Philip K. Dick

Philip Kindred Dick (16 December 1928 ? 2 March 1982), often known by his initials PKD, and sometimes by the pen name Richard Phillips, was an American science fiction writer and novelist who changed the genre profoundly. Though hailed during his lifetime by peers such as Stanis?aw Lem, Dick received little public recognition until after his death, when several popular film adaptations of his novels introduced him to a larger audience. His work is now some of the most popular in science fiction, and Dick has gained both general acclaim and critical respect.

Dick's influence

Like other more famous science fiction authors, several of Dick's stories have been made into movies. Most of these are only loosely based on Dick's original story, using them as a starting-point for a Hollywood action-adventure story. While the most admired is Ridley Scott's classic movie Blade Runner (based on Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) the action film Total Recall faithfully translates a number of Dick themes (in particular from Dick's short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale), as does Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Minority Report. All, however, introduce uncharacteristic violence and replace the typically nondescript Dick protagonist with an action hero.

Related Topics:
Movies - Ridley Scott - Blade Runner - 1968 - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Total Recall - We Can Remember It For You Wholesale - Steven Spielberg - Minority Report

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Dick was apprehensive about how Blade Runner would treat his story; he refused to do a novelization of the film and was critical of it during production, especially with Ridley through articles. When given an opportunity to see some special effects sequences of Los Angeles 2019 Dick was amazed the environment was "exactly as how I'd imagined it!" Following the screening Dick and Ridley had a frank but cordial discussion of Blade Runner themes and characters, and although they had differing views Dick fully backed the film from then on. Tragically Dick passed away from a stroke less than four months before the release of the film.

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John Woo's 2003 film, Paycheck, was a very loose adaptation of Dick's short story, and suffered greatly, both at the hands of critics and at the box office, possibly due to the film's weak script and miscasting of Ben Affleck in the role of Michael Jennings.

Related Topics:
John Woo - 2003 - Paycheck - Ben Affleck

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The 2002 film Impostor is based on Dick's 1953 short story of the same name. Starring Gary Sinise and Madeline Stowe, the film includes two of Dick's most common themes: mental illness which diminishes the sufferer's ability to discriminate between reality and hallucination, and a protagonist persecuted by an oppressive government.

Related Topics:
Gary Sinise - Madeline Stowe

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The film Screamers was based on a Dick short story Second Variety; however, the location was altered from a war-devastated Earth in the story to a generic science fiction environment of a distant planet in the film.

Related Topics:
Screamers - Second Variety

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The French film Barjo is based on Dick's non-sf book Confessions of a Crap Artist.

Related Topics:
Barjo - Confessions of a Crap Artist

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It has been noted, though the connection (if any) is unknown, that the subjective reality created by the cryonic Life Extension system in Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky and its Spanish original, Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) strongly resembles that of 'half-life' in Dick's Ubik. The 1998 movie The Truman Show bears a similar resemblance to Dick's novel Time Out of Joint.

Related Topics:
Cryonic - Cameron Crowe - Vanilla Sky - Spanish - Abre Los Ojos - Ubik - The Truman Show - Time Out of Joint

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K. W. Jeter's Doctor Adder series has a radio disk jockey who is obviously Dick. Orval Wintermute, translator of the Nag Hammadi codices and major figure in Dick's VALIS mythos lends his name to an artificial intelligence in William Gibson's Neuromancer.

Related Topics:
K. W. Jeter - Orval Wintermute - Nag Hammadi codices - Artificial intelligence - Neuromancer

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Dick's influence is particularly evident in Jonathan Lethem's novels, such as Gun, With Occasional Music (1994), Amnesia Moon (1995), and Girl in Landscape (1998). Hints at Dick's VALIS can also be found in Lethem's last novel, The Fortress of Solitude (2003). Richard Linklater name-checked Dick in the climactic sequence of his experimental film "Waking Life" (2001) and is currently working on a film adaptation of Dick's A Scanner Darkly employing a similar rotoscoping process to the earlier film.

Related Topics:
Jonathan Lethem - 1994 - 1995 - 1998 - 2003 - Richard Linklater - 2001 - A Scanner Darkly

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One influence which may be considered unusually distant from science fiction within "culture space" is the composition by Tod Machover, and performance, of an opera VALIS.

Related Topics:
Tod Machover - Opera

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