What If Our World Is Their Heaven?
The Final Conversations of Philip K. Dick
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3.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Interviews with the genius behind The Man in the High Castle and countless other science fiction classics.
In the field of science fiction, Philip K. Dick is unparalleled. His novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? became the classic film Blade Runner. His short story "The Minority Report" was adapted for the screen by Steven Spielberg. The Man in the High Castle has become a hit series on Amazon, and those titles represent only a small fraction of his work.
In November 1982, six months before the author's untimely death, journalist Gwen Lee recorded the first of several in-depth discussions with Philip K. Dick that continued over the course of the next three months. This transcription is a fascinating read for anyone interested in the field of science fiction.
"These transcripts bring fresh insights—notably, into the imaginative biotech plot line of the unwritten The Owl in Daylight . . . Dick also discusses music, writing, philosophers and his 1974–1975 mystical visions, when the revelation of his son's undiagnosed birth defect—'down to anatomical details'—saved the child's life . . . Fans will rejoice." —Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With his Hugo Award winning The Man in the High Castle (1962), Philip K. Dick commenced his reign over literary sci-fi, presiding with innovative, philosophical narratives. At 53, the cult figure was verging on Hollywood celebrity with Blade Runner, adapted from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), but he died in 1982, before the film's release. Sauter, whose introduction describes their friendship, introduced him to Lee, who recorded Dick weeks before his death. After 18 years, these transcripts bring fresh insights notably, into the imaginative biotech plot line of the unwritten The Owl in Daylight. (Lawrence Sutin culled the novel's prospectus from Lee's tapes for his Dick biography, Divine Invasions.) Dick also discusses music, writing, philosophers and his 1974 1975 mystical visions, when the revelation of his son's undiagnosed birth defect "down to anatomical details" saved the child's life. He lived to see 20 minutes of Blade Runner scenes, and responds enthusiastically and extensively to features like the "400-story police building that dominates the landscape" and the punk rock extras ("these are not actors. Nobody looks that sinister. Except the people who are that sinister"). Several misspelled names are a minor annoyance amid the exuberant thought processes ricocheting around this book, deemed in a foreword by SF novelist Tim Powers (The Anubis Gates) a "vivid portrait" of a writer who chose creative intensity over healthy blood pressure, and ultimately "killed himself" through overwork for his art. (Mar. 19)
