Philip K. Dick
Simone Bondesan & Andrea Vittori
5D
Life & Works
Philip K. Dick 1928 Chicago
possessive and neurotic mother
contradictory personality
conflicting and
suspicious attitudes
towards the female sex
science fiction 1940bought by mistake a copy of "Stirring
Science Fiction" instead of "Popular
Science"
major interest
writing and literature
and music
clerk in a record store
oversaw a program
of classical musicSt. Matthew
end of high school Jeanet Marlin six months
Study at Berkeley
courses of german and philosophy
second wife, Kleo Apistolides
terrible student
no finish his studies
passionate political activity
he began to write sent his short stories by post to magazines
1952 sold his first story
"The Little Movement"
sale of the story he become a full-time writer
first novel "Solar Lottery" 1955 thirty years old
successive years short stories and novels:
"The disk of flame" (1955)
"Autofac" (1955)
"Martian" (1963/64)
"The hunter androids “
(original title:" Do the androids Dream of Electric
Sheeps? " 1968)
“Ubik” (1969)
60s tumultuous period style changes
inward
demand arising from
technological developments
changes the type of written works
eighteen novels
twenty short
impressive rhythm of writing
physical and psychological stress
destroying his family life and his body
another woman Kathy DeMuelle
stop the fall will not begin the ascent
70s
sterile period
paranoia and drug
1974 life changed "mystical experience"
different novels from the others
lost interest in short fiction
ambitious dream trilogy of novels with
mystical tendencies
death: 1982 heart attack
Valis trilogy
Style & Themes
stories focus on
what is "real"
personal identity surreal fantasies
new ways in the narrative centre of his plots
alienation of man
gradual withdrawal
alternate universes and simulacra
fictional worlds
common, working people
no galactic elites
one major theme "What constitutes the authentic human being?"
beings
totally human, no soul or compassion
more complicated than human characters
themes:
mental illness illness permeate his work
drug drug user 1975 interview
in Rolling Stone
books before 1970 amphetamines
"A Scanner Darkly” first novel without drug
war between ’52 and ’54 twenty stories with this theme
terrestrial
interplanetary
intergalactic
tool keep or gain political or economical power
origin of desolation
?
Plot
a day bounty hunter Rick Deckard
androids human identities
post-apocalyptic world
animals are rare
human population has largely migrated off-world
Northern California area bounty hunter Dave Holden
Deckard rarely works in it accepts the cases that Holden doesn’t
want or have time to pursue
on this day Holden has been hospitalized
android attack
during investigation escape of eight Nexus-6 androids
two were killed by Holden Deckard must kill the remaining six
accepts the assignment
to give a sense to his lifedepression
wife's malaise
social stigma able to own
an organic
animal pet
extinction of almost of the animals Deckard
robotic sheep
a real animal neighbor Bill Barbour
Deckard Rosen Industries in Seattle, Washington
administer a bounty hunter "empathy test"
detection of androids
interviews Rachael niece of Eldon Rosen
Rachael fails the test
The Rosens lacks normal empathy being raised on a spaceship
colonize Proxima
Rachael corrupt Deckard
real owl
verifies that she was Nexus-6
At first Rachael is not aware she is not human
however was a ruse
used by the corporation to
protect other androids
from bounty hunters
through sexual favors
Deckard is arrested
police station
accused of being an android
escapedfake and controlled by androids
Deckard's story story of Isidore driver for an animal repair shop
low I.Q radioactive dust
Pris Stratton model Nexus-6 enlist Isidore trap the bounty hunter
Deckard recruits Rachael help him
use her sexuality to distract him
Deckard she has slept with multiple bounty hunters
to dissuade from retiring their targets
tells her to return to Rosen Industries
confronts the androids kills them Isidore break down
Deckard returns home new genuine animal death
by Rachael Rosen
Deckard travels by car isolated sand dunes area
meditate epiphanytoadextinct
brings it home
Toad is synthetic
Themes
Robot: the perfect copy of a human being
robot
indistinguishable from a human being
emotions
pain
synthetic memories
also infinitely reproducible
life concept different from human one robot cannot identify with him
Biggest aspiration: have a real animal
world all the animals are extinct
greatest aspiration a real animal
pet high social status
rare beasts enormously expensive
many times illusory only one perfect robotic imitation
end of the novel artificial also a toad
Analogies with Frankenstein of Mary Shelley
androids danger
electronic brain better than man one Nexus-6
mistake of the human aspires to freedom
blunder as Frankenstein
creature
out of control
rebellious killing the men
Mary Shelley's novel creature rebels against its author makes him suffer
removing him affections attacking it personally
The paranoiac doubt of being an android
androids
dream to be men
no hunting
in the visions good
not in the reality no certainty
hunter protagonist
as his colleague Phil
Resch
paranoiac doubt
other is an android
uncertainty about themselves
Voigt-Kampff
Hope that the love is possible
Illusion toad another theme
Rick and his wife buy fake food
indistinguishable from original
illusion to have a real animal
beginning of the story couple were no fond
fake complicity
reconciliation
unexpected kiss
end of the novel small hope love is possible