Sunday, February 10, 2013

The Simulacra Part 1

After reading chapters 1-8 of The Simulacra by Philip K. Dick, I have been left confused.

Although these 8 chapters were extremely short, they were confusing, packed with conversation (unlike Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep), contained PKD's famous made-up descriptors, and last but not least, contains a fair bit of German phrases, and German names. I hope I was not the only one who found this the most difficult to read writing this semester. Unfortunately, it just started to hit a possibly interesting spot at the finish of chapter 8! "Chuppers", or genetic human throwbacks to neanderthals!? Who knew! I just hope this strange turn of events turns out to be the mark of a more comprehensible plot, and doesn't lead us all into more rabbit-hole-esque conversation between a million and three characters.

3 comments:

  1. I have to agree with you! I have been very confused these first 8 chapters. PKD has a way of twisting his writing to being clever but in the end it makes complete sense (or at least a little bit) I am hoping after completing the next part of this book I will get a better understand of this novel. I was surprised by the German says as well.

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  2. I agree with your frustration about the confusing aspects of the first eight chapters of this book. It felt as though the entire first 7-8 was devoted to character introduction. I did not feel as though there was much explanation to grab hold of when reading about each character to make more than a few stand out in my mind as memorable. I am hopeful for the remainder of the book to correct that.

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  3. You are not alone in finding this so difficult to read. Not only are there so many characters that are vaguely described, but the German words sort of leave holes in the conversation of the story if you don't speak German (I don't). I sort of feel like a pinball being bounce around in this story without anything to hold onto, I'm finding it very difficult to follow.

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