The Dynamic Dissensus of the Other Which Cannot Be Reached: The "Total Recall" Embodied in the Works of Philip K. Dick

Philip Kindred Dick authored over 40 novels, most of them science fiction and most which, similar to other science fiction, were out of print soon after they were published. His early works explore the themes he explored throughout his professional career--themes such as alienation, distortion, mania, and mutation. But it is only later in his career that he began to craft his novels, creating eleven separate drafts for Flow My Tears the Policeman Said. Dick admits that his earlier works lacked the craft of his later; however, the reader who is familiar with the earlier work recognizes the threads tying together all his literature. The limited availability of Dick's complete oeuvre hinders close analysis of his process. In recent years (aided by his posthumous rediscovery by the late 1980's San Francisco alternative magazine circuit and the consequent Vintage republication of many of his novels) Dick has been discovered by critics who seldom saw his work when first published.

For this presentation I intend to examine ways Dick's pieces guide us to reinterpret other of his pieces. For example, two seemingly unconnected novels Dr. Bloodmoney (1965) and Deus Irae (1976) represent different interpretations of a post-apocalyptic earth; each stands by itself. However the later novel allows the reader to return to Dr. Bloodmoney and to extend the interpretation established from it. In the "Valis" series this cross interpretation is most evident. Dick wrote three novels in the series that he published as a trilogy. At least one other version of the trilogy exists in a complete and near-final form as the posthumously published novel Radio Free Albemuth. There is evidence that the posthumous novel, which Dick gave in typescript to a friend, is the first version of the "Valis" trilogy.

In striking ways this posthumous novel is a major departure from the trilogy as Dick finally drafted it. Through the lens of Radio Free Albemuth we may read the "Valis" trilogy and begin to see the hallmark of Dick's writing--his ability to view the world as though through A Scanner Darkly.

Read the paper presented at the 2004 Kentucky Philological Association meeting

A few links I have found useful

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