Philip K. Dick in popular culture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy.
You may share your thoughts on the matter at this article's entry on the Articles for deletion page.
Please improve the article if possible, but the article must not be blanked, and this notice must not be removed, until the discussion is closed. For more information, particularly on merging or moving the article during the discussion, read the guide to deletion.

Steps to list an article for deletion: {{subst:afd}} • Preloaded debate OR {{subst:afd2|pg=Philip K. Dick in popular culture|cat=|text=}} ~~~~ (cat values here) • {{subst:afd3|pg=Philip K. Dick in popular culture}} log

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
Any unsourced material that has been or is likely to be challenged may be removed at any time. This article has been tagged since February 2007.

Besides a number of film adaptations of Philip K. Dick's stories, there are many references to his ideas in popular culture:

It has been noted, though the connection (if any) is unknown, that the subjective reality created by the cryonic Life Extension system in Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky and its Spanish original, Abre los ojos ("Open Your Eyes") strongly resembles that of 'half-life' in Dick's Ubik. The 1998 movie The Truman Show bears a similar resemblance to Dick's novel Time Out of Joint. The 1999 David Cronenberg film "eXistenZ" features a reference to "Perky Pat", a recurring name from Dick's books, and takes as its theme virtual reality, on a number of levels. The Matrix and its sequels also take this theme, and feature the villain Agent Smith, who has a Palmer Eldritch-like ability to project his features and personality.

Since his death, Dick has featured as a character in a number of novels and stories, most notably Michael Bishop's The Secret Ascension (1987; published in the UK under the author's preferred title Philip K. Dick is Dead, Alas), which is set in a Gnostic alternative universe where his non-genre work is published but his science fiction is banned by a totalitarian USA in thrall with a demonically possessed Richard Nixon. Other fictional post-mortem appearances by Dick include the short play Kindred Blood in Kensington Gore (1992) by Brian W. Aldiss and the Faction Paradox novel Of the City of the Saved... (2004) by Philip Purser-Hallard.

K. W. Jeter's novel Doctor Adder has a radio disk jockey who is obviously Dick. Orval Wintermute, translator of the Nag Hammadi codices and major figure in Dick's VALIS mythos lends his name to an artificial intelligence in William Gibson's Neuromancer.

Dick's influence is particularly evident in Jonathan Lethem's novels, such as Gun, With Occasional Music (1994), Amnesia Moon (1995), and Girl in Landscape (1998). Hints at Dick's VALIS can also be found in Lethem's most recent novel The Fortress of Solitude (2003). Richard Linklater name-checked Dick in the climactic sequence of his experimental film Waking Life (2001) and went on to adapt and direct Dick's A Scanner Darkly which employs a similar rotoscoping process to the earlier film.

The American surf-rock band Man or Astro-man? released a song entitled "Philip K. Dick in the Pet Section of a WalMart" in 1994 on the band's Astro Launch 7-inch single through the independent Estrus Records label (est 751), the song was later released on the compilation album Project Infinity, released by the same label in 1995. The song was also released with lyrics on cassette through a special offer on the Astro Launch single.

The Sonic Youth album Sister was inspired by Dick's life and work, and its title refers to Dick's twin.

Famous Italian fantasy and science fiction writer Valerio Evangelisti repeatedly acknowledged being deeply influenced by Dick, especially in his novel Cherudek (1997), which can be read as a clever and surprisingly original development of ideas found in Dick's Ubik. Evident traces of Dick's influence can be also found in the fiction of another young Italian avantpop novelist, Tommaso Pincio.

The song "My Mechanical Mind," by Baltimore rock band The Oranges Band quotes heavily from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Dick was referred to in the "Sentries of the New Cosmos" episode of Batman Beyond as the 'greatest writer' in history.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../p/h/i/Philip_K._Dick_in_popular_culture_dcb9.html"