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  • (review) Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick

    From James Nicoll@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, July 16, 2026 13:06:10
    Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick

    Ragle Gumm lives in an unremarkable backwater. He is about to learn for himself the truth of Lovecraft's adage "The most merciful thing in the
    world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/frown
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Don@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, July 16, 2026 15:02:11
    James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:
    Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick

    Ragle Gumm lives in an unremarkable backwater. He is about to learn for himself the truth of Lovecraft's adage "The most merciful thing in the
    world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/frown

    Excerpt:

    Speaking of Dicks not read, I remember snorting
    derisively at this edition of Flow My Tears, the
    Policeman Said [cover], which a long-vanished
    bookstore in Waterloo Square???home of the Busy
    Bee!???had on its shelves for what seemed to me
    an excessively long time.

    FLOW's narrative content is indeed inimical to my mental health. FLOW
    motivated me to abandon PKD altogether.
    Yet, for those who choose to leave the confines of their comfortably
    numb, nostalgic, 1948, post-WWII victorious mentality, both FLOW and
    TIME OUT OF JOINT uncannily echo today's Zeitgeist. FLOW presents a
    seedy, sinister sex scenario apropos for our shared, most foul, Epstein coalition reality.

    --
    Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. veritas _|_ telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. liberabit |
    tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' vos |


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From William Hyde@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, July 16, 2026 16:09:48
    James Nicoll wrote:
    Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick

    Ragle Gumm lives in an unremarkable backwater. He is about to learn for himself the truth of Lovecraft's adage "The most merciful thing in the
    world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/frown

    "Now Wait for Last Year" (classic SF premise), "The Three Stigmata of
    Palmer Eldritch" and "Martian Time Slip" were the novels that made me a
    fan of PKD in my late teens. "The Man in the High Castle was not then available, and I had no idea what was going on in "Ubik".

    William Hyde

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, July 16, 2026 21:03:15
    On Thu, 16 Jul 2026 15:02:11 -0000 (UTC), Don wrote:

    FLOW's narrative content is indeed inimical to my mental health.
    FLOW motivated me to abandon PKD altogether.

    Think of what it was like to be PKD himself ... to have all that in
    your head, all the time ...

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Scott Dorsey@3:633/10 to All on Friday, July 17, 2026 14:55:51
    William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
    "Now Wait for Last Year" (classic SF premise), "The Three Stigmata of
    Palmer Eldritch" and "Martian Time Slip" were the novels that made me a
    fan of PKD in my late teens. "The Man in the High Castle was not then >available, and I had no idea what was going on in "Ubik".

    Ubik? It's an aerosol spray. It will make everything better.
    --scott
    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Scott Dorsey@3:633/10 to All on Friday, July 17, 2026 17:25:49
    Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?= <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On Thu, 16 Jul 2026 15:02:11 -0000 (UTC), Don wrote:

    FLOW's narrative content is indeed inimical to my mental health.
    FLOW motivated me to abandon PKD altogether.

    Think of what it was like to be PKD himself ... to have all that in
    your head, all the time ...

    Set your mood organ to insane!
    --scott

    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)