Philip K. Dick is one of the most eminent authors of science fiction, having published numerous bestselling novels and had his writing turned into successful film adaptations. Among his most famous works are Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, and A Scanner Darkly. Film adaptations of his writing include Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, The Adjustment Bureau, and Blade Runner 2049.
Throughout his career, Dick was devoted to the science fiction genre, and created narratives that were instantly consumable and successful, so relevant did their more speculative aspects seem to contemporary society. His interest in a combination between the spiritual and the scientific give his writing a special allure to fans. In a profile of Dick's successful career, Adam Gopnik writes, "His reputation has risen through the two parallel operations that genre writers get when they get big. First, he has become a prime inspiration for the movies, becoming for contemporary science-fiction and fantasy movies what Raymond Chandler was for film noir: at least eight feature films, including “Total Recall,” “Minority Report,” “A Scanner Darkly,” and, most memorably, Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner,” have been adapted from Dick’s books, and even more—from Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” to the “Matrix” series—owe a defining debt to his mixture of mordant comedy and wild metaphysics."
Philip K. Dick was a prolific and well-loved writer, whose work is still getting adapted and engaged with today. During his lifetime, he saw his work as a form of protest, and he died in his 50s in 1982. A curious, troubled man, fueled by madness and a desire to critique the corruption of society, Dick used science fiction as a way of showing people that the spiritual and the futuristic can align, and in the hopes that it would spur people to fight back against the structures that held them back.
