| When Philip K. Dick died, he left a body of work ranging from short fantasy tales to science fiction and to "mainstream" novels. His critical reputation, however, is based almost solely on his science fiction of the mid-sixties. Because attention has focused primarily on this small part of Dick's output, a skewed vision of his work has appeared, limiting understanding of even these novels and leading to the assumption that the rest of Dick's work has little literary value.;By focusing on a number of reccuring themes and devices, ones appearing in the little fantasy stories he wrote at the beginning of his career, in the "mainstream" novels of the fifties, and in the science fiction, this dissertation presents the argument that Dick was, in many ways, a more careful and systematic writer than often credited. Writing was, to him, a method of exploration and he used it so, extensively, even at the expense of "craft.";The central, broad thematic areas of Dick's writing and exploration are metaphysics, religion, and politics. In all three areas, he is concerned with the relationship between the "free individual" and the greater system. To explore this relationship, he found, he also had to come to understand both the individual and the system.;This dissertation presents an examination of the explorations and conclusions Dick presents concerning individuals, systems, and relations between the two. In it, works from all of Dick's periods are examined, no matter the value, or lack of it, placed on them by earlier critics.;Dick's final and fervent Christianity, with its highly individualistic formula for man/God relations, is the result of all his experiments and is his final conclusion. Its reflection, in his last four novels, is not a dramatic shift in focus, but the culmination of the searches that went into the writing of his earlier books. This dissertation is concluded with an examination of the way Dick was finally able to use religion to bring together all of his philosophical concerns in his writings. |
