Philip K. Dick's World ... and Ours

So what does Dick have to say about surviving and prevailing in this world?

[...]

Instead he focused on human decency, as expressed through empathy and sacrifice. In his work, characters often come through by doing the hard thing at the right moment. ...

This is what Dick has to offer -- something beyond mere politics; a glimpse at what makes us human. The moral law within, the ability to tell good from evil without actually being able to define them. In a literary world teeming with Mailers, and Vidals, and Thompsons, overrun with the cynical, and the vicious, and the twisted, Philip Dick stood alone in his defense of the human values.

Many thanks to Leah for pointing me to this article positing that Philip K. Dick was a prophet who foretold the times in which we now live. Jarring as that seems to anyone who has read a Philip K. Dick novel, it also hits a strain of truth.

I was just listening to Movies on the Radio where host David Garland and composer Michael Giacchino were discussing the continuing appeal of the original Star Trek series. They concluded it was because Star Trek was made in a time when there was great hope of using our technological power to do good. That sense is carried on through the movies, to a large degree. It is true that sense of optimism was the prevailing attitude and one saw it then in a lot of ways, especially in science fiction.

Unfortunately, it seems as if we live now in times where there is depression instead of optimism. From my limited exposure to Dick's writing, we could all do worse than to read Galactic Pot-Healer and then go out to face our challenges.

Zombies and Star Trek: Night of the Living Trekkies

Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin David Anderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I remember seeing this book when it came out and then it slipped my mind. Stephen's review put it squarely back in the middle of my radar. To be fair, Stephen's reviews are always good reading, but this one was so darned enthusiastic that I paid extra attention.

If you hate both Star Trek and Zombies...

I don’t know what to tell you. You obviously have made some wrong decisions in your life that have led you to this unfortunate circumstance. Maybe you should go and take a long hard look at yourself in the mirror and figure out where things began to fall apart. It’s not too late...the first step is admitting you have a problem.

A quick litmus test is if you smile upon reading Jim Pike's name. Which I suspect anyone picking up this book did. You don't have to get every reference, but the more you understand the more enjoyable the book will be. It spans the gamut of Star Trek movies and series (and as a Deep Space Nine fan, I appreciate that).

Super-quick summary: Jim Pike felt he failed as a leader of men in Afghanistan. Retreating to a hotel security position at home, he finds himself facing first a Star Trek convention and then a zombie apocalypse. As a Trek fan, he's able to tread water. As a horror fan, he's on less solid ground when it turns out that zombies actually do exist. As someone eschewing any responsibility, he's in full retreat when people keep turning to him for leadership in combat situations.

Best of all, however, is that this is a true horror novel. Salted with Trek references and turning on several necessary Trek points, nonetheless you don't need to be a Trekkie (or Trekker) to enjoy the book. I admit it definitely will help, but the authors make it worthwhile with their fresh take on the zombie genre while maintaining solid ties to both Trek and Star Wars worlds. It's a survival story, it's an apocalypse story, it's an "us against the world" story, it's a geek story, and there's even a bit of a mystery thrown in.

A deeper litmus test is this which should make you laugh aloud and then want to read it aloud to someone.

"Have you been able to reach the outside world?"

"I've tried, but so far, no dice. Nothing but snow on the TV. Phones are toast. And no Internet, which is really strange. It was originally designed to serve as a fail-safe communications mode during a nuclear war, so it's very, very resilient. To lock it down this tight, you'd have to have someone very smart and powerful actively denying service."

"Or maybe it's gone," Jim said.

For a moment the line was silent.

"What?" Gary finally said. "What do you mean?"

"Maybe it doesn't exist anymore. Maybe it suffered some sort of catastrophic, worldwide failure."

"Oh, no," Gary said with disturbingly brittle finality. "That's not possible. Somebody's keeping us from getting to the Internet, but the Internet is still there. It will always be there."

Jim decided to back off. ...

Night of the Living Trekkies is a light, summer read and one that I will be saving on my "stress rereading" shelf for an enjoyable adventure in a world where no man has gone before.

