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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
Philip K Dick wrote a lot of novels, and they can't all be winners. Clans of the Alphane Moon is certainly one of his lesser known novels, and deservedly so. It begins with a fascinating premise, the third moon of the Alphane system was a mental asylum and once it was abandoned the patients created their own functioning society based upon their mental diagnosis. Therefore we have seven settlements:
Pare (paranoids) settlement in Adolfville
Heebs (hebephrenics) in Gandhitown
Mans (manic-depressives) in Da Vinci Heights
Dep (depressed) in Cotton Mather Estates
Poly (polymorphic schizophrenics) in Hamlet Hamlet
Skitz (schizophrenics) in Joan d'Arcs
Ob-Com (obsessive compulsive) in (?)
For me this was the most interesting aspect of the book, as the different settlements took up different roles in their society, the Heebs were the religious mystics, the Mans the inventors, the Pares the statesmen, and so forth. The plot centers around Earth wanting to retake control of the colony, claiming they wish only to treat these mentally unwell patients (but in reality its about politics). Clearly Clans of the Alphane Moon is a diatribe against the psychiatric establishment, questioning the very notion that these people need to be fixed at all. This is certainly very PKD-esque, and tracks with his other works.
Unfortunately only about half of the novel takes place on the moon itself, and the other half follows our protagonist, Chuck Rittersdorf, on Earth. In a typical PKD move, we have a depressed male protagonist under the thumb of a domineering female. It is a shame that Dick just cannot write a realistic sympathetic female character if his life depended on it (granted he recognized this too and tried to make up for it in The Transmigration of Timothy Archer). Also, this novel is quite dated in not only its psychiatric terminology, but with its not so subtle racism as well (Gandhitown...really?).
Therefore this one PKD novel that can be skipped, but I'll continue reading anything and everything of his I can find. Even his worst books have little nuggets of value, showcasing why he's one of the genre's greatest writers.
Pare (paranoids) settlement in Adolfville
Heebs (hebephrenics) in Gandhitown
Mans (manic-depressives) in Da Vinci Heights
Dep (depressed) in Cotton Mather Estates
Poly (polymorphic schizophrenics) in Hamlet Hamlet
Skitz (schizophrenics) in Joan d'Arcs
Ob-Com (obsessive compulsive) in (?)
For me this was the most interesting aspect of the book, as the different settlements took up different roles in their society, the Heebs were the religious mystics, the Mans the inventors, the Pares the statesmen, and so forth. The plot centers around Earth wanting to retake control of the colony, claiming they wish only to treat these mentally unwell patients (but in reality its about politics). Clearly Clans of the Alphane Moon is a diatribe against the psychiatric establishment, questioning the very notion that these people need to be fixed at all. This is certainly very PKD-esque, and tracks with his other works.
Unfortunately only about half of the novel takes place on the moon itself, and the other half follows our protagonist, Chuck Rittersdorf, on Earth. In a typical PKD move, we have a depressed male protagonist under the thumb of a domineering female. It is a shame that Dick just cannot write a realistic sympathetic female character if his life depended on it (granted he recognized this too and tried to make up for it in The Transmigration of Timothy Archer). Also, this novel is quite dated in not only its psychiatric terminology, but with its not so subtle racism as well (Gandhitown...really?).
Therefore this one PKD novel that can be skipped, but I'll continue reading anything and everything of his I can find. Even his worst books have little nuggets of value, showcasing why he's one of the genre's greatest writers.
Vuoto cosmico
Idea interessante - la classificazione della malattie mentali - che paga a caro prezzo una scrittura poco ispirata e un contesto, attorno all'idea, oggettivamente debole.
Non si perde mai del tempo a leggere P.K. Dick, ma è innegabile che la brillantezza dell'autore vada cercata altrove.
Idea interessante - la classificazione della malattie mentali - che paga a caro prezzo una scrittura poco ispirata e un contesto, attorno all'idea, oggettivamente debole.
