Review: “The Preserving Machine and Other Stories” by Philip K. Dick – “Total Recall” by Paul Verhoeven (Arnold Schwarzenegger) – Len Wiseman (Colin Farrell)

PODCAST:

S2E12 – The Preserving Machine and Other Stories*

Listen to the podcast here (click to play/right click and select “save target as” to download):

WRITTEN BOOK REVIEWS:

Ryan: 3 Stars “…An early collection of short stories touching on cold-war era fears, and other weird pseudo-realities…”

Wilk: 3 Stars “…The movie Total Recall is superior in every way…”

Rick: 5 Stars “…This is a nicely packaged story packed with ideas that inspired two of the best Sci-fi films…”

(Click the links to read full written reviews on Goodreads.com)

SUBJECT MATTER:

Book:“The Preserving Machine and Other Stories” by Philip K. Dick

“Ace paperback original. 1976 printing with new cover art. Collection of stories including: The Preserving Machine [Dr. Rupert Labyrinth] (1953); War Game (1959); Upon the Dull Earth (1954); Roog (1953); War Veteran (1955); Top Stand-By Job [Jim Briskin] (1963); Beyond Lies the Wub (1952); We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (1966); Captive Market (1955); If There Were No Benny Cemoli (1963); Retreat Syndrome (1965); The Crawlers (1954); Oh, to Be a Blobel! (1964); What the Dead Men Say (1964); Pay for the Printer (1956).” (from Amazon.com)

*** * ***

Film:“Total Recall” by Paul Verhoeven (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

“Action star extraordinaire Arnold Schwarzenegger is Quaid, a 2084 construction worker haunted by dreams of Mars. Against the wishes of his wife (Sharon Stone), Quaid goes to a company that implants artificial memories, so he can “remember” visiting the red planet. However, Quaid is actually a secret agent from Mars – or is he?” (from Amazon.com)

*** * ***

Film:“Total Recall” by Len Wiseman (Colin Farrell)

“Total Recall is an action thriller about reality and memory, inspired anew by the famous short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick.” (from Amazon.com)

 

SHOW NOTES:

We discuss one of our favorite authors in one of our more contentious shows. The author bio may have gone a little over the approximate 10 minutes usually spent on bios but since Dick’s first bio with NDIOS was so light and reduced him to a random crazy, there was a need to flesh the poor guy out a tad. In the show, Wilk demonstrates exceedingly tactful and gentlemanly debate maneuvers to convince us that he is right on all accounts once again…

Anyway, if you have a book report due and you hope to grasp any insight you can find on PK Dick’s legendary short story, “We can Sell it to Wholesale”, I can’t really say if you are looking in the right place. Better read it and form your own interpretation.

Adieu, my dear friends.

-Rick

FUN FACTOIDS:

Philip K. Dick is a well respected author in the science fiction community and his works often feature themes which blur the lines of reality. Much has been made about this author’s own personal struggles that also seemed to explore these themes.

Check out this documentary about Philip K. Dick which focuses on the author’s mystical experiences: “The Penultimate Truth About Philip K. Dick” on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afam25BJMeU&list=PL0C6AAE4A6BC928CE

 

ADDENDUM: On this episode we talked about claims that PKD was known for speaking in ancient languages and how this was witnessed by others. On Episode #348 of the “Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy” podcast, host David Barr Kirtley interviews American science fiction author and astrophysicist Gregory Benford who personally knew PKD. Starting at about the 28:28 mark in the interview Benford discusses witnessing first hand PKD speak in ancient koine Greek. Take a listen: https://geeksguideshow.com/2019/02/07/ggg348-gregory-benford/.

 

 

 

* DISCLAIMER: Please be advised that the views and opinions of the hosts and guests of NDIOS are completely their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and beliefs of the other hosts and guests or that of NDIOS.

Preview Episode (Total Recall)

PODCAST:

S2P12 – Preview Episode (Total Recall)*

Listen to the podcast here (click to play/right click and select “save target as” to download):

 

SUBJECT MATTER:

Book:“The Preserving Machine and Other Stories” by Philip K. Dick

“Ace paperback original. 1976 printing with new cover art. Collection of stories including: The Preserving Machine [Dr. Rupert Labyrinth] (1953); War Game (1959); Upon the Dull Earth (1954); Roog (1953); War Veteran (1955); Top Stand-By Job [Jim Briskin] (1963); Beyond Lies the Wub (1952); We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (1966); Captive Market (1955); If There Were No Benny Cemoli (1963); Retreat Syndrome (1965); The Crawlers (1954); Oh, to Be a Blobel! (1964); What the Dead Men Say (1964); Pay for the Printer (1956).” (from Amazon.com)

*** * ***

Film:“Total Recall” by Paul Verhoeven (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

“Action star extraordinaire Arnold Schwarzenegger is Quaid, a 2084 construction worker haunted by dreams of Mars. Against the wishes of his wife (Sharon Stone), Quaid goes to a company that implants artificial memories, so he can “remember” visiting the red planet. However, Quaid is actually a secret agent from Mars – or is he?” (from Amazon.com)

*** * ***

Film:“Total Recall” by Len Wiseman (Colin Farrell)

“Total Recall is an action thriller about reality and memory, inspired anew by the famous short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick.” (from Amazon.com)

* DISCLAIMER: Please be advised that the views and opinions of the hosts and guests of NDIOS are completely their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and beliefs of the other hosts and guests or that of NDIOS.

