Information AboutPhilip K. Dick |
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Philip Kindred Dick ( December 16 1928 Chicago, Illinois – March 2 1982 , Santa Ana, California ), was an American Science Fiction Writer . In addition to thirty-eight books currently in print, Dick produced a number of Short Stories and minor works which were published in Pulp Magazine s. At least seven of his stories have been adapted into films. Though hailed during his lifetime by peers such as Stanisław Lem , Robert A. Heinlein and Robert Silverberg , Dick received little general recognition until after his death. Foreshadowing the Cyberpunk sub-genre, Dick brought the Anomic world of California to many of his works, exploring sociological and political themes in his early novels and stories while his later work tackled drugs and theology, drawing upon his own life experiences in novels like '' A Scanner Darkly '' and '' VALIS ''. Alternate Universes and Simulacra were common Plot Devices , with fictional worlds inhabited by common working people, rather than galactic elites. "There are no heroics in Dick's books," Ursula K. LeGuin wrote, "but there are heroes. One is reminded of {Link without Title} Dickens: what counts is the honesty, constancy, kindness and patience of ordinary people." His acclaimed novel, '' The Man In The High Castle '', bridged the genres of Alternative History and science fiction, resulting in a Hugo Award For Best Novel in 1963. '' Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said '', a novel about a celebrity who wakes up in a Parallel Universe where he is completely unknown, won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel in 1975. In these stories, Dick wrote about people he loved, placing them in fictional worlds where he questioned the reality of ideas and institutions. "In my writing I even question the universe; I wonder out loud if it is real, and I wonder out loud if all of us are real," Dick wrote. Dick's stories often descend into seemingly surreal fantasies, with characters discovering that their everyday world is an illusion, emanating either from external entities or from the vicissitudes of an Unreliable Narrator . "All of his work starts with the basic assumption that there cannot be one, single, objective reality," Charles Platt writes. "Everything is a matter of perception. The ground is liable to shift under your feet. A protagonist may find himself living out another person's dream, or he may enter a drug-induced state that actually makes better sense than the real world, or he may cross into a different universe completely." These characteristic themes and the atmosphere of paranoia they generate are sometimes described as "Dickian" or "Phildickian." LIFE Early life Philip K. Dick was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Edgar Dick, a Fraud investigator for the United States Department Of Agriculture , and Dorothy Kindred Dick. He was born six weeks prematurely, along with a Twin sister, Jane, who died on January 26 , 1929 . Shortly thereafter, the family moved to California . The death of his twin had a profound effect on his writing, relationships, and every other aspect of his life. Dick's parents Divorce d when he was young, and he grew up with his mother. He went to High School in Berkeley and briefly attended the University Of California, Berkeley , where he majored in German , but dropped out before completing any classes. He sold records and was a Disc Jockey before selling his first story in 1952. He wrote full-time, more or less, from then on. He sold his first novel in 1955. The 1950s were a hard-scrabble time for Dick, so much so that, as he once said, "we couldn't even pay the late fees on a library book." He associated with the pre-1960s Counterculture of California and was sympathetic to Beat Poet s and the Communist Party . There is some dispute regarding the latter and Dick later admitted to being literally thrown out of at least one of its rallies. Dick was opposed to the Vietnam War and he had a file at the FBI as a result. In 1963, Dick won the Hugo Award for '' The Man In The High Castle ''. Though hailed as a genius at this time in the SF world, the literary world as a whole was as yet unappreciative, and so he could only publish books at low-paying SF publishers. Consequently, while he would regularly publish novels for the next several years, he continued to struggle financially and psychologically. Even in his later years, he continued to have financial troubles. In the introduction to the 1980 short story collection "The Golden Man", Dick wrote: :"Several years ago, when I was ill, Heinlein offered his help, anything he could do, and we had never met; he would phone me to cheer me up and see how I was doing. He wanted to buy me an electric Typewriter , God bless him—one of the few true gentlemen in the world. I don't agree with any of the ideas he puts forth in his writing, but that is neither here nor there. One time, when I owed the IRS a lot of money and couldn't raise it, Heinlein loaned the money to me. I think a great deal of him and his wife; I dedicated a book to him in appreciation. Robert Heinlein is a fine looking man, very impressive and military in stance; you can tell he has a Military background, even to the haircut. He knows I'm a flipped out freak and still he helped me and my wife when we were in trouble. That is the best in humanity, there; that is who and what I love." Dick was also a voracious reader of works on Religion , Philosophy , Metaphysics , and neo- Gnosticism , and these ideas found their way into many of his stories. The final novel to be published during his life was '' The Transmigration Of Timothy Archer '', though many more were published posthumously, most notably ''Lies, Inc.'' Dick and his visions In his youth, around the age of thirteen, Dick had a recurring Dream for a number of weeks. He dreamt that he was in a bookstore, trying to find an issue of '' Astounding Magazine ''. This issue, when he found it, would contain a story called "The Empire Never Ended", which would reveal to him the secrets of the universe. As the dream repeated, the pile of magazines through which he was searching got smaller and smaller, but he never reached the bottom of it. Eventually, he became anxious that discovering the magazine would drive him mad (like the Lovecraft ian '' Necronomicon '', promising Insanity to its readers). Shortly thereafter, the dreams stopped. They never returned, but the phrase "The Empire Never Ended" would appear in his later works. On February 20 , 1974 , he was recovering from the effects of Sodium Pentothal administered for the extraction of an impacted Wisdom Tooth . Answering the door to receive a delivery of additional painkillers, he noticed the woman delivering the package was wearing a Pendant with what he called the " Vesicle Pisces ". (He probably was referring to the intersecting arcs of the Vesica Piscis .) After her departure, Dick began experiencing strange visions. Although this may have been attributed initially to the painkillers, after weeks of these visions such a rationale becomes less probable. "I experienced an invasion of my mind by a transcendentally rational mind, as if I had been insane all my life and suddenly I had become sane," Dick told Charles Platt. Throughout February and March 1974 he received a series of visions which he collectively referred to as 2-3-74, shorthand for February/March 1974. He described his initial visions as Laser Beam s and Geometric patterns, and occasionally brief pictures of Jesus and Ancient Rome , which he would glimpse periodically. As the pictures increased in length and frequency, Dick claimed that he began to live a double life, one as himself and one as Thomas, a Christian persecuted by Romans in the 1st Century A.D. Despite his past and continued Drug Use , Dick accepted these visions as reality, believing that he had been contacted by a god-entity of some kind, which he referred to variously as Zebra, God , and, most often, VALIS. Psychology As time went on, he became increasingly Paranoid , imagining plots against him perpetrated by the KGB or FBI , who he believed were constantly laying traps for him. At one point he alleged that they had been responsible for a burglary at his house in which various documents had been stolen. However, he later stated that he had probably committed the burglary himself, and then forgotten he had done so. Dick himself speculated as to whether or not he may have suffered from Schizophrenia , and themes of mental illness permeated his work, especially that of Jack Bohlen, an "ex-schizophrenic" in the 1964 novel, '' Martian Time-Slip ''. The topic of mental illness interested Dick, and in 1965 he wrote an essay entitled "Schizophrenia and the Book of Changes." Sutin, Lawrence. ''Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick''. Carroll & Graf, 2005 Marriages and children Dick married five times, and had two daughters and a son. All five marriages ended in divorce.
Awards
Death Philip K. Dick died on March 2 , 1982 , the result of a combination of recurrent Stroke s accompanied by Heart Failure . After his death (he was disconnected from Life Support on March 2 but his EEG had been isoelectric for five days prior to that), his father Edgar brought his son's body to Fort Morgan, Colorado . When his twin Jane had died, a tombstone had been carved with both of their names on it, and an empty space for Dick's date of death. After fifty-three years, that final date was carved in, and Philip K. Dick was buried beside his sister. WORKS The Man in the High Castle See Also: The Man in the High Castle ''The Man in the High Castle'' ( 1962 ) takes place in an alternate United States ruled by the victorious Axis Powers . It is considered a defining novel in the sub genre of Alternate History and is the only Dick novel to win a Hugo Award . Along with ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'' and ''Ubik,'' it’s one of the recommended novels to newcomers to Dick’s work at philipkdickfans.com {Link without Title} Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? See Also: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'' ( 1968 ) is about the moral crisis experienced by a Bounty Hunter of escaped Android s. It is well known as the inspiration for the influential 1982 film '' Blade Runner .'' Ubik See Also: Ubik ''Ubik'' ( 1969 ) uses extensive networks of psychics and a suspended state after death to create an eroding state of reality. In 2005 , '' Time Magazine '' named it one of the hundred best English Language novels published since 1923 {Link without Title} . Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said See Also: Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said ''Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said'' ( 1974 ) is about a Television star in a future Police State who awakes one morning to discover that he is not famous and does not even have the identification cards crucial to his survival. Although it is not now regarded as one of his very best books, it was his first published novel after several years of silence, during which time his critical reputation had begun to grow, and was awarded the John W. Campbell Memorial Award For Best Science Fiction Novel and is the only Dick novel nominated for both a Hugo and a Nebula Award . A Scanner Darkly See Also: A Scanner Darkly ''A Scanner Darkly'' ( 1977 ) is a bleak mixture of science fiction and Police Procedural , in which an undercover narcotics detective ingests massive amounts of a dangerous drug in order to maintain his cover. It was adapted into An Upcoming Film by Richard Linklater . It is currently the best-selling Dick book on Amazon.com {Link without Title} . VALIS See Also: VALIS ''VALIS,'' ( 1980 ) is perhaps Dick’s most Postmodern and Autobiographical Novel , examining his own supposed encounters with a divine presence. It may also be considered the most academically studied work and was adapted into an Opera by Todd Machover It was voted Dick‘s best novel at philipkdickfans.com [http://www.philipkdickfans.com/pkdweb/HorseraceResults.htm His later works, especially the VALIS Trilogy , were heavily Autobiographical , many with 2-3-74 references or influences. VALIS is an acronym for ''Vast Active Living Intelligence System''; he used this term as the title of one of his novels (and continued the theme in at least three more books) and later theorized that VALIS was both a "reality generator" and a means of extraterrestrial communication. At one point, Dick claimed to be in a state of Enthousiasmos with VALIS, where he was informed his infant son was in danger. Another event was an episode of Xenoglossia , when Dick's wife discovered him speaking Koine Greek , an ancient dialect used to write the New Testament and the Septuagint . A decade earlier, Dick claimed he was able to think, speak, and read fluent Latin under the influence of Sandoz LSD-25 . In his essay, ''Will the Atomic Bomb Ever be Perfected, And if so, What becomes of Robert Heinlein ?'', Dick mentions that he began seeing pink light during an LSD experience, eight years before he wrote and attributed the so-called pink lasers to VALIS. Exegesis See Also: Exegesis (book) Regardless of the feeling that he was somehow experiencing a divine communication, Dick was unable ever to fully rationalize the events. For the rest of his life, he struggled to fully comprehend what was occurring, questioning his own sanity and perception of reality. He transcribed what thoughts he could into an 8,000 page, million word Journal dubbed the '' Exegesis ''. He spent sleepless nights furiously writing into this journal, in some instances high on large quantities of Amphetamine s, which no doubt contributed to its eclectic tone. A recurring theme in the ''Exegesis'' is Dick's hypothesis that History had been stopped in the 1st century, and that "The {Link without Title} Empire never ended". He saw Rome as the pinnacle of Materialism , which, after forcing the Gnostics underground 1900 years earlier, had kept the population of the Earth as slaves to worldly possessions. Dick believed that VALIS had contacted him and unnamed others to induce the " Impeach ment" of Richard M. Nixon , whom Dick believed to be the current Emperor incarnate. ALIASES Dick occasionally wrote using Pen Name s, most notably ''Richard Philips'' and ''Jack Dowland''. The surname ''Dowland'' is a reference to the composer John Dowland , who is featured in a number of Dick works. The title '' Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said '' is a direct reference to Dowland's best-known composition ''Flow My Tears''. Some protagonists in Dick's short-fiction bear the name Dowland. Dick's short story ''Orpheus with Clay Feet'' was one such story published under the pen name ''Jack Dowland''. In this, the protagonist desires to be the muse for a fictional author, ''Jack Dowland'', considered to be the greatest science-fiction author of the 20th century. In the story, Dowland publishes a story of his own, also entitled ''Orpheus with Clay Feet'', under the pen-name ''Philip K. Dick''. In the semi-autobiographical novel VALIS , the protagonist is called '' Horselover Fat ''. ''Philip'', or ''Phil-Hippos'' is Greek for ''Horselover'', ''Dick'' is German for ''Fat''. FILMS AND OTHER ADAPTATIONS A number of Dick's stories have been made into Movies , most of them only loosely based on Dick's original, using them as a starting-point for a Hollywood action-adventure story, introducing violence uncharacteristic of Dick's stories, and replacing the typically nondescript Dick protagonist with an action hero. The most admired film adaptation is Ridley Scott 's classic movie '' Blade Runner '' (based on Dick's 1968 novel '' Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? ''). Dick was apprehensive about how his story would be adapted for the film; he refused to do a novelization of the film and he was critical of it and its director, Ridley Scott, during its production. When given an opportunity to see some of the special effects sequences of Los Angeles 2019, Dick was amazed that the environment was "exactly as how I'd imagined it!". Following the screening, Dick and Scott had a frank but cordial discussion of ''Blade Runner's'' themes and characters, and although they had differing views, Dick fully backed the film from then on. Dick died from a stroke less than four months before the release of the film. Steven Spielberg 's adaptation of '' Minority Report '' rather faithfully translates a number of Dick's themes within an action-adventure framework, though it changes some major plot points. Similarly, '' Total Recall (1990)'', based on the short story '' We Can Remember It For You Wholesale '' evokes a feeling similar to that of the original story while streamlining the plot. It includes such Phildickian elements as the confusion of fantasy and reality, the progression towards more fantastic elements through the story, machines talking back to humans, and the protagonist's doubts about his own identity. '' Impostor '', a 2002 movie based on Dick's 1953 story of the same title, utilizes two of Dick's most common themes: mental illness, which diminishes the sufferer's ability to discriminate between reality and hallucination, and a protagonist persecuted by an oppressive government. John Woo 's 2003 film, '' Paycheck '', was a very loose adaptation of Dick's short story of that name, and suffered greatly both at the hands of critics and at the box office. The film '' Screamers '' (1995) was based on a Dick short story '' Second Variety ''; however, the location was altered from a war-devastated Earth in the story, to a generic science fiction environment of a distant planet in the film. ''Second Variety'' has been cited as a possible influence on the scenes in the machine-dominated future of '' The Terminator '' (1984) and its sequels. The French film '' Barjo '' ("Confessions d'un Barjo") is based on Dick's non-sf book '' Confessions Of A Crap Artist ''. The animated film '' A Scanner Darkly '' (based on Dick's Novel By That Name ) is scheduled for release in July 2006, and will star Keanu Reeves as Fred/Bob Arctor and Winona Ryder as Donna. Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson, actors both noted for drug issues, are also cast in the film. The film was produced using the process of Rotoscoping : it was first shot in live-action then the live footage was animated over. Dick himself wrote a screenplay for an intended film adaptation of '' Ubik '' in 1974, but the film was never made. At least one of Dick's works has been adapted for the legitimate stage: '' Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said '', was presented by the New York-based avante-garde company Mabou Mines in 1988 and has subsequently been produced elsewhere. Another stage adaptation is the Opera '' VALIS '', composed and with libretto by Tod Machover , which premiered at the Pompidou Center in Paris on December 1, 1987, with a French libretto. It was subsequently revised and readapted into English, and was recorded and released on CD (Bridge Records BCD9007) in 1988. TRIVIA
SEE ALSO BIBLIOGRAPHY See Also: List of works by Philip K. Dick FURTHER READING Biographies
Interviews
Critical studies
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