Book Review: Philip K. Dick: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

What about [my] books? How do I feel about them?
I enjoyed writing all of them. But I think that if I could only choose a few, which, for example, might escape World War Three, I would choose, first, Eye in the Sky. Then The Man in the High Castle.Martian Time-Slip (published by Ballantine). Dr. Bloodmoney (a recent Ace novel). Then The Zap Gun and The Penultimate Truth, both of which I wrote at the same time. And finally another Ace book, The Simulacra.
But this list leaves out the most vital of them all: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. I am afraid of that book; it deals with absolute evil, and I wrote it during a great crisis in my religious beliefs. I decided to write a novel dealing with absolute evil as personified in the form of a "human." When the galleys came from Doubleday I couldn't correct them because I could not bear to read the text, and this is still true.

-Philip K. Dick

*Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD

Philip K. Dick's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (from now on known as Sitgmata is about pure evil. Not in the sense of "the most cruel, unhuman, monstrous, etc. thing you can think of; no, it is about the cruelty of having a chance to attain what you could never have.

It is an evil analogous to the forbidden fruit (which is actually discussed in the novel). It goes so far as to explain why God answering every prayer may not be in the best interest of the universe as a whole. Philip K. Dick has always had an interest in trying to explain God. In this novel he creates a synthetic God. Not only does this end up having consequences, it becomes a symbiotic relationship in which humanity is fed on by a parasitic alien.

Stigmata mainly follows two people. Barney Mayerson, a pre-cog (someone who can see the future in vagaries, such as being able to read the headlines of a future newspaper) who works for the Perky Pat Layout company, and Leo Bulero, the head of P.P. Layouts, and the kingpin of a drug cartel which sells the drug Can-D.

New Teaser & Behind The Scenes for Game of Thrones

This is the first book/tv show post on this blog. How Fun! The only fantasy series I am a fanatical follower of is George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Much to everyone's excitement, HBO has picked up a David Benioff and Dan Weiss produced adaption of the books to begin airing in the spring of 2011. Here is the new teaser trailer released last Sunday:



All I can think of when watching that is the often muttered colloquialism from the series, where messages and news are mostly traded via ravens.
"Dark wings, dark words"

Here is the behind the scenes as well. You catch a brief glance of Aiden Gillen, who was great as Tommy Carcetti in The Wire, as Petyr Baelish, whom he should be able to portray amazingly. Sean Bean and also Peter Dinklage look good as well. Especially Dinklage, whose portrayal of Tyrion Lannister could easily make or break this whole series.



Needless to say, this is the most excited for a TV show I think I have ever been in my life. Should be an amazing ride.

My Favorite Albums: Titus Andronicus: The Monitor

Part I: Cause Tramps Like Us, Baby We Were Born To Die

"From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia...could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide."

-Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum Address

Titus Andronicus is from New Jersey. To most people that wouldn't be that big of a deal, but Patrick Stickles thinks otherwise. Of course, when speaking of the New Jersey music scene you will always find some poetic longing for Bruce Springsteen in one way or another. People certainly forget just how rich the scene has become. Even if they only release and album once every ten years, The Wrens are amazing. Yo La Tengo has been a mainstay for close to 20 years. Ted Leo, The Feelies, The Misfits, etc. 


To Titus Andronicus, New Jersey is a place that you run away from, but always end up returning to. 


"So I'm going back to New Jersey, I do believe they've had enough of me"


It is a safe haven of a sort. A place that holds within great cruelty, but also a feeling of nostalgia. Whether they are proud of it or not, it is home.


This contradiction is what makes The Monitor such a great record. Thought of as something of a concept album about the civil war, I like to believe it is simpler than that. It is the war of the self; the constant struggle between madness and consciousness, addiction and temperance, violence and peace. Just as The North and The South create one whole, so does the struggle between the left and right brain.

“I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. I am in earnest. I will not equivocate. I will not excuse. I will not retreat a single inch. AND I WILL BE HEARD.”

William Lloyd Garrison