THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE
By Philip K.Dick
With the release of Blade Runner: The Final Cut to the home entertainment market on December 19, the world will once again cast its eyes over Philip K.Dick’s Do Android’s Dream of Electric Sheep, the book that spawned an audiovisual phenomenon. However, let’s save that one for a rainy day and have a look at another of Dick’s novels, passed on from generation to generation as one of the coolest books ever written.
First, for the newbies, a little about Dick. The ‘K’ stands for Kindred. Astonishingly, he went to High School with another Sci Fi titan, Ursula K. Le Guin (more about her later) in Berkely, California. He sold his first story in 1952, first novel in 1955. Dick is generally regarded as a true genius, touched by madness, and his works blend psychological investigation with astonishingly adept forays into alternate (and often alternating) realities. Drug use is a theme that emerges in his later works. Later on in life Dick suffered from paranoia and schizophrenia, which is reflected in his final novels. He died in 1982.
