Philip K. Dick

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Philip K. Dick bigraphy, stories - American science fiction writer

Philip K. Dick : biography

December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982

Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928March 2, 1982) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments, and altered states. In his later works Dick’s thematic focus strongly reflected his personal interest in metaphysics and theology. He often drew upon his own life experiences in addressing the nature of drug abuse, paranoia, schizophrenia, and transcendental experiences in novels such as A Scanner Darkly and VALIS.

The novel The Man in the High Castle bridged the genres of alternate history and science fiction, earning Dick a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1963. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, a novel about a celebrity who awakens in a parallel universe where he is unknown, won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel in 1975. "I want to write about people I love, and put them into a fictional world spun out of my own mind, not the world we actually have, because the world we actually have does not meet my standards," Dick wrote of these stories. "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."

In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. Although Dick spent most of his career as a writer in near-poverty, ten popular films based on his works have been produced, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, and The Adjustment Bureau. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the one hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series.Stoffman, Judy Toronto Star (February 10, 2007)Library of America Library of America Associated Press USA Today (November 28, 2006)

Influence and legacy

Lawrence Sutin’s 1989 biography of Dick, Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick, is considered the standard biographical treatment of Dick’s life.

In 1993, French writer Emmanuel Carrère published Je suis vivant et vous êtes morts which was first translated and published in English in 2004 as I Am Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey Into the Mind of Philip K. Dick, which the author describes in his preface in this way:The book you hold in your hands is a very peculiar book. I have tried to depict the life of Philip K. Dick from the inside, in other words, with the same freedom and empathy – indeed with the same truth – with which he depicted his own characters. Critics of the book have complained about the lack of fact checking, sourcing, notes and index, "the usual evidence of deep research that gives a biography the solid stamp of authority." It can be considered a non-fiction novel about his life.

Dick has influenced many writers, including Jonathan Lethem,, sff.net and Ursula K. Le Guin., SF Site The prominent literary critic Fredric Jameson proclaimed Dick the "Shakespeare of Science Fiction", and praised his work as "one of the most powerful expressions of the society of spectacle and pseudo-event".Fredric Jameson, Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions, London and New York: Verso, 2005, p. 345; p. 347. The author Roberto Bolaño also praised Dick, describing him as “Thoreau plus the death of the American dream”. Dick has also influenced filmmakers, his work being compared to films such as the Wachowskis’ The Matrix,, The Modern Word David Cronenberg’s Videodrome,, The Daily Telegraph eXistenZ, and Spider, Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,, Slant Magazine, The Guardian Alex Proyas’s Dark City, Peter Weir’s The Truman Show, Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca, In Time, Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys, Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street,, The New York Times David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, Alejandro Amenábar’s Open Your Eyes, David Fincher’s Fight Club, Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky, Darren Aronofsky’s Pi,, Washington Post Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko, Salon.com, and Southland Tales,, Cinema Scope and Christopher Nolan’s Memento, Wired and Inception., Den of Geek