What is UBIK?

A plot-spoiling deep read of Philip K. Dick's reality-bending science fiction classic - UBIK

[@sirchristopher7684]

This book had me at telepathic corporate espionage. Very creative concepts by the legend Philip K. Dick.

[@newdivide9882]

Ubik is that one member of the Godhand

[@kallianpublico7517]

@@newdivide9882 Berserk

[@MettleHurlant]

This is one of the few books I’ve read more than once. I think PKD needs a chance to sink in; each reading reveals more of the magic.

[@shmookins]

What a wonderful summary and presentation. It was clear and well done. I enjoyed this video immensely. I've watched three other videos already about the Ubik novel, but I still couldn't understand the story as clearly as you told it. Thank you, friend. I'm going to watch your other videos now because I loved this one.

[@LiminalSpaces03]

Thank you so much for the kind words!

[@Crabby303]

I think you hit the nail on the head when you say its satire with a hefty dose of his still-to-come lunacy. I think this one might have been the last coherent book he wrote before he want totally off of the deep end with ""Radio", "Valis" etc.

[@theazkii]

You should do Slaughterhouse Five next

[@my4trackmachine]

After watching you talk about Ubik, I knew I had to read it. So glad that I did! Great book and great channel. Just wish I could read through all of your suggestions faster. Your channel is basically becoming my book list 😅

[@LiminalSpaces03]

Thanks for watching and welcome aboard!

[@raffaelerispoli1590]

Loved it. One of my Dick's favorites. Thanks for your contents. Refreshing

[@ubik5453]

I am very refreshing.

[@LiminalSpaces03]

Thank you so much for watching!

[@pw8952-j1v]

The ending could simply be related to the final conversation Runciter has with the head of the society in which he is assured that if he submits his report Hollis will be taken down for good. He puts it off till tomorrow - giving Hollis one last chance to finish the job he failed on the moon. The end could simply be a sign that he never got that report filed and has joined the rest in half life. Or it could be a sign that the world is even more ephemeral than it seemed. I think the ending actually works because it opens a question for the reader that encourages you to reflect back on the entirety of the sequence of events and hints given. I don’t think it negates the story inherently.

[@LiminalSpaces03]

Well said! I love this interpretation!

[@holyfreak8]

I need to check out this book.

[@ubik5453]

You must.

[@kevviekevvie]

I've been a big PKD fan and I think this is one of his best novels. The entire story takes place in the UBIK (Ubiquiquitous Universe). At the beginning of the book, the reader is introduced to a new world with telepathy and the Ubik as a product. It isn't until after the rocket crash and the universe starts to get weird that the reader gets to know that the characters are in the Half-Life reality. If you re-read the story carefully, it's apparent that the entire story takes place within this altered universe.

[@LiminalSpaces03]

This is an interesting idea! In my interpretation they didn't enter half-life until the bombing!

[@kevviekevvie]

@@LiminalSpaces03Anything that is ubiquitous goes unnoticed. We all live in a version of reality that we accept as normal. When you, as reader, began the novel, you accepted the beginning as normal but the entire story took place in the half life universe. Sorta like Neo waking up from the Matrix but he is still in the Matrix all along.

[@mendelovitch]

This novel left me with a very bad existential taste in my mouth. It is GREAT.

[@EndingSimple]

Yeah. Makes me think that's thats what hell would be like.

[@AntiEstablishmentRhetorician]

RUN-sitter!

[@perfectsweetheart]

run-sih-TER!

[@EndingSimple]

@@perfectsweetheart That was my take too.

[@AntiEstablishmentRhetorician]

@@EndingSimple It's RUN-sitter! Jesus Christ, it's a normal enough name. Gordon Bennet, will you yanks ever pronounce anything correctly? RUNE-cider! Unbelievable!

[@granddeception4290]

To me this book was a bit hard to follow, it almost requires a second reading. I'm also a bit slower than the average chap, so theres that.

[@kallianpublico7517]

How would consciousness be changed if everyone were telepathic? If you could read everyone's mind why would you develop language? Language is the interplay between meaning and agreement/disagreement. If you could read someone's mind how would they be able to lie to you? To "hide" anything from you? To disagree with you? When you can't read someone's mind meaning is harder to agree to, isn't it? Don't you have to be taught to agree to what you "call" the different colors? When you're telepathic red to you is red to everyone. When you're not telepathic you have to be shown the color and then, in a classroom setting, be taught the word or "sign" to call it. Everyone in the class has to agree to call red "red" and blue "blue" as part of the teaching of meaning of color through language. When you're a telepath you don't have to learn meaning through words, do you? Meaning to telepaths is not hidden. In other words, discovery is not "mediated" through endeavor or study, it is "immediate" depending on whose mind you're reading. Discovery would be equivalent to meeting new people, and not dependent on personal interactions with Nature. For how could your personal experience of/with Nature disagree or be different from someone else's? We who use language are used to the world through the slow progress of discovering the individual or collective experiences of others through time. To us death is a mystery. Unless a telepath is limited in his ability to read someone's mind, the entire past, present and future of someone else is immediately apprehended. Including at the moment of death. A telepath would know if there is an afterlife, wouldn't he? What would "time" be to a telepath? What would animals or plants be?

[@Tresspassa]

Fascinating concept; I think we can certainly agree that they would no longer be human. In fact, would the human mind even be able to handle such a vast input of information -- think of it, a flood of knowledge, all the time, from every form of life you pass by. Could it be shut off? And if you could mentally read everything living around you -- again, all the time -- what would 'you' even be? An amalgamation of a billion discordant thoughts? Don't think I've seen this addressed before...

[@ubik5453]

Hello 👋

[@LiminalSpaces03]

Oh damn, it's Ubik!