Just finished A Scanner Darkly By Philip K. Dick. Like most of his stories, it’s interesting philosophy, unfortunately mixed with bullshit folk-psychology ramblings about split-brain research. Also, in a spate of synchronicity (a favorite of those folk psychologists) I found a link to this R. Crumb interpretation of Dick’s experience.
I’m also reading Hero with a Thousand Faces for the first time. If I didn’t know better, I’d think it was humor. His reliance upon those same folk-psychologists and psychoanalysts to relate the mythological elements to our everyday life definitely dates the work. Would have been enough to identify the common patterns in stories, that alone is interesting.
It’s also interesting noting the number of SF writers who have deeply religious rebirths, or end up creating their own religions.
