p. 616

Eerie parallel to spybot software, and unauthorized wiretaps. I wonder, as did Herbert at this point in the novel, if the fear in our world is a manufactured control that has no basis in fact. Similar to Foucault’s panopticon, where because we think we are being watched we act as if we actually are being watched thus nullifying the need to be watched because we act the way we are “supposed” to act, or rather how we are told to behave.


“In the earphone words, slow and uncertain, formed: circular thoughts of no importance, fragments of the mysterious dream which she now dwelt in.” p. 619.

Again, I am rereading Ubik, so I tend to notice details in quotes that echo/inform themes which coalesced, at least for me, more as the novel came to a close. I think this line about Runciter’s “half-life” wife is a fairly good description of the “advertising” epigrams which begin each chapter. “Ubik” being the generic name for whatever product is being sold. The ads, like advertising and news bits in which we are imbued, are of “no importance” they are simply fragments which surround our waking lives, and perhaps send their tendrils into our dreams as well. It is like the idea of James Gee in which we are all a member of a discourse community where we take on the language and the implicit and tacit ideologies of those communities. It is not that there is a formalized dogma that must be followed; but, even more insidious, we simply take on the belief systems as we take part in the community or the dream in which we dwell. This plays out in the novel as Runciter’s wife’s half-life is influenced by another stronger half-lifer and as well as who is in control of who’s reality as the novel plays out its Russian doll-like panopticon of control.

Finished!

Ok, so I finished Ubik, and I absolutely loved it. I recently finished Androids and I was intrigued, but not astounded by Dick's style, but after reading Ubik, I can see why people are so fascinated with him. I will save my comments for our day (which day is it? the 12th?) But I do have some questions. I didn't want to post the questions on the page, insofar as to not distract other readers who haven't finished the book. So, if you want to help, just go to the comments section to read the questions. Thank you.

Take only as directed.

July book (or is it August book?) as chosen ever so carefully by Carlitos

On Beauty. by Zadie Smith (Really thought about Lolita, but I am just too afraid to even touch her.)

Movie Rec. from Gripp

As I was reading Ubik I thought of a movie you guys might want to check out. It's called Primer - it focuses on the same ideals of time travel and creating time paradoxes and the like. One of the most complicated movies I've ever watched. Let me know if you watch it.

wine and cheese party at Trovall's, Sat. June 20

Sorry to clutter the bloglines, but I do want to remind you that you are all invited, along with significant others (and we are kid friendly, too, if that makes a diff), to our house (17223 Village Glen Road in Pflugerville) for a wine and cheese party. Just a get-together with no formal plan. Just bring a bottle of wine and cheese to go with it. We'll start about 6 or so this Sat..... We hope it evolves into a every third Saturday of the month event.... Carl

Since I will not be able to join y'all in July, I was planning to not read UBIK (mythologically incorrect split infinitive!). Surprisingly, even to myself, I finished it last night. Couldn't put it down, if nothing else, because I wanted to see how it was going to wrap up.

Amazing how Dick can predict something akin to a web browser with instant access to up-to-date information, yet still describing analog tapes, phonographs, and LPs.

One somewhat pedantic and unsurprising line (on this edition's pp. 81-82) particularly hit me because it expresses my own, daily, ambiguous relationship with technology and machines : "One of these days," Joe said wrathfully, "people like me will rise up and overthrow you, and the end of tyranny by the homeostatic machine will have arrived. The day of human values and compassion and simple warmth will return. . . ."

Technology is no longer our tool, but our matrix.