Review: “The Running Man” (Stephen King) and “The Running Man” (Paul Michael Glaser)

PODCAST:

Listen to the podcast here (click to play/right click and select “save target as” to download):

S1E3 – The Running Man (book & movie) *

WRITTEN BOOK REVIEWS:

Ryan: 3 Stars “I would definitely recommend this story for those who don’t know King outside horror…”

Wilk: 5 Stars “If you do not like this book you should start scrap booking or join a bowling league…”

Beam: 5 Stars “(no written review)”

Rick (guest): 4 Stars “Irony is thicker than his moussed hair as RD’s weasel character is a mirror to his real tv persona…”

(Click the links to read full written reviews on Goodreads.com)

SUBJECT MATTER:

“The Running Man” By: Stephen King

Book: “The Running Man” by Stephen King

“In the year 2025, the best men don’t run for President, they run for their lives….

Ben Richards is out of work and out of luck. His eighteen-month-old daughter is sick, and neither Ben nor his wife can afford to take her to a doctor. For a man with no cash and no hope from the poor side of town, there’s only one thing to do: become a contestant on one of the Network’s Games, shows where you can win more money than you’ve ever dreamed of—or die trying. Now, Ben’s going prime-time on the Network’s highest-rated viewer participation show. And he’s about to become prey for the masses….

With an introduction by the author, “The Importance of Being Bachman”” (from Amazon.com)

*** * ***

“The Running Man” By: Paul Michael Glaser

Movie: “The Running Man” by Paul Michael Glaser (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

“A wrongly-convicted man must try to survive a public execution gauntlet staged as a TV game show.” (from Amazon.com)

WILK’S SHOW NOTES:

The third episode of NDIOS involved a discussion of Stephen King’s “The Running Man” as well as a series of inside jokes, derision, and shared contempt.

For no reason whatsoever there was a guest panelist, Richard (Rick) Mehl. He added an interesting dynamic to the show in that he was not Ryan, Wilk, or Beam, and he too had opinions as well as insulting comments to make.

Overall the show focused on the book by King. The book is completely different then the movie and the panelists went over the plot at length. Their discussions ultimately lead to post show discussions about how they need to better organize the podcast. To date nothing has changed and the podcast planning and editing seem to take an inordinate amount of time out of the lives of the hosts. It is presumed that the people listening and reading this do not care. Perhaps the idea that this is causing a large toll on both our personal and professional lives  will enhance our fans enjoyment of the show (This show literally ended with a bloody nose – click for photo). We can only hope.

Ryan made a point to stay focused by ignoring whatever Wilk said if he thought it was off topic. This only aggravated Wilk, who later wrote about the experience in a third person format. As a result, there were a lot of obscene words and tangents worked into the broadcast. At one point the discussion drifted to Stephen King’s book on writing (On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft) and it was all Wilk could do to not punch Ryan in the mouth. There is nothing worse than hearing an aspiring writer talk about writing, except to listen to them talk about Stephen King’s book on writing. Sadly, that moment did happen in this podcast.

Overall, all the panelists liked the book. Wilk gave it five stars, saying that it was a “punk rock” literary masterpiece. On the other end of the spectrum Ryan said it was “very good” but it was easy to tell it was written in a rush. Jim and Rick seemed to agree with both of these points of view.

The movie “The Running Man” was met with poor reviews by everyone but Wilk. This was surprising to Wilk, who considers this a classic “Arnold” movie. But, according to guest host Rick, even “Arnold” was upset with the film. A broader discussion of what movies they all liked starring Arnold Schwarzenegger was entered into briefly.

Overall tempers flared at key moments and the podcast was cut mercifully short at 45 minutes so Wilk could go watch Game of Thrones. Until next time, spray some deodorant in your boxers because there is no deodorant in outer space!

 – Wilk

 

* DISCLAIMER: Please be advised that this episode of NDIOS contains a brief bio by Wilk of director Paul Michael Glaser, which was later confirmed to be complete fabrication (as Wilk is wont to do from time to time). Post show Wilk clarified that he was providing a “satire” of a biography, and after the credits Wilk does apologize to any listeners that may be confused. NDIOS wishes to express that the views and opinions of Wilk are completely his own and in no way reflect the views of the other cohosts and guests, nor did they express the views of NDIOS. Our sincerest apology for any confusion which Wilk’s absurdly false comments might have caused.