Heroic Dreams - All Things Medieval

I have been a fan of Philip K Dick for a very long time. There was a time, decades ago where he was almost a secret little writer that only existed in the underground which is quite ironic because he tends to write a lot of stuff that is exatly like that - secret little underground situations that turn out to be big government plots.

Now, if you are not that familiar with the name you are sure familiar with the hollywood works that have derived from his writing such as Blade Runner or A Scanner Darkly or Total Recall. And if you are a fan of the Matrix movies you have to understand that those movies are pure Philip K. Dick from beginning to end. His influence just permeates every aspect of those movies.

Anyway, I am glad to see he is finally getting the recognition he deserves. The New York Times has just recently put out an article exactly to this point:

Times article on Philip K. Dick

I always remember one little snippet about philip that stuck with me and knowing this snippet gives you insight into a lot of his writing which is based on a basic mistrust of all that we see or seem.

He was working on a novel, which one I don’t know, but nobody knew about it. One of the main characters in the novel was a woman with a peculiar name and she had a boyfriend with a peculiar name. ANyway, he was at this party and was introduced to a woman with this same name - she then introduced him to her boyfriend who had the exact same name as the boyfriend in his novel. Rumor has it that this event had a dramatic impact on his life. And if you are familiar with his writing you can see this.

According to his website he has published 44 novels and a whole bunch of short writing. On my list of recommendations is of course: “Do Androids Dream Electric Sheep?” Which is one of the best science fiction novels  ever written. - bar none. This is a novel you have to read many times; it is layered with so much stuff and isn’t just a science fiction novel - it is a quest for understanding life/death and the nature of reality.

Okie, other works I like include Ubik which is a derivitive of the word Ubiquitous. This book is also much worth a read. The Man in the High Castle is the work that he is probably most famous for as far as written works and well worth a read.

For me Philip has always been kind of one part of a triptych of writers that came out of the 60’s and examined the nature of reality in new ways . The other two are Kurt Vonnegut and Carlos Castenada.

Here is his work in print at amazon.com

Philip K Dick at Amazon.com

The Official Philip K. Dick Website

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