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P.K. churned out much of his work in an amphetamine haze driven by then need to make money as writing was his sole means of support. I think a lot of California
by labrador 4y ago
P.K. churned out much of his work in an amphetamine haze driven by then need to make money as writing was his sole means of support. I think a lot of California dystopian writings can be attributed to the overuse of amphetamines. The Summer of Love was destroyed by it as the phrase that emerged at the time was "Speed Kills." Joan Didion wrote about it "Slouching Towards Bethlehem.'
On the other hand I'm a optimistic utopian, so I may be inclined to minimize and disregard dystopian writing.
Where P.K. Dick really got me is in "How to Build a..." [1] in which he's very interested in the nature of reality and open to the idea that it is far more fungible than we think and in fact there may be a greater intelligence at work in the Universe that arranges reality in such a way as to communicate to the participant who is paying close attention. It doesn't scare and depress me to think that I don't have the control I thought I did and am mostly along for the ride. It's also exciting to think "more will be revealed"
[1] "How to Build a Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later" Philip K. Dick, 1978
https://urbigenous.net/library/how_to_build.html https://urbigenous.net/library/how_to_build.html
- pharke 4y ago> there may be a greater intelligence at work in the Universe He believed that there may be two greater intelligences diametrically opposed to each other and vying for control over the universe in order to remake it according to their own preferences. He expressed in his interview in Metz, France 1977[0] that he believes they are engaged in a constant struggle of programming and reprogramming the universe and history each trying to undo the others work. He connects this idea to his novels The Man In The High Castle and Flow My Tears The Policeman Said both of which involve alternate timelines. He even thought that he could retrieve memories of other timelines or other incarnations and that some of them were in worlds that were much more brutal than our own. All this to say that his belief in a higher power certainly followed the same lines of thought that he explored in his novels. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkaQUZFbJjE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkaQUZFbJjE