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Episode 544 - The Hanging Stranger (Patreon)

Published:
2021-04-20 17:16:16
Imported:
2021-07

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Content

We're back to have a look at The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. Dick!

Special thanks to reader Wilmon Black!

Next up: Fondly Fahrenheit

Comments

Anonymous

I am so excited that you guys are covering SF and especially Philip K. Dick. I hope you cover more of him. His work is filled with paranoia and questions about “what is real”.

Anonymous

Incredible story! I’ve read things that are Dick-Adjacent, but I have to dig in to the rest of his work. His writing from the excerpts you had read is so incredibly cinematic. Someone has to adapt this story for film as well. Create the P K Dick Cinematic Universe!

Evan

Oh, I’m so happy you’re covering PKD. I love horror, but Sci-Fi is the raison d’etre for my reading habit. I’m pretty sure I’ve read everything he’s ever written, though I’m not sure what that’s done to me since, by necessity of my being 20, I read all of it as a teenager. Reading some PKD books while kind of sleepy is probably the closest thing I’ve ever experienced to mind-altering substances without actually taking anything. His stuff is weird, but it’s delicious. If you’re interested in diving into his Exegisis Chad, I’d recommend reading it in tandem with either Madness and Civilization by Foccault and/or another book by dead Frenchmen called “Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia”. Be warned though, it’s something like a 1000 pages and extremely esoteric. One of those things where if you accidentally get interested in it it can consume months of brain power and reading time. However, it’s fascinating. My favorite story is how, after he started having the delusions you mentioned, he would be told helpful stuff. In the particular story I’m thinking of, the voice told him that his son was ill, after which Dick took him to the hospital and it turned out he did have some undiagnosed ailment. Extrapolating from that, he believed he was living a parallel life as an early Roman Christian named “Thomas”, and all other kinds of incredible stuff. If you’re looking for a slightly longer book of his to read, I’d recommend Game-Players of Titan. I wouldn’t necessarily call it one of his better books, but for some reason I feel like it would fit in well on the show. Can’t necessarily put a finger on why though, so take that recommendation with a grain of salt.

Steve

I seem to remember TV and possibly even TV salesmen turning up more than once in PKD's work. I read a whole bunch of his stuff in my teens and it has always stuck with. The vision is very strong. Has anyone seen A Scanner Darkly? Loved that movie too.

Anonymous

I am a Dick Chick and I'm here to tell you all that PKD hasn't really messed with your head until you've read his LITERARY FICTION. Get your eyes on IN MILTON LUNKY TERRITORY. No androids, no drugs, no spaceships, just the ordinary highly functional economic realty of mid-20th-century-America, where a dude could make a living selling typewriters. It's still the weirdest thing I have ever read, and I'm also a Gene Wolfe fan 🤣 Yeah, Steve, TV shops are big in, e.g. DOCTOR BLOODMONEY. He has also had protagonists who work in record shops, etc. Have a look at the film adaptation of Radio Free Albemuth, btw. Best PKD adaptation since A Scanner Darkly

Jason Thompson

Oh man!! Since you are doing SF now you gotta do some JG Ballard! He is so great! (And also P. Schuyler Miller’s “Spawn”, which is pure pulp, but will blow your minds to 1939 and back)

Jon Bunger

Thank you for covering some PKD he happens to be my favorite author. His characters often must go on an exploration of consciousness and reality with perplexing results. Their struggles can be both internal, external, both, or neither at the same time leading the characters to lose their sanity; or at least roll a 2D6 for it. Alienation, fear of the known unknowns, and horrible cosmic revelations also draw a line to HPL. His daughter produced an anthology series of many of his short stories which are well done and have a decent budget. Some of his best work though is a bit hard to translate such as Ubik. This is because the main character Joe Chip dresses like this, “pinstriped clown-style pyjamas” and later dons “a sporty maroon wrapper, twinkle-toes turned-up shoes and a felt cap with a tassel.” Short stories possibilities Human is Second Variety What Dead Men Say

Jason Thompson
>>58173709

“Second Variety” is awwwesome, also “Upon the Dull Earth” and “The Golden Man.” Admittedly I have only read a handful of Dick stories... but they’re nearly all good!!

Anonymous
>>58161317

Wonderful movie. I was also happy to participate in a grad-student video project where I got to be one of hundreds of faces in the scramble suit. Good times.

Anonymous

I grew up with a lot of exposure to folks in various states of mental health. Folks who worked in mental health and folks who struggled to hold on to the world most of us agreed to. And then I picked up some Dick. (My own inability to avoid that phrasing may signal something about my own level of mental development or lack thereof.) It was clear to me that the author had a direct line to the issues I could only appreciate second-hand. Sublime knowledge. Terrifying enlightenment. Eyes wide open to the repercussions of what they are seeing while the societal part of your brain - the cultured part - sternly admonishes your flights of fancy. Demands you step back into line. And you want to. Only maybe you can't. I'm so glad you covered this one, gents. I will equally look forward to and dread the ones to follow.

Anonymous

Hey - Good timing on running a PKD story. He made the best ever defence of AE Van Vogt in this interview: Dick: There was in van Vogt’s writing a mysterious quality, and this was especially true in The World of Null-A. All the parts of that book do not add up; all the ingredients did not make a coherency. Now some people are put off by that. They think it’s sloppy and wrong, but the thing that fascinated me so much was that this resembled reality more than anybody else’s writing inside or outside science fiction. Cover: What about Damon Knight’s famous article criticizing van Vogt? Dick: Damon feels that it’s bad artistry when you build those funky universes where people fall through the floor. It’s like he’s viewing a story the way a building inspector would when he’s building your house. But reality is a mess, and yet it’s exciting. The basic thing is, how frightened are you of chaos? And how happy are you with order? Van Vogt influenced me so much because he made me appreciate a mysterious chaotic quality in the universe that is not to be feared. [Emphasis mine.]

Anonymous

What is interesting to me, intentional or not, is the portrale of social pressure on humans. Since we're a group animal we have an impulse to look to other people for how we should react to certain situations even if we are well aware that there is danger or something is wrong. For example, there was a study many years ago where an individual was placed in a room with a group of other people who were in on the study, and smoke was pumped under the door. They found that even though the person being tested was nervous they didn't immediately respond as they would were they alone. Instead they did things like look at the other people to see if they were worried about the smoke or casually ask things like "do you guys smell something?" despite the smoke being clearly visible. So, scarily enough, the idea of people ignoring a hanging body isn't too terribly out there. If no one is panicking or seems worried an individual becomes more scared of making a scene or seeming "weird", and might just tell themselves "well someone must have called the police" or "there must be some reason that's there..."

Anonymous

Hey everybody! This is one of my favourite Dick stories! If you’d like to hear the complete story I highly recommend Horrorbabble’s reading: https://youtu.be/PaJy4kzRrRQ Also if you are interested in Dick’s other works, Dickheads: The Philip K Dick Podcast is wonderful! https://m.soundcloud.com/dickheadspodcast

Anonymous

This is one of my favorite PKD stories, as its closed circle structure and the sort of believable logic of the bait always struck me as really clever. PKD wrote more basic body snatcher stories as well, but this one is more haunting due to its general weirdness and fatalistic conclusion.

Anonymous

The one PKD story that still haunts me and I HIGHLY recommend for the show is “Foster, You’re Dead!”

Anonymous

An element of last week's story reminded me of the headcrab zombies of Half-Life, now this week's story reminds me a bit of the Collectors from Mass Effect. I guess I really should read more of these older sci-fi short stories, to see the inspirations for newer stories in different media. Also, Chad's insights into the world of advertising are their own little horror vignettes.

Anonymous

I have mixed feelings on PKD... I remember seeing Blade Runner and was like OH MY GOD!!!! and then I read Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep and was like OH MY GOD! I think he may have great ideas but execution for me is a bit off.

Thunk

A black cone in the sky above city hall? YES. Bugs come out? YYYYEEEESSSS

Lord Rancid

The whole "Insect Aliens with Mind Control = Devils and Demons from Mythology" is heavily reminiscent of Quatermass and The Pit (especially the original BBC TV show from the late 50's). They play out very differently but I wonder which came first?

Anonymous
>>58265113

God, I forgot all about that serial. I still need to watch the other Quatermass stuff because I liked that one a good deal.

Iain Hood

You guys definitely gotta do more A.E. Van Voght. I read Vault of the Beast and it was totally something I think you would love.

Anonymous

A story about insidious crab-walking insect aliens that mimic human shape with buzzing voices, and no mention of The Whisperer in Darkness? As soon as the protagonist saw them fly down from that vortex I thought: Damn! It's a Mi-Go invasion! Did PKD read Lovecraft?

