Introduction


Philip K. Dick

Do androids dream of electric sheep? That psychedelic, seemingly nonsensical question captures the essence of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick (and it also happens to be the title of one of his most famous short stories, later adapted into the 1982 film Blade Runner). Dick was the master of reality-bending sci-fi in which life often turns out to be an illusion. His strung-out antiheroes inhabit worlds where anything is possible but nothing is what it appears to be. Big-Brother-esque paranoia fuels many of his best-known works, including The Minority Report and We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (the basis of what would become the film Total Recall). For Philip K. Dick, nothing was trustworthy, least of all the human mind.

Essential Facts

  1. Paranoia is a recurring theme throughout Dick’s works and paralleled the author’s own emotional struggles. Dick himself believed he might have suffered from schizophrenia.
  2. Drugs are also prominently featured in Dick’s stories, particularly in A Scanner Darkly. Dick himself was a drug addict for much of his life.
  3. The film version of A Scanner Darkly featured rotoscoping, a technique in which live actors are filmed and then the images are painted over to create a kind of surreal animation.
  4. Although he never reaped large financial rewards for his work, Dick built up a cult—and eventually a mainstream—following for his prodigious output. In fact, Hollywood has been one of Dick’s biggest fans. Many of his stories have been adapted into films. Some, like 1990’s Total Recall, have been successful. Others, like 2007’s Next, were not.
  5. Dick was actually a fraternal twin, but his sister died when she was just five weeks old. After his death in 1982, his ashes were interred next to hers.