I consider VALIS to be the PKD novel par excellence, since it was the first one I read. I agree, however, that it should not be the first novel a person reads when trying to start on PKD. It is widely known that 1974 marks a before and after in the career of PKD, sicne he starts leaning towards more religio-spiritual themes in his later works. But another difference I find relevant is that the characters become (as PKD himself did) more and more unstable as well. ...
This is a book that is in no way easy to digest. Its prose, however, is too lyrical for its content. In it, we find a post-war Japanese setting, where a man, Ryuji, has decided to settle for a woman he just met and fell for. This man is a sailor, who from an early age thought he was destined for glory, for something that is reserved to no ordinary man. ...
In Sculpting in Time, Tarkovsky takes on the task to comprise the thoughts that accompany the films that he created. This means that he goes from discussing a particular technique and why use (or don’t) it, to the most troubling attitudes that pervade modern societies. The art Throughout the book Tarkovsky presents with different perspectives on what Art means, and how does that relate to his craft specifically, namely, cinema. ...