Philip K. Dick
- PHILIP K. DICK - A black ink and gray pencil drawing on an 11 x 14 size vellum paper. It appears on the cover of "STARMONT READER'S GUIDE, No. 12," published by Starmont House.
I enjoyed reading most of Dick's short stories, but his novels always disappointed me. Perhaps it's because his shorter works tend to concentrate on a single idea within a limited framework, written with clarity. His novels tend to mix psychedelic concepts in unreal worlds that I found difficult to appreciate.
I read that a lot of his writing was done while he was under the influence of drugs, experiencing paranoia, schizophrenia, and transcendental hallucinations. He wrote 44 novels (most of them were published after his death), and about 122 short stories. All while living mostly in poverty. He died of heart failure in 1982, at age 53.
Since his death, nine of his stories have been made into movies including, "Blade Runner" and "Total Recall". Remarkably, In 2005, Time magazine named his novel, "Ubik" one of the one hundred greatest English language novels since 1923. Only literary egotists can make judgments like that. And even more surprisingly, Dick became the first science fiction writer chosen to be included in the acclaimed "Library of America" series. Incredible, there are so many other SF writers I think are more deserving of that honor.
I don't know if Dick's novels have any merit or not, his admirers consider him the greatest of writers, while others call him a drug-influenced charlatan. Subterranean Press has been reprinting his short stories, and so far there are 4 volumes, which I have purchased and started reading. I am pleased that in re-reading these shorter works, I still find them interesting and entertaining.
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