Book Review: Writers of the 21st Century Philip K. Dick Edited by Martin H. Greenberg & Joseph D. Olander

 

 

Writers of the 21st Century Philip K. Dick Edited by  Martin H. Greenberg & Joseph D. Olander

January 1, 1983 by Taplinger

Paperback, 255 pages  

There was a time in the early when a series called “Writers of the 21st Century” seemed impossibly far away. When I ordered this copy of the book two months ago the delightful smell of rotting old greeted me when I opened the package. Today the idea of an entire book of essays from an academic point of view studying the career and writing of PKD is a pretty standard idea. In you can go to Academia.edu and find 10,000 papers on Do Androids Do of Electric Sheep or Man in the High Castle alone.

I had to have this book because it was published a year after Phil’s death and Blade Runner had flopped. I wanted a book of essays that didn’t acknowledge Phil’s genius but was intensely arguing for that point. The PKDS newsletters were not even really going out at this point. Many of the essays are repurposed Introductions from special editions.  Barry Malzberg(Golden Man), Thomas Disch (Solar Lottery), and Brian Aldiss (Martian Time Slip). Some of the highlights were two chapters from Patricia Warwick, which I assume became chapters in her book-length study of Phil, A Mind in Motion that I spent time looking at in Riverside.  (I need and will get that book) and Michael Bishop’s essay on UBIK. (I read that essay the day before Bishop announced he was going into hospice care – bummer. Healing vibes to him!)

This is a must-read for serious Dickheads really excellent no-nonsense academic study of PKD before the discussion of themes became old hat.  Explaining at this point that Phil was playing with the nature of reality was less common. I really like that Warwick identified the PKD formula before the Ron Goulart formula letter was exposed to the world in Sutin’s biography.
 

My copy is highlighted and loved. Track it down if you can serious Dickheads.