Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist and philosopher whose published work is almost entirely accepted as being 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. He also wrote extensively on philosophy, theology, the nature of reality and science later in his life that was published posthumously as The Exegesis.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, eleven popular films based on his works have been produced, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, The Adjustment Bureau and Impostor. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the 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.
December 16, 1928, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died
March 2, 1982, Santa Ana, California, United States
Place Of Birth
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Height
5' 10" (1.78 m)
Profession
Writer
Awards
Hugo Award for Best Novel
Movies
Blade Runner, Total Recall, The Adjustment Bureau
Star Sign
Sagittarius
#
Quote
1
For every person a sentence, a series of words, exists that can destroy them. There also exists a series of words that can heal them. You may not get the second, but you can be sure of getting the first.
2
[Valis] Mental Illness is not funny.
3
When I was a child, I thought as a child. But now I have put away childish things.... I must be scientific.
4
Exactly what the powers of hell feed on: the best instincts in man.
5
This is a mournful discovery. 1)Those who agree with you are insane 2)Those who do not agree with you are in power
6
Any system which says, This is a rotten world, wait for the next, give up, do nothing, succumb--that may be the basic Lie and if we participate in believing it and acting (or rather not acting) on it we involve ourselves in the Lie and suffer dreadfully... which only reinforces that particular Lie.
7
What a tragic realm this is, he reflected. Those down here are prisoners, and the ultimate tragedy is that they don't know it; they think they are free because they have never been free, and do not understand what it means.
8
The most dangerous kind of person... is one who is afraid of his own shadow.
9
If you want to get well, you're going to have to stop trying to help people.
10
Sometimes to go insane is an appropriate response to the World.
11
I'm an obsessive writer and if I don't get writer's block I'd overload, short circuit and blow my brain out right away.
12
[September 25, 1980, from a conversation with Paul M. Sammon (Paul Sammon)]: You would have to kill me and prop me up in the seat of my car with a smile painted on my face to get me to go near Hollywood.
13
The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.
14
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.
#
Fact
1
Christopher Hitchens' column in "The Nation" was called "Minority Report".
2
Long time mentor and friend of Tim Powers, James Blaylock and K.W. Jeter, sci-fi authors who co-founded the steampunk genre.
3
Though many of his works were adapted by Hollywood, Dick had long passed away when the royalties for his works started coming in. He had poorly managed his business affairs and as a result, didn't see many royalties from his novels and short stories. This left him living most of his life in relative poverty and squalor. He received a large payment for the rights to "Do Androids Dream of Sheep?", which helped him have financial freedom for the first time in his life. However, he died shortly after the release of "Blade Runner" and never got to enjoy the money from that adaptation or any of the other ones made after his death, which likely would have made him one of the highest paid writers in the world.
4
One of the most adapted novelist/short story writers in Hollywood, though he detested Hollywood and initially had no interest in having his works adapted for film.
5
Philip K Dick graduated from Berkley High School class of 1947 with future science fiction writer Ursula (Kroeber) Le Guin, but they didn't know each other.
6
Philip K Dick got the idea for "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" when he found an Auschwitz Nazi Officer's Diary in the Stacks of his University's Library. It read "The screaming of children keeps me awake", so Philip K Dick decided the man had become an Android.
7
In 2005, scientists created an android with a head resembling Philip K. Dick that was programmed to respond to queries with responses appropriate to the author. The android also could "recognize" friends and family. When "introduced" to Dick's daughter Isolde ("Isa") Dick Hackett, the android launched into a tirade denouncing her mother, Nancy Hackett. Isa found the experience to be unpleasant. The head of the android eventually was lost during a trip on an airliner. The android was flying to Santa Ana, California, where Dick died in 1982, which Isa found to be a fitting end for her tormentor.
8
Buried in Riverside Cemetery, Fort Morgan, Morgan County, Colorado, USA Plot: Section K, block 1, lot 56.
9
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives." Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 231-233. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.
10
The story "Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick was originally adapted as a sequel to Total Recall (1990) by writers Ronald Shusett and Gary Goldman, later joined by Robert Goethals. The setting was changed to Mars with the Precogs being people mutated by the Martian atmosphere, as established in the first film. The main character was also changed to Douglas Quaid, the man played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The project eventually fell apart but the writers, who still owned the rights to the original story, rewrote the script, removing the elements from Total Recall (1990). This script was eventually tossed out when novelist Jon Cohen was hired in 1997 to start the project over from scratch. The only original element from the early script which made it to the final Minority Report (2002) film is the sequence in the car factory, an idea that Steven Spielberg loved.
11
Before he died, he saw about 20 minutes of Blade Runner (1982), mostly-completed special effects shots with some sound effects and no music. Dick, who had been cynical about it beforehand, left the screening pleasantly stunned with what he had seen.
12
Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors." New Revision Series, Vol. 132, pp. 125-132 (as David Cornwell). Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.
13
A recurrent motif in many of Dick's stories involves the collapse of an artificial reality; the main character discovers that his entire world has been mechanically imposed on his psyche and that "reality" is vastly different. Other uses of "alternate realities" also figure in some of his novels and stories.
$700,000
