Book Review: The World According to Philip K. Dick edited by Alexander Dunst and S. Schlensag

 

 The World According to Philip K. Dick edited by Alexander Dunst and S. Schlensag 

246 pages, Hardcover
Published April, 2015 by Palgrave Macmillan

I was not able to find an affordable copy of this one, but since it is an academic book, there was an open-access PDF of it. If I were the editors, I would look into putting it back into print. While it came out in 2015, the essays are of course still relevant to modern PKD studies. For me, the baseline thing I need in a non-fiction book about PKD is something that makes me think, oh, I know an article I can quote that in, or it presents ideas in new ways of looking at PKD and his work.

Every essay here was worth reading; a couple of them do stand out for sure.  This is a very international work, with scholars from all over the planet. At the helm were two editors who came from Germany, A country PKD had respect for, despite the Nazism he found to horrible to write about, which is why he never finished his High Castle sequel. I think he would have been happy about this book being helmed by German Scholars.

The essays are broken into four sections: History, Theory, Adaptation, and Exegesis. Personally, the first two sections are the strongest parts of the book. But my interest in the later VALIS incident and the writing of that era is not as great as some. That said, Erik Davis the Hymn of Philip K. Dick is powerful and thoughtful.  Mark Buold takes an oversaturated subject like the movies and gives it reason to be read. 

My Favorite three articles and why

The Shock of Dysrecognition': Biopolitical Subjects and Drugs in Dick's Science Fiction by Chris Rudge

 From Here to California: Philip K. Dick, The Simulacra, and Post-War Integrations of Germany; Laurence Rickels 

  Mr. Tagomi's Planet: Philip K. Dick and Japanese Speculative Fiction; Takayuki Tatsumi

Is this worth dropping tons of money for? Hundred dollars. Probably not, but an inexpensive copy, or checking out a library or open access, is wise. Better yet, an inexpensive re-issue like a $20 trade paperback should happen.

 Complete TOC

 Introduction: Third Reality: On the Persistence of Philip K. Dick; Alexander Dunst

PART I: HISTORY

1. Diagnosing Dick; Roger Luckhurst

2. 'The Shock of Dysrecognition': Biopolitical Subjects and Drugs in Dick's Science Fiction; Chris Rudge

3. Cold-Pac Politics: Ubik's Cold War Imaginary; Fabienne Collignon:

PART II: THEORY

4. Between Scanner and Object: Drugs and Ontology in A Scanner Darkly; Marcus Boon

5. From Here to California: Philip K. Dick, The Simulacra, and Post-War Integrations of Germany; Laurence Rickels

6. Remember Tomorrow: Biopolitics of Time in the Early Works of Philip K. Dick; Yari Lanci:

PART III: ADAPTATION

7. Dick without the Dick: Adaptation Studies and Slipstream Cinema; Mark Bould

8. Mr. Tagomi's Planet: Philip K. Dick and Japanese Speculative Fiction; Takayuki Tatsumi

9. On Three Comics Adaptations of Philip K. Dick; Stefan Schlensag

PART IV: EXEGESIS

10. The Hymn of Philip K. Dick: Reading, Writing, and Gnosis in the 'Exegesis'; Erik Davis

11. Stairway to Eleusis, or: Perennially Philip K. Dick; Richard Doyle

12. From Exegesis to Ecology; James Burton