Non si perde mai del tempo a leggere P.K. Dick, ma è innegabile che la brillantezza dell'autore vada cercata altrove.
This is a fun book.
It's full of madly inventive and bizarre ideas. There is an intelligent, telepathic slime mold from Gannamede named Lord Running Clam, a young woman who can turn back time in a limited area for a few minutes, and a mentally ill civilization in which the paranoids are the elite. As with a lot of PKD novels, this is a story about a failed marriage. Behind the over the top sci-fi story, is a story of divorce, financial jeopardy, blackmail, adultery, guilt, self-loathing, alienation, suffering, and exploitation. It depicts the asylum planet as more sensible than the outside. There are also 36 named characters to keep track of.
I believe that this may contain the origin of PKD's recurring phrase "small articulated breasts". On page 162 "he found his attention drawn away from what she was saying to her well-articulated breasts. They were admittedly small but quite distinct as regard to angle. He liked them."
It's full of madly inventive and bizarre ideas. There is an intelligent, telepathic slime mold from Gannamede named Lord Running Clam, a young woman who can turn back time in a limited area for a few minutes, and a mentally ill civilization in which the paranoids are the elite. As with a lot of PKD novels, this is a story about a failed marriage. Behind the over the top sci-fi story, is a story of divorce, financial jeopardy, blackmail, adultery, guilt, self-loathing, alienation, suffering, and exploitation. It depicts the asylum planet as more sensible than the outside. There are also 36 named characters to keep track of.
I believe that this may contain the origin of PKD's recurring phrase "small articulated breasts". On page 162 "he found his attention drawn away from what she was saying to her well-articulated breasts. They were admittedly small but quite distinct as regard to angle. He liked them."
Really awesome book with loads of social commentary about our future and where humanity is heading. Light and easy read too, but has many facets if you want to get intellectual about it.
Took me by surprise, as I have never heard this book mentioned in discussions about PKD. All of his central themes are present here: mental illness; concentric, rippling rings of conflict; the Everyman’s life a mere plaything for vast conspiratorial forces; and even a few brief flashes of the spiritual. The characters are unforgettable, especially a telepathic slime mold by the name of Lord Running Clam.
Only PKD could achieve something coherent and entertaining out of all this. As in every work of his, there is no telling how things will end. PKD has a knack for abandoning budding conflicts and possible plot twists because they simply don’t work out in the world. I’ve always found this to be refreshing, and contrary to my intuitions shaped by predictable Hollywood plots. This book should be rewarding for PKD fans and newbies alike, and while I don’t read PKD with an analytical focus, I did notice some interesting motifs here, such as the different self-defense mechanisms employed by Terrans and non-Ts alike.
Only PKD could achieve something coherent and entertaining out of all this. As in every work of his, there is no telling how things will end. PKD has a knack for abandoning budding conflicts and possible plot twists because they simply don’t work out in the world. I’ve always found this to be refreshing, and contrary to my intuitions shaped by predictable Hollywood plots. This book should be rewarding for PKD fans and newbies alike, and while I don’t read PKD with an analytical focus, I did notice some interesting motifs here, such as the different self-defense mechanisms employed by Terrans and non-Ts alike.
Memory is a funny thing. This book was only 35% similar to the incarnation I held of it in my memory.
The characters were all there, as was the setting… but the amount of page space occupied by the various characters was pretty skewed, and man I totally forgot most of the plot points. Which kind of makes sense given how convoluted a typical PKD book is.
So, yeah, typical PKD crazy ensues. There are crosses, triplecrosses and re-uncrosses both mental and physical (and maybe spiritual too, depending on how you look at things), giant schizophrenic hallucinations belching fire, prophets, mind reading slime molds, a girl who can rewind time for 5 minutes and aliens with license plates for names. Oh and marital drama and remote controlled androids and a hundred other odds and ends.
