During the course of his career , sci - fi source Philip K. Dick — whowas born onDecember 16 , 1928 , in Chicago , Illinois — confronted soulless corporations , authoritarian governments , and divine entity in his novels and little stories . His study has since gone on to breathe in generation of scientific discipline - fiction authors and provide the theoretical account for more than a dozen TV and movie adaptations . Learn more about the bewitching nous behindBlade Runner , Minority Report , and so many other standouts of the genre .
1. Philip K. Dick started reading sci-fi by accident.
Dick started say science fiction when he was about 12 years old — but it was n’t something he purposefully set out to do : When he went into a store to get the latest written matter ofPopular Science , he find the shelf empty . A cartridge clip calledStirring Science Fictioncaught his eye , and he opine " Well , shit , the title is similar , " and decided to pick it up . From then on , he was hooked .
He say the writing , on reflexion , was dreaded , but he was able tosuspend his disbeliefand love the offbeat tales . Dick started reading every sci - fi author he could and followed the genre throughout the rest of his life . In a 1974 interview , he said his favorite writer at the prison term were John Sladek , Chip Delaney , and Ursula LeGuin .
2. He believed a supernatural voice guided him throughout his life.
Dick arrogate on legion occasions that a disembodied articulation would pop up now and again to take him through crucial moments in his life . He called itRuah , intend the spirit of God , and it first begin speaking to him in mellow school when he was stuck on a physics exam , which he sayshe acedwith the vocalization ’s help . The vocalization would reappear for shortsighted separation afterward and only declare oneself brief number of advice before disappear again . “ I have to be very sensory to hear it . It sounds as though it ’s come from 1000000 of miles away,”Dick once said .
During one such “ lecture ” ( which came complete with a blind pinkish light ) , the writer claimed the voice alerted him that his son was in danger of dying from an undiagnosedright inguinal herniation . Though Dick ’s retelling differs from his wife ’s , they eventually nonplus the babe to a specializer , where he was officially name and eventually operated on tosave his spirit .
Many of the details beleaguer the voice were eventually folded into the bookVALIS , where a fictionalized variation of Dick ( named Horselover Fat ) is guided by a like omniscient pinkish light . He afterwards said the spokesperson in his chief endure completely soundless after writingThe Divine Intervention , the watch over - up toVALIS .
3. Philip K. Dick’s first novel only earned him around $1500 in 20 years.
Despite being one of the most acclaimed sci - fi writers of all time , Dick did n’t always see a deal of money from his oeuvre . In a 1976 consultation , he saidhis first novel , 1955’sSolar Lottery , only made him around $ 1500 ( around $ 7705 today ) during the first 20 years after its waiver — there was a $ 1000 upfront requital followed by a $ 500 defrayment 10 year later for a reprint . A few years afterSolar Lottery , his first hardcover novel , 1959’sTime Out of Joint , earned himjust $ 750(around $ 7500 today ) .
4. He read actual Gestapo diaries while writingThe Man in the High Castle.
The Man in the High Castleshows a terrifying alternate reality in which Nazi Germany and Japan prevailed in WWII and break enter the world up among themselves . In researching the novel , Dick spend seven yearstrawling through text file to work out what alternative the Nazis could have made to realistically acquire the war . This included reading actualGestapo diariesto get into the heads of the Nazi regime .
Though the fabric gave him the brainstorm necessary to craft a more believable book , the experience was too off - putt for Dick to ever count writing a follow - up . " I started several times to publish a sequel to it and I would [ have had ] to go back and read about Nazis again , " Dick state in an consultation . " And I ’d just like to off every one of them — it ’s what I ’d like to do . And so I could never do a sequel to it . "
5. He hated the originalBlade Runnerscreenplay.
Blade Runner — based on the novelDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?—is one of the comfortably - known Philip K. Dick adaptations and could be a big option for those in hunting ofscience fiction gift ideas , but the writer was less than enamored with the original script written by Hampton Fancher .
“ They had cleaned my al-Qur’an up of all of the shade and of the meaning [ … ] It had become a fight between android and a bounty hunter , ” Dick saidin his final audience . But the studio apartment shortly brought in David Peoples to revise the handwriting , which Dick described as “ only sensational . ”
6. Dick turned down the chance to write aBlade Runnernovel tie-in.
ThoughBlade Runneris an adaptation of Dick ’s novel , it ’s also fairly removed from the original text . To make thing more consistent for consultation , the moviestudio offered Dick a handsome sum to write a screen - accurate adaptation of theBlade Runnerscript that would bring down on shelves for the film ’s discharge — but it came with a catch .
" The amount of money involved would have been very bang-up , and the moving-picture show people extend to cut us in on the merchandising right . But they required a suppression of the original novel , Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ? , in favor of the commercialized novelisation based on the screenplay,“Dick say . " My government agency computed that I would fall , guardedly , $ 400,000 if I did the novelisation . In demarcation , if we went the route of rereleasing the original novel , I would make about $ 12,500 . "
or else , Dick and his means " cohere to our guns " and re - unfreeze the original book , despite the studio ’s threat that they would forbid them from mentioningBlade Runneron the screening .
7. Every major adaptation of his work was released posthumously.
Though Philip K. Dick ’s work has breed numerous TV shows and moving-picture show — Minority Report , A Scanner Darkly , andTotal Recall(twice ! ) , to name a few — only one was released while the author was live . It fall in an installment of the 1962 British goggle box seriesOut of this World , which loosely adapted the writer ’s 1953 myopic report " Imposter . " alas , every episodeof the show except one ( " Little Lost Robot " ) was erase after airing , so there ’s no way of life of watch out it now .
Dickwasalive during the volume ofBlade Runner ’s product , buthe diedon March 2 , 1982 , just month before the movie ’s release . as luck would have it , he did see a few special effects shots from the motion picture during its production and was impressed by what the team came up with , enounce that effects wizard Douglas Trumbull beguile his version of futuristic Los Angeles perfectly .
His aspect on the movie had grow more confirming by the end of his life , andin his final audience , he even press out fervour about attending its premiere , saying , “ I find out the film ’s going to have an old - fashioned gala premiere . It means I ’ve got to corrupt — or hire — a bootleg tuxedo , which I do n’t look forward to . That ’s not my dash . I ’m happier in a T - shirt . ”
8. He was turned into an android in 2005. (Then again in 2011.)
In 2005,Hanson Roboticsdebuted an mