-----Original Message----- From: Michael Robison
you've piqued my interest in what went on in the last
years of his life.
Well, from http://www.philipkdick.com/aa_biography.html
here's the thumbnail version: A Life-Changing Experience In
February and March 1974, Dick experienced a series of visions
and auditions including an information-rich "pink light" beam
that transmitted directly into his consciousness. A year
after the events, in March 1975, Dick summarized the 2-3-74
experiences that would pervade his writing for the final
eight years of his life:
(rest at the site--and many other places)
Already an unusual personality, and apparently sometimes Very
hard to deal with (due, among other factors, to paranoia, and
the bitterness that can come with trying to support one's
self as a freelance in a not-remunerative time for many
freelancers, pressures to pay alimony and child support and
all that implied), Dick became seemingly at least Out There
after these reported experiences).
Thanks to CRAWDADDY and later ROLLING STONE writer/editor
Paul Williams being a serious fan of his work, and getting
some PDK coverage (and at least one short story by Dick) into
ROLLING STONE, Dick's audience started to widen considerably
in the '70s, and, now, of course, he's one of the best-known
writers of SF.
Dunno if I'd recommend A SCANNER DARKLY or FLOW MY TEARS, THE
POLICEMEN SAID
(among his later novels) to most on this list or not. What do
you say, Bill? THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE and THE THREE
STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH, his most famous novels of the
'60s, are definitely good starts. As is his short
fiction..."Upon the Dull Earth" being a favorite horror that
comes to mind...
TM
-- # Plain ASCII text only, please. Anything else won't show up. # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 20 Feb 2004 EST