Five Leadership Lessons from James T. Kirk

Captain James T. Kirk is one of the most famous Captains in the history of Starfleet. There’s a good reason for that. He saved the planet Earth several times, stopped the Doomsday Machine, helped negotiate peace with the Klingon Empire, kept the balance of power between the Federation and the Romulan Empire, and even managed to fight Nazis. On his five-year mission commanding the U.S.S. Enterprise, as well as subsequent commands, James T. Kirk was a quintessential leader, who led his crew into the unknown and continued to succeed time and time again.

Kirk’s success was no fluke, either. His style of command demonstrates a keen understanding of leadership and how to maintain a team that succeeds time and time again, regardless of the dangers faced. Here are five of the key leadership lessons that you can take away from Captain Kirk as you pilot your own organization into unknown futures.

Read it all at Forbes. You'll laugh, you'll cry, but most of all you'll see the truth of the arguments.

Thanks to Tamahome for this, which I'd never have seen if he, Scott, and I weren't discussing Jane Eyre.

What? From Jane Eyre to Captain Kirk? I'm telling you, Goodreads should never be underestimated for prompting imaginative reading discussions.

Star Trek? Zombies? There's a Book for That.

Night of the Living Trekkies

Book? I want that movie! (Rightly rated QB for Quasi-Silly But Awesome.)

Via SFFaudio, where so many good things turn up first.

My Star Trek Review - updated

AWE. SOME.

(go see it)

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Update
To expound just a touch on my "two word" review of yesterday.

This movie took off with a bang that had me in tears before the opening title even came up.

I couldn't understand how reviewers were saying that this movie completely retools the Star Trek franchise while leaving it just the same. Having seen the movie, I must kiss the feet of the scriptwriters and director J.J. Abrams. Brilliantly done.

Simply put, Star Trek features the main characters of the original series, portrayed by a new cast, that shows their back story. The film introduces an alternate reality that is distinct from the original series and the other Star Trek movies. Simultaneously it leaves every character both somewhat changed and also completely true to themselves as we know them from the past. Not simple, I know. But they pulled it off.

This movie can be enjoyed by anyone but will be most enjoyed by fans of the original series as that is where tons of references lead. It is played with zest by a great set of actors whose risk taking paid off in taking these parts in a movie that may or may not work (Abrams being that sort of director). That left a solid core of Star Trek fans in the showing we attended laughing and clapping all through the movie. Which made it a lot of fun to watch.

I also didn't understand why girls were thrilling to Chris Pine as Captain Kirk. Blond haired, blue eyed boys are not that interesting to me. (Zachary Quinto in Heroes is much more my style ...) That is, until you see Pine is actually playing James Dean on a starship. (I found it both amusing and interesting to see just how they managed to keep him wearing black as much as possible.) As the movie went on and he became more and more dangerous looking, his appeal grew and grew. And, yes girls, I get it. Oh yeah ...

This is a movie that was applauded with gusto when it ended. And rightly so.

Later, Tom and I were comparing big summer movies. Star Trek or The Dark Knight? Hands down. Star Trek.

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Updated More
Reading Gina's comments about Star Trek, good, and evil made me decide to go ahead and post these thoughts. I also was thinking this morning that Star Trek (the movie, anyway) promotes the power of discernment and using one's own gifts the proper way. In Kirk we see both the rebel without a cause and the rebel with a cause. He has been helped along by a father figure who knows just how to motivate a rebel in the right way. How does Kirk use his gifts for good and not evil? This is also shown in Spock from a different perspective. Both are fighting personal demons to find the path they should take. The movie's writers may or may not have had this in mind, but a good story always contains at the base elements of Truth. This search for discernment and "self" is one such thing.

One Last Update
I've had a couple of people ask me about having their kids see it. Of course, it depends on what the kid is used to. It is rated PG-13 for sci-fi action and violence, and brief sexual content. Compared to most movies these days, this is the low end of the PG-13 rating spectrum. I see as much or more violence and sex than this on television, sad to say. Now that I think of it, it is much more like the TV show was (when transferred to a movie) where they weren't afraid to show someone taking a few hard punches to the face or to show Kirk putting on his boots (gasp) after a liaison with a beautiful woman. Though the sexuality is more than that, it is still fairly modest by today's standards.





SPOILER
just one that I can't resist ... down at the bottom to let the RSS feed folks avoid it if they want.






















Never in a thousand years would I have dreamed of seeing Spock with his hand on Uhura's a**. But it worked.