The finale to my extended review of Alexis de Tocqueville's DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA.

The first of five episodes covering Philip K. Dick's A SCANNER DARKLY. This novel has some of his most bleak and powerful images of life in late capitalist California and his prescience on failed war on drugs is astounding. One of his best novels.

In part 7 of my review of Alexis de Tocqueville's DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA we get to the heart of the argument about social relations, gender, family, and other aspects of the mores of democratic culture. It is the most fascinating and perhaps relevant part of the book covering everything from how democracies fight wars to how they raise daughters.

In part 6 of my review of Alexis de Tocqueville's DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA we look at his views on egoism and individualism as well as their impact on American culture and intellect. Is individualism good? What will individualism coming through democracy mean to the aristocratic cultures of Europe?

In the 1975 short story (unpublished in his life) "The Eye of the Sibyl", Philip K. Dick writes about himself and his fiction and the Roman oracle. A good preview of the type of thinking that dominated the later part of his life.

We jump into volume 2 of Alexis de Tocqueville's DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, where he begins to look at the mind of a democracy. He starts with its intellectual culture. It is not all pretty. Is banality the cost of democracy?

I complete my look at the odd novel DEUS IRAE by Philip K. Dick and Roger Zelazny in this episode. The core idea of a religious pilgrimage in a shattered world is pretty interesting, if not very well executed here. The secret identity subplot does create some tension toward the end.

As we continue our push through Alexis de Tocqueville's DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA and come to the end of volume 1, we explore what he had to say about the threats to American democracy due to slavery.

In this episode, I take on the first half of DEUS IRAE by Philip K. Dick and Roger Zelanzy. It is an odd novel that has a host of narrative and tone issues, but as with all of Dick's novels is always interesting. There are some important previews of the VALIS trilogy themes in this book.

Part three of my review of Alexis de Tocqueville's DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA. In this part, he begins looking at federalism and its benefits to the American system of government and democracy overall. He also begins looking at the threats facing democracy and explores whether parties are one of those threats.