Side-Effects

Ubik by Philip K. Dick has at the head of each section or chapter a mock advertisement set almost like the verse that accompanies the prose sections of Mennipean satire. For example, the eleventh:

Taken as directed, Ubik provides uninterrupted sleep without morning-after grogginess. You awaken fresh, ready to tackle all those little annoying problems facing you. Do not exceed recommended dosage.

Reads like a prescription for reading Ubik itself. Like a prescription for reading.

How deliciously addictive is the folding of the theme of reading into the act of reading. Poisonously so. For the being-read exceeds the reading. The risk is not in overdose by reading everywhere every instance as equivalent. The grave danger is in missing nutriment from the uniqueness of every and each instance everywhere.

And so for day 6
20.12.2006