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Philip K. Dick's untimely death by stroke likely robbed the world of a least a few more great works. He seems to have come out of his earlier period of ampheta

Philip K. Dick's untimely death by stroke likely robbed the world of a least a few more great works. He seems to have come out of his earlier period of amphetamine addiction and tumultuous female relationships, and had written some interesting material like The Transmigration of Timoth Archer, which features a sympathetic female narrator. Apparently Ursula K LeGuin influenced him to some degree here: https://blog.loa.org/2010/12/what-philip-k-dick-learned-about-women.html https://blog.loa.org/2010/12/what-philip-k-dick-learned-abou... Dick's earlier works do have a particularly bleak flavor, the story of A Scanner Darkly is certainly one of the first major dystopian sci-fi works, which contrasts with a lot of the more utopian sci-fi published in the 50s and 60s. Could have been influenced by Brave New World, some themes are similar.

Jtsummers 4y ago
Just to clarify, A Scanner Darkly was not one of his earlier works, it was one of his last. It was written in 1973 (double checked, publication date was 1977, though) which was 21 years after he was first published and 9 years before his death. He only wrote 5 more novels after it.
- hungryforcodes 4y ago
  Only :)
  - Jtsummers 4y ago
    He had written over 40 novels from 1950 to 1970. He wrote 6 in his last 12 years of life. It just seemed odd to me to describe A Scanner Darkly as one of his earlier works when it very clearly was not.
    - hungryforcodes 4y ago
      Of course I agree with you. My point was that he "only" wrote 5 novels in the last 9 years of his life -- which I find incredible and amazing (in a positive way).
      - klooney 4y ago
        He was a grinder, all the old pulp SF people were- they got paid for publishing, and not much. He probably had to do it to pay the bills ( I don't know his specific financial circumstances in those years )
zabzonk 4y ago
i really don't see any similarities with brave new world, it's not particularly dystopian, and your dates are a bit off. there is a realy interesting film of scanner darkly, with a great cast: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scanner_Darkly_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scanner_Darkly_(film)
miguelazo 4y ago
I think the statement "A Scanner Darkly is certainly one of the first major dystopian sci-fi works" needs some qualification. There were major dystopian sci-fi works dating at least back to the previous century. The Island of Dr. Moreau by HG Wells comes to mind.
gumby 4y ago
> Philip K. Dick's untimely death by stroke likely robbed the world of a least a few more great works. He had lymphatic cancer, and had fallen for the Laetrile scam (traveling to Mexico for “treatment”) so the stroke did him a favor. As with the cancer he initially refused treatment.
- atombender 4y ago
  Where did you read this? The Sutin biography reports that he died of a stroke, and his Wikipedia page says nothing about cancer. Are you confusing him with the Sherri Solvig character in VALIS?
  - gumby 4y ago
    I didn't read it, I remember it being talked about at the time by some colleagues who happened knew him well (he had an eclectic circle). One of them was quite distressed about the Laetrile thing. I was just a kid at the time and only met him once, in passing, so take my statement as you will.
    - atombender 4y ago
      I don't think it's true. Nothing comes up about Dick and laetrile treatments. As far as I'm aware, he never visited Mexico.

Jtsummers 4y ago

Just to clarify, A Scanner Darkly was not one of his earlier works, it was one of his last. It was written in 1973 (double checked, publication date was 1977, though) which was 21 years after he was first published and 9 years before his death. He only wrote 5 more novels after it.

hungryforcodes 4y ago
Only :)
- Jtsummers 4y ago
  He had written over 40 novels from 1950 to 1970. He wrote 6 in his last 12 years of life. It just seemed odd to me to describe A Scanner Darkly as one of his earlier works when it very clearly was not.
  - hungryforcodes 4y ago
    Of course I agree with you. My point was that he "only" wrote 5 novels in the last 9 years of his life -- which I find incredible and amazing (in a positive way).
    - klooney 4y ago
      He was a grinder, all the old pulp SF people were- they got paid for publishing, and not much. He probably had to do it to pay the bills ( I don't know his specific financial circumstances in those years )

zabzonk 4y ago

i really don't see any similarities with brave new world, it's not particularly dystopian, and your dates are a bit off. there is a realy interesting film of scanner darkly, with a great cast: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scanner_Darkly_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scanner_Darkly_(film)

miguelazo 4y ago

I think the statement "A Scanner Darkly is certainly one of the first major dystopian sci-fi works" needs some qualification. There were major dystopian sci-fi works dating at least back to the previous century. The Island of Dr. Moreau by HG Wells comes to mind.

gumby 4y ago

> Philip K. Dick's untimely death by stroke likely robbed the world of a least a few more great works. He had lymphatic cancer, and had fallen for the Laetrile scam (traveling to Mexico for “treatment”) so the stroke did him a favor. As with the cancer he initially refused treatment.

atombender 4y ago
Where did you read this? The Sutin biography reports that he died of a stroke, and his Wikipedia page says nothing about cancer. Are you confusing him with the Sherri Solvig character in VALIS?
- gumby 4y ago
  I didn't read it, I remember it being talked about at the time by some colleagues who happened knew him well (he had an eclectic circle). One of them was quite distressed about the Laetrile thing. I was just a kid at the time and only met him once, in passing, so take my statement as you will.
  - atombender 4y ago
    I don't think it's true. Nothing comes up about Dick and laetrile treatments. As far as I'm aware, he never visited Mexico.