Blade Runner Audio Novel

As you are probably aware by now Doc has an attitude problem...

I love recorded books, and have also had my own radio show on a funky FM station in Seattle, and done some pick up work at an Astoria FM station. I also cut carts for a pirate doo-wop FM station, doing all the funny voices, but that's another story.

Anyway, Scott Brick makes me want to run from the room screaming whenever I hear his voice. It's even worse than listening to Garrison Keillor (sp?) attempt to sing. (The man has no concept of pitch.)

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, 'eh?

doc

Or the ear.

I'm currently listening to my newly procured DADOES audio novel. Excellent. The narrator doesn't emote or intonate in his voice as much as perhaps he could, but thats a personal preference. I am really enjoying it and would recommend it to everyone.

I wonder if they will ever make a DADOES movie rather than the Blade Runner interpretation - or is that heresy?

If anyone's interested, HERE is another DADoES on audio CD in Spanish narrated by Scott Bricks/cover art by Drew Struzan/published by Random House.

I'm interested, but it seems like the only thing in Spanish is the title in the Web page..

Scott Bricks talking in Spanish...mmmm could be interesting, but... I think not!

Another audiobook from PKD is Valis. English one.

The closest version of the Blade Runner movie to DADOES was Hampton Fancher's first "Dangerous Days" screenplay draft. Deckard rolls around with goats in the pet store. Mary is in the story, etc etc. But that's long ago and far away...

Doc

Funny? PKD is quoted as saying that he hated Fancher's scripts and and that he didn't like any of the scripts until he read People's version. He had said that Fancher took out most of his ideas and way over simplified it for Hollywood, and that Peoples had put some of his ideas back in enough that he had changed his mind about them making the movie and endorsed it.

Andy

Quote from page 69 of Future Noir...

"....-Peoples transformed the Blade Runner screenplay into a beautiful, symmetrical reinforcement of my original work." PKD

Andy

PKD spent the majority of his time at this phase of his life completely hammered. Believe what you will.

PKD was a genius, so I don't give a damn what he says about what others did with his work. He'd f..king say anything. However, his work stands alone. Beautiful and brilliant. As does the film. As does Hampton Fancher's superb non-David Peoples screenplay. There are no bridges between them-- they're unique artistic and intellectual creations.

Doc

Supposedly he was pretty clean in his last years.

I would say that the Fancher script is more like a vintage pulp and even some of the more seedy Film Noirs. The main thing that I remember that was closer to Dick's script though was the animal and environmental issues. Much of that was gone by the final scripts.

The nature of humanity was addressed much more in People's scripts IMHO. The characters also became less cliche'd.

In Fancher's script IIRC the replicants were pure evil, and it was basicly a chase film with emphasis on the relationship with Deck and Rachael. People's made the replicants more human and started to flesh them out as characters. As a hard boiled detective thriller the early scripts work better for sure.

The one thing that I may be truly mistaken about is my copy of the Fancher script. I have heard that he had earlier ones before the one at BRmovie that were a basic simplified retelling of the book. So maybe we are talking about two different scripts?

Andy

Dick was not "pretty clean" in his last few years. That's stuff coming from a publicist, and probably a publicist related to the film industry, where the potential loss is measured in hundreds of millions of dollars right off the deck, not a stack of manuscript paper and the low copy number of a first edition print run. I believe he was 54 years old when he died. Does that tell you something?

And also, re media manipulation, publishers bought broadcast adverts in the East Bay Area re Roger Zelazny's later works. They were advertised nowhere else. Of course, Zelazny lived where the adverts were given air time.

These hype people have no concept of truth. But they're very well versed regarding cash flow.

When you want the truth, it's like solving a murder mystery or a bank robbery, or as Willie Sutton said, paraphrased, follow the money. (Sutton, when asked why he robbed banks, replied, "That's where the money is." or something very close to that statement.)

Doc

"Look how he played on my sentiment, and not on my intellect." Philip K. Dick ("The Man in the High Castle")

Here is a superb read of "The Man In the High Castle", read by Tom Weiner. Yeah, he mispronounces Tao (as Taowwww not Dhow) and German names like Goebbels as "Goybels" not "Gurbels") but so what. He has great accents, and completely blows morons like Scott Brick out of the water. Issued by Blackstone Audio. (ISBN 13: 978-1-4332-1452-3)

Check it out-- probably free at your public library. That's where I got my copy.

Doc

A Friend just gave me the 8 disc (9 1/2 hours) audio book of 'A Scanner Darkly' read by Paul Giamatti. Have yet to listen to any of it yet.

BTW, The info about PKD's last years I took from a quote by Gregg Rickman, the PKD Historian that was interviewed in 'Dangerous Days'

Andy

Ultimately, the status of PKD's excesses are completely irrelevant, as far as I'm concerned. Genius exists on a plane above the rest of us, and has its own rules. As a culture, we tend to sanitize our icons, and that's something that is relevant. PKD himself once said "truth [is] as terrible as death, and harder to find."

It's good to retain a skeptic's eye when looking at history because "the past isn't dead; it isn't even past." (Faulkner)

I hope no one thinks I'm disparaging PKD's memory. I'm not. To repeat, genius has its own rules. It exists beyond the masses, certainly beyond my perceptions, and those who possess it often pay a terrible price for this "gift". Genius leads us.

"We do not have the ideal world, such as we would like, where morality is easy because cognition is easy, where one can do right with no effort because he can detect the obvious." (from The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick)

Doc

I actually just finished listening to an (abridged) recording of DADoES,
read by Matthew Modine, with the female parts (Iran, Luba, Rachael) read by Callista Flockhart.

It was a download.... do a search for it! I recommend it.

[Kipple]

Well... I started to take a listen (finally) to the 'Brick-read' audio book of "Blade Runner" (DADoES). I had to stop.

Pretty bad. A shame. Money gone to waste, (like it's the first time... heh). The Modine/Flockhart version is much better. Brick slaughtered the Iran part... and tried to "Harrison-ize" Rick. Two completely personalities IMHO, (between the movie and book).

They could have added more to the packaging as well. Black panels just don't seem right.

How about the Audio Cut of the movie? It works pretty well as an audio only version of the film. If anyone wants it, PM me and I'll upload it to mediafire..

[Edit] I just discovered some mediafire links and a description here, as well:

http://36-15-moog.blogspot.com/2008/03/blade-runner-audio-cut.html