Jonathan Lethem talks with Erik Davis

I just finished reading Jonathan Lethem's fantastic new novel Chronic City, a trippy, reality-questioning tale of strange Manhattan that falls right into the genre of fiction that I gravitate to -- that of Philip K. Dick, JG Ballard, Don DeLillo's White Noise, Warren Ellis's Crooked Little Vein, and of course old-school noir. Indeed, Lethem just edited the stately Philip K. Dick Collection box set for Library of America. (In fact, if you have suggestions of other books in that realm, please post in the comments! I'm always asking people to complete the phrase, "If you love JG Ballard and PKD, you might like...") BB pal Erik Davis interviewed Lethem for the new issue of h+ Magazine. In the discussion, they talk of PKD, pot, and the novel as technology. From h+:

ED: Part of the experience I have of novels these days is that it seems like the more awake and aware and acute they are, the more they are aware of their own fragility in the face of other kinds of narrative technologies. The most obvious example is simulation -- immersive worlds that we can go into and reproduce behaviors that are more or less storylike. The fundamental character of a massive, open-ended, multi-player role-playing game is utterly different at this point than the character in a novel. How will novels stand up? We're all walking down the street conducting our self-Turning exams everytime we pass a homeless person, or greet our spouse at the breakfast table.

JL: I'm far too close to one pole to illuminate. But I'll say that -- in the face of certain kinds of rival technologies and rival frameworks for experiencing what we might call self-admitting false realities -- novels are a class of virtual reality experience that has some very particular and innate bottom lines. And I happen to like those. As I see the rivals emerge, I feel that novel-making and reading becomes one option on a very large menu, and in some ways a rather antique or humble or lumpen example. But I also think some of the things that make it that are also deep strengths that are becoming more and more highlighted.

We talked about what makes Dick so compelling and personal -- what made us each take him so personally when we discovered his work. And in some ways, those are elements that are innate to this very strange technology -- this gigantic pile of sentences stuck between two hard covers, that someone makes this incredible commitment to read. It's a bizarre commitment, very unusual the first few times you make it -- to just sit and follow, in order, each of these sentences and make the artificial reality come to life yourself by reading. It's a crazy technology, very specific and weird. Now may not be the time to take it for granted. Instead, maybe we should point out that by doing this, you do achieve a kind of weird mind meld.

"Chronic Citizen: Jonathan Lethem on P.K. Dick, Why Novels are a Weird Technology, and Constructed Realities" (h+)

Chronic City (Amazon)

"Philip K. Dick Collection" (Amazon)

• [Anonymous]

  Stanislaw Lem!

• [Anonymous]

  thomas disch “wall of america” “word of god” “word of god” has PKD in it’s plot. they hated each other disch is amazing

• [Ambiguity]

  This books looks like it may be a good thing. I really liked some of his earlier work (Amnesia Moon, fer instance), but kind-of lost some interest in him when he (appears to have) tried to gain some literary ‘cred by writing “serious novels.” Horribly lowbrow perhaps, but keep in mind that Borges and Pychon didn’t (don’t) always write “serious novels,” even though they wrote (write) serious novels.

  I eagerly await the paperback…

• [impy]

  I’ve read plenty of PKD, and Matt Huff’s BAD MONKEYS hits all the right notes for me. Sweet paranoia, amped up into jittery new heights of horror and humor.

• [impy]

  …and I meant to type Matt RUFF there. oops

• [Anonymous]

  What I want to know is whether they’re going to add a collection of PKD’s short stories to that series.

  • [belldl]

    To anon at #6 above – you can still get the 5 or 6 volume collected Dick at Amazon. I bought them new years ago, very good.

• [palindrome]

  I recall reading somewhere (an intro to a collection of PKD shorts perhaps) that Ursula LeGuin’s (I know she’s not popular ’round here) Lathe of Heaven and Thomas Disch’s 334 were the best PKD books PKD never wrote. Can’t remember if PKD said it or LeGuin or Disch.

• [Anonymous]

  Steve Erickson Tours of the Black Clock would be the place to start with him – excellent. Also Days Between Stations and Arc d’X. You might like Michael Swanwick’s The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, Jack Faust and Stations of the Tide. Then there’s Richard K. Morgan. He is a bit more noir, a bit tougher, more violent, but a compelling and twisted writer. You probably know of him already. Finally, an oldie but goodie: Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination. Stsngely close to PKD in many ways; however, no where near as prolific. A kind of strange pioneer… Cheers!

• [David Pescovitz]

  Wow! Thanks everyone! My knowledge of fiction in general is sorely lacking, so I appreciate all the tips!

• [Anonymous]

  while you’re looking for this sort of book then you should really read some Jeff Noon

  His work really is outstanding.

• [tim]

  PKD’s short stories are certainly underrated i think.

  Great interview though, very thorough. I really fancied this Chronic City when i first read about the PKD influence.

  There’s a pdf scan of that excellent Rolling Stone interview that BB linked to a while back. I’d be careful of the host site though, my AV software doesn’t much like it anyway… http://www.philipkdickfans.com/articles/PKD%20Rolling%20Stone%20article.pdf

  Fascinating reading it in hindsight when now his writing just seems to fit with our “multiplicating realities” and Dickian culture yet was once quite radical, which many must have dismissed as absurdist twaddle. Americans that is.

• [markfrei]

  A bit more literary but…
  Jorge Luis Borges? Thomas Pynchon? Steve Erickson? Roberto Bolaño?

• [SpigotHead]

  I second Egypt Urnash’s suggestion of K. W. Jeter. “Farewell Horizontal” is very cool, and “Dr. Adder” absolutely fuckin’ rocks! I’m not so sure about his serial fiction, though. He’s written Star Wars, Star Trek, and Blade Runner books. I’ve only really read “Blade Runner, Replicant Night” but wasn’t very happy with it…

• [Egypt Urnash]

  …K.W. Jeter.

• [endymion]

  I’ve heard great things about Jonathan Lethem’s _Chronic City_. It’s too bad though: the only thing I’ve read by him was a supposedly-hip short story in Harper’s, called “The Dreaming Jaw, The Salivating Ear” which was truly dreadful. Dreadful as in someone trying to be technologically edgy but coming off with a terrible tin ear. Oh well. If enough good reviews pour in, maybe I’ll take a look.

• [Anonymous]

  That’s funny Steve Erickson was the first one to spring to my mind too. He’s an amazing author.

• [David Pescovitz]

  Thanks for the suggestions! I’ve read some Borges and Pynchon, but not Erickson, Bolaño, or Jeter! Thank you!

• [SC_Wolf]

  So this is Dick in A Box? Didn’t SNL do a sketch about this once?