Welcome to Litsy!

I have made it to the bombs dropping segment and I gotta say, I don't love reading it right now! It kinda makes me feel sick!!

"Do It For Mama!" by Jerrold J. Mundis

In an American city riven by factional tensions, fuelled by hard-line conservatives and stoked by media disinformation, with riot police on the streets to enforce authoritarian legislation, the Home Guard is controversially ordered in to quell protests, resulting in hundreds of deaths.
So to take my mind off all that, I've read Mundis's prescient 1971 story set in a New York in which dog ownership becomes ⬇️

The story didn't really grip me, in it's basic core, but PKDs world building, ideas and theories are poignant and evocative. Truly a novel to make you think. There is a lot to say about capitalism here, society's views on technology and how exploitative companies can become.

"Now, in 1971, it isn't possible to look the other way. It is the daytime, suburban side of our existence that has become our nightmare...These are not catastrophes of the imagination - they are what's happening...I get the feeling I'm playing Russian roulette: each passing month that the Worst hasn't happened is an empty chamber of the revolver. But one of them, sure as hell, *is* loaded."

- Introduction, Thomas M. Disch

I fancied some scifi, and this 1973 collection of stories came to mind as I've just finished reading about the ruins of ancient Athens. Some of the Greats contribute to the anthology.
I started reading this in 1981 and paused it, but it's fair to say at this point that I'm starting it anew!
The cover blurb is sad from the current historical perspective, as we continue to head in the direction predicted in these tales of ecological apocalypse.

Ragle Gumm spends most of each day entering a newspaper contest, submitting his guess as to where the "Little Green Man" will appear next on a grid. Every day, he wins. As Ragle questions the meaning of his repetitive existence, he also begins to question reality itself. Why is he famous? Why does he seem to be the center of the universe? Published in 1959, this was a quick and intriguing read.

This is so different from the movie Total Recall but just as entertaining without all the wacky characters, special effects and chase scenes. The ending is unexpected, I didn‘t know if I should be amused or be stunned.

#books #eBook #readaway2024 #2024reads #sciencefiction #Fiction

Page 41: “If, in reading this, you cannot see that Fat is writing about himself, then you understand nothing”. Well, Dick threw down the challenge & won. I‘m sure it‘s a worthy philosophical/theological exploration but I‘m just not intellectual enough to understand, sadly. Also, drugs, semi-glamorised as profound/cosmic or situated ambiguously as either the cause of, or escape from, a “madness” that‘s a stylised affectation, doesn‘t entertain me

@The_Book_Ninja I thought I'd stop hogging @vivastory 's bandwidth and move over to a VALIS specific post 😊
Don't let me put you off reading this book, but it is hardcore Dick-Head fare!
You might ease in with one of his slightly earlier novels, such as:
• Ubik
• A Scanner Darkly
• Flow My Tears the Policeman Said
If they float your boat, then VALIS might do, too.
With apologies for my presumption in dictating to you what you should read!

This book is wild. WILD. After a series of devastating wars, a Federal Government (FedGov) is instituted along with the Secret Police. Employing rhetoric of absolute opinions are now illegal, as these are seen as what have caused all previous armed conflicts & devastation. These absolutes range from the religious (Christian) or the lack of religious (Atheist) to economic ideals. As Wikipedia succinctly states, “In this particular dystopia,..CONT“