| "Philip K. Dick: Canonical Writer of the Digital Age" examines five novels by the American author Philip K. Dick (1928-1982): Martian Time Slip (1964), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968), A Maze of Death (1970), A Scanner Darkly (1977), and Valis (1981), and begins with biographical chapter that chronicles the major events in Dick's life with reference to his writings and his intellectual preoccupations. Each of the five chapters discusses Dick's religious, scientific, and philosophical ideas within his narratives and his specific worldview. I identify Dick's major concern as the critique of epistemology and culture, defined through the three major themes in his novels: (1) constructions of experiential reality by media, machines, corporate institutions, and individuals who have non-standard perceptual systems; (2) the ways in which the "self processes notions of "reality"; (3) portrayals of the different kinds of selves, including the mental states ordinarily labeled as unhealthy and mechanical/artificial intelligence; and (4) reflections on mid-twentieth century America (California specifically) and its lifestyles--even though the given genre is science fiction rather than traditional realism.;I argue that Dick recognized the development of digital culture prevalent in today's American society and that he described in his novels some of its main facets, such as society based in networks, and increased reliance on artificial and synthetic products and structures. I argue that Dick has an important place in the American intellectual continuum, both fictional and non-fictional, that increasingly discusses the influence and role of technology in our everyday lives. His fiction bridges the ideas and narrative experiments of early twentieth-century modernism and contemporary writings. |
