Todd wrote:
"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, . . ."
Paul Williams also published Only Apparently Real: The World
of Philip K. Dick. The bulk of the book is transcriptions of
a series of conversations between Williams and Dick in late
1974. Dick goes into great detail about the two defining
moments of that period of his life, the "pink light" and the
"break-in," when what Dick believed to be government agents
broke into his house and trashed his files. The conversation
chapters alternate with chapters in which Williams provides
biography and context. For instance, Williams became
convinced that Dick broke into his own house in some sort of
psychotic break, to provide his extreme paranoia with a
concrete basis.
The book also provides a chronology of his life and a
bibliogaphy of his novels, in order of composition.
". . . Dick's audience started to widen considerably in the
'70s, and, now, of course, he's one of the best-known writers
of SF."
The cover story of the December 2003 issue of Wired was, "How
Sci-Fi Legend Philip K. Dick Conquered the Movie World (20
Years After His Death)." Won't really tell a Dick fan
anything new, but it's an interesting story about how Dick
went from relative obscurity to his current place. Perhaps
more interesting is Erik Davis's very brief sidebar, "The
Metaphysics of Philip K Dick," Dick's "philosophy in capsule
form." It features a paragraph each on: False Realities,
Human Vs. Machine, Entropy, The Nature of God, and Social
Control.
"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."
However, if you're interested in the later years under
discussion, Valis is the book to read, a largely
autobiographic novel about the aftermath of the episode with
the "pink light" and trying to figure out where it came from.
And the narrator's two friends are based on Dick's friends KW
Jeter and Tim Powers.
Mark
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