Noah August

Am I crazy or wasn't this story covered before? I thought there had been a few of PKD stories including "We remember it for you, wholesale" and one about a strange alien creature from its perspective on Mars, and the creature was extremely ugly.

Anonymous

On the subject of mystical truths being revealed following medical drug use, this has long been a favourite of mine: "[The 19th Century US philosopher] William James describes a man who got the experience from laughing-gas; whenever he was under its influence, he knew the secret of the universe, but when he came to, he had forgotten it. At last, with immense effort, he wrote down the secret before the vision had faded. When completely recovered, he rushed to see what he had written. It was: A smell of petroleum prevails throughout." From A History of Western Philosophy, Bertrand Russell (1945)

Anonymous

During high school my friends and I would pass around an old paperback copy of PKD's semi-autobiographical novel "Valis".... it is a great way to get into his world without having to go through the entire Exegesis. Valis is an incredible book, super weird... and fantastic... we (in our teen angsty-years) used to say it "burned" our brains... definitely worth a read, not necessarily a podcast episode (unless you like :) ), but very thought provoking and entertaining.

Anonymous

Chris & Chad owe me a butt because "K-Dick is huge right now" made me laugh my ass off! 😂 On the subject of remarkable school-mates; After watching Evangelion for the first time recently I got interested in the mathematician Paul Dirac (Ref: Dirac Sea / Dirac Planes) so read a bio and found he went to the same school as Cary Grant, in Bristol, UK! Diracs that pass in the night? 😬🙂 Re: Mary Steenburgen's experience and psilocybin. The 'shroom dealer in my art school had a life changing experience when he took way too big a dosage and saw God. God told him to "stop putting that shit in your body and sort yourself out". Not kidding, he got clean overnight and even gave up alcohol! As I'm reading up on it right now I might as well post a link here to some basic relevant tips for anyone who'd like to stay a little safer online and look in to issues raised by Chad in this episode. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/10-cybersecurity-tips-01-tom-myfield I've been listening since episode 1 and I love the way this show not only makes me laugh but also keeps bringing new, interesting concepts to my ears, year after year. This story is great and I'm looking forward to more Dick, when it comes up, or more Bradbury for that matter. Thanks Chris & Chad!

Anonymous

Just realised this story (1953) might have been the inspiration behind not only the Ted Hughes poem "Lovesong" (late 70s) but also the X-Files episode "Folie à Deux" (early 90s)! Dick's influence truly is extensive.

Anonymous

Help, I think I'm going insane. When the episode started, the story started to sound so familiar. I knew what story beats were coming and what they were going to talk about next. I have absolutely never read this story before or any PKD for that matter and this is the only literary based podcast I listen to. The commentary was different but I swear I've heard Chad and Chris discuss this story before. . . Is there another two man weird fiction podcast that covered this? I mean it's is PKD so it's not like no one's ever heard of him, but damn I swear it was this one. It seemed like they spent multiple episodes on it. Weirdest case of deja vu ever.

Anonymous
>>58478092

Man if you're crazy, so am I. I just posted about this and was going back through comments to see if anyone thought the same thing. I swear I heard them cover this one and it was a multi-episode deal. I went back through the episode list and either didn't go back far enough or didn't see it but it's bugging the crap out of me.

Anonymous
>>58577164

There's a pretty cool illustrated version of the Exegesis by R. Crumb. Worth checking out.

Anonymous

There's so many little anecdotes from PKD's life... ...a twin sister that died as a child, but followed him as a ghost his whole life. ... that time a prescription delivery girl with a Christian "fish" necklace caused a pink space laser to reveal the universe to him. ... when he said the CIA had broken into his home and stolen his manuscripts. ... when the pink space laser told him his son had a medical emergency the doctors had missed, and to take him back to be seen, which apparently saved the boy's life. ... that time he was invited to a Sci-fi convention in France to talk about Blade Runner, but instead he tried to preach the Gospel of the Pink Space Laser. He was definitely a unique guy, and I don't mean to poke fun at him. We're all better off for him having been around. I do so love a good "phildickian" tale. (Yes, that's the equivalent of "Lovecraftian" for PKD).

Anonymous
>>58596419

I feel cheated.... All psilocybin ever did for me was make me think the walls in a bathroom were breathing (and temporarily make me forget how to pee).

Ben Gilbert

Another Philip K Dick story with a cool monster is The Father Thing.

Anonymous

He's buried next to his twin sister in the Riverside Cemetery in Fort Morgan, CO. Apparently people leave stuffed sheep at the grave.