In short: all the stuff I love about classic sci-fi – especially with PKD’s paranoid twists.
If you check out the timeline of his works, you can see that it falls in the last third or so – closer to the “really weird shit” than his “less weird” (but still weird!) early works. It’s a nice mid-point I think – it was originally my favorite of his works, and I think it still is. Still, given how warped it was in my memory, I’m curious how the other books will fare.
The cover above is my version and it’s… well, it’s kind of accurate. I mean, there are a few scenes with guys in tanks.
I came across a couple other interesting covers (as there are bound to be with 50+ years of publication history):
Don’t get me wrong, the above is not a bad cover it’s just… I don’t… it has nothing to do with the book. I don’t know who that could possibly be. I’m guessing the artist was just given the title and ran crazy with it. Maybe they just got the words “clan” and “moon” stuck in their brain and couldn’t get past them.
I can’t decide if it’s better or worse than this one:
I mean. WHAT THE FUCK FISHHEAD MAN AND NAKED ALBINO CRONE-GIRL? In this book there were: humans, humanoid robots, weird bug aliens, slime mold aliens. That’s it. Another one where I’m really curious if the author read the book or if this is like some deep motherfuckin shit or something. Or maybe the artist was just high. There were, technically tanks and spaceships, so I guess he/she gets 2 points there…
Oh, right, the review:
FOUR STARS
Because it’s still a classic, and I still love it.
The characters were all there, as was the setting… but the amount of page space occupied by the various characters was pretty skewed, and man I totally forgot most of the plot points. Which kind of makes sense given how convoluted a typical PKD book is.
So, yeah, typical PKD crazy ensues. There are crosses, triplecrosses and re-uncrosses both mental and physical (and maybe spiritual too, depending on how you look at things), giant schizophrenic hallucinations belching fire, prophets, mind reading slime molds, a girl who can rewind time for 5 minutes and aliens with license plates for names. Oh and marital drama and remote controlled androids and a hundred other odds and ends.
In short: all the stuff I love about classic sci-fi – especially with PKD’s paranoid twists.
If you check out the timeline of his works, you can see that it falls in the last third or so – closer to the “really weird shit” than his “less weird” (but still weird!) early works. It’s a nice mid-point I think – it was originally my favorite of his works, and I think it still is. Still, given how warped it was in my memory, I’m curious how the other books will fare.
The cover above is my version and it’s… well, it’s kind of accurate. I mean, there are a few scenes with guys in tanks.
I came across a couple other interesting covers (as there are bound to be with 50+ years of publication history):
Don’t get me wrong, the above is not a bad cover it’s just… I don’t… it has nothing to do with the book. I don’t know who that could possibly be. I’m guessing the artist was just given the title and ran crazy with it. Maybe they just got the words “clan” and “moon” stuck in their brain and couldn’t get past them.
I can’t decide if it’s better or worse than this one:
I mean. WHAT THE FUCK FISHHEAD MAN AND NAKED ALBINO CRONE-GIRL? In this book there were: humans, humanoid robots, weird bug aliens, slime mold aliens. That’s it. Another one where I’m really curious if the author read the book or if this is like some deep motherfuckin shit or something. Or maybe the artist was just high. There were, technically tanks and spaceships, so I guess he/she gets 2 points there…
Oh, right, the review:
FOUR STARS
Because it’s still a classic, and I still love it.
maybe 3.5 stars?
i liked the twin aspects of the novel - the personal conflicts surrounding the main character, and the bigger socio-political problem of the colonial relationship between terra and alpha 3 m2. would have liked a little more attention to latter, perhaps, because the clans that occupy that moon were interesting and could have produced some good material.
i liked the twin aspects of the novel - the personal conflicts surrounding the main character, and the bigger socio-political problem of the colonial relationship between terra and alpha 3 m2. would have liked a little more attention to latter, perhaps, because the clans that occupy that moon were interesting and could have produced some good material.
medium-paced