Stigmatized - 03 March 2021 - Plague Journal Day 356

Micah 6:8
Hebrews 9:27-10:2
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Oh dear. With all the banana cream pie nostalgia yesterday, I missed an important commemoration.

Yesterday marked the 39th anniversary of the death of Philip K. Dick, one of the greatest sf authors of all time. Looking at a summary of his career made me realize that I have a lot of reading to do. He published 44 novels and well over 100 short stories - it appears that I have read but a small portion of his work.

Even if you haven't read any of his novels, you have probably seen at least one film based on his writings: Blade Runner, Total Recall, Screamers, Minority Report, Impostor, A Scanner Darkly, Next, Radio Free Albemuth, The Adjustment Bureau, and The Man in the High Castle to name a few.
If you haven't read any of his writing, I would recommend that you change that as soon as possible. Good options are "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch," "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (the source for Blade Runner), "Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said," "UBIK," "Time out of Joint," and "The Man in the High Castle."
You'll find that the general theme of his writing is an exploration of the meaning of reality. What part of what we perceive is real? How many layers of fiction / deceit / illusion / misperception / etc. are there between us and reality? It sounds hard to follow, but he was such a skilled writer that, even when you're not sure what's going on, you'll enjoy the ride, and you'll come out the other end with more good questions than bad answers.

Highly recommended reading.

 

Given Dick's anti-totalitarian bent in his writing, I think he would have appreciated this image that I found somewhere:

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.