WEEK SEVEN (ethan)

What does Brown (2001) identify as the central themes and concerns of the novel? What elements conform to the wider generic features of SF?

According to Brown (2001), P.K. Dick had many central themes and concerns in his novels. He was obsessed with the idea that the universe was all an illusion and that nothing we know is real, this was shown in many of his stories such as Ubik (1968) and Valis (1981). One of Dick’s strengths was writing about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances which was unique to other sci-fi stories of his time.

Another concern Dick uses is “what constitutes a true human being, as opposed to a fake” which was explored in the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) which was later turned into the film Blade Runner (1982) which was released the same year that Dick passed away.

“Dick also used Sci-fi to explore his obsession with meta-physics, the nature of perceived reality, good and evil and the abuse of power.” (Brown, 2001).The nature of perceived reality and abuse of power were both apparent in our AUT screening of A Scanner Darkly (2006) where the main character Bob Arctor  an undercover detective, who is working with a group of small time drug dealers as he tries to find out who the  big time distributors of substance D are. After a while Bob begins goes through a loss of identity and starts to wonder what is real and what is psychological. In the end of the story, he finds out that the people he was working for (the government) was in fact behind the production of the drug and producing it to their advantage.

Dick often uses popular themes of Science fiction such as alien worlds and ray-guns in his own stories however he changes them to make his own unique style of theme and writing which made him such a unique and popular writer.

References:

Brown, E. (2001). Introduction. In Dick, P.K., The Man in the High Castle (p.v-xii). London: Penguin.