Abstract:
Philip K. Dick is best known for creating novels and short stories that throw reality into question. This metaphysical thread in his writing resonated with readers, critics and commentators who noticed its relevance to the modern world, where technology and mass production make the concept of authenticity questionable. Despite his science fiction settings, his work seems to reflect important aspects of contemporary life. His writing became the subject of a large body of interpretation and criticism. Dick’s critics, and especially his early critics, favoured his critiques of reality over his attempts to find a reality worth believing in. I propose that Dick be read as the fictionalising philosopher he considered himself to be. His works are more akin to Socratic inquiry than dogmatic adherence to one ideology or another. In the following chapters, I treat Dick as a questioner, explore the challenges he poses for reality and how he tries to build on his various revelations. I use his critics to inform my readings, but take his own writing to be the most important expression of his artistry and philosophy, while keeping in mind the ideological spin that has been such a blessing and a curse for him. I do not believe that this effort will reduce the writer to any one particular metaphysical reading. The certainty that would require is antithetical to the spirit of Dick’s writing, untenable given the sheer amount of work he produced, and unlikely when the many years between the start and finish of his writing career are taken into account. My object is to follow the path of his thinking with as open a mind as possible in order to fully explore the challenges for reality he offers and the solutions he attempts. Only by following his lead will it be possible to appreciate the nuances of his thinking and writing. I read closely from the short story ‘Roog’ and the novels Eye in the Sky, Martian Time-Slip, The Simulacra, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Ubik, Dr. Bloodmoney and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? to develop a picture of Dick as both a questioner of and a searcher for reality.
