# Digest urth.v028.n066

*The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 28 Oct 1999*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1876>

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### Patri10629
*28 Oct 1999, 01:59*

In a message dated 10/27/99 7:43:15 PM, urth-errors at lists.best.com writes:

<< Well, I'm sort of astonished that there's so much interest in this subject,
but it's a kick, too. I'll add a couple of thoughts. I mentioned -Catch-22-
as "pop modernism." I'd like to add to that category the oeuvres of Kurt
Vonnegut and Philip K. Dick. Vonnegut was an interesting writer, early on.
He's become a lazy hack, and I think it's great that he's announced his
"retirement," since I don't want to read any more of his books. Dick was a
hack too, but I think he could be counted among the more interesting pop
modernists. I confess that I never could read much of him either. (One of
the conditions for joining the club seems to be relative unreadability.) His
post-mortem elevation is certainly a phenomenon.

Dear Alga et all,

Speaking of being astonished by the interest in certain subjects...Let me 
honest.
No, let me be real honest. Who fuck cares which hemisphere it was, and where 
true north was, and please god please can we just drop it?

And let me be frank. No, really frank. Read TIMEQUAKE. Read THE THREE 
STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH and  Look me in the eye and tell me that's 
hackwork and I'll buy you a beer.

On a calmer note.  Rave on Lupes:)

Patrick O'Leary

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### William H. Ansley
*28 Oct 1999, 00:24 · follows Patri10629*

> Patri10629 at aol.com <Patrick O'Leary> wrote:
> And let me be frank. No, really frank.

Hi, Frank.

I don't know from modernism and while I have found this discussion (mostly)
interesting so far I have been content to let it wash over me without
participating. But I, too, want to put in a word for Philip K. Dick.

He certainly was a hack, but he was a great writer, too. One of the things
that sets him apart for me is that although his protagonists are almost
always people who would be labeled "losers" (at least in American society)
it is obvious that Dick deeply *cares* about these people and he makes you
care, too.

The only trace of PKD I have ever found in Wolfe (and it may be
coincidental, although at least one other person in this group has
commented on it) is in _There Are Doors_. The last few paragraphs, in
particular, have always evoked PKD's SF to me.

Has anyone here ever read any of PKD's nonSF? I have always meant to, but
never gotten around to it.

William Ansley

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