Well, for starters, he's dead. He overdosed on amphetamines. That should hardly matter though. He was writing in the 50's and 60's when he was a very paranoid schitzophrenic. In all honesty, though, he wouldn't really be considered all that odd by todays standards. As writers, most of us invite the voices into our heads, making them as real as possible and exploiting them for our own gain as characters in our books and stories. Not strange at all!
The amazing thing about this man, is that the majority of his great works are being turned into movies today. Ever seen Blade Runner? How about The Minority Report? Or you may have heard of Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Next, Paycheck, or The Adjustment Bureau? All of these are based on (some more loosely than others) his work.
Phillip K. Dick was an amazing author, pulling from personal experiences, much of his writing gave readers (or viewers of the adapted screenplays) a huge question in the back of their minds wondering what reality really was. His characters often lived in alternate realms of this reality, and were usually an everyman.
Even more impressive, his stories were very realistic views of the future compared to others of his time (remember we're talking about his stories coming from the 50's and 60's) and I'm sure, because of this, he was considered even more dillusional than he really was.
If you've never heard of Phillip K. Dick, you should really search for some information about him. He really was an amazing man, though he died broke, never getting to see all his hard work making it to the big screen. And for all his hard work, I would like to salute you, Mr. Phillip K. Dick, for being the awesome author that you were.
Works Cited
"Phillip K. Dick" Wikipedia. 27 Mar 2011. Wikipedia.com. 27 Mar 2011
I've heard of him but haven't read any of his stories yet. I have Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep in my stack of books waiting to be read.
ReplyDeletePhillip K Dick? My son was in his late teens, and was reading a lot of sci-fi, when he discovered this writer. My son was in a stage when he didn't reveal much about himself, but he latched on to this writer, and shared it with us. Now I really have to read his work.
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing him to contemporary light.
@Dawn Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is great. It was the inspiration for Total Recall.
ReplyDelete@Susan Very cool. You should ask him about his preferences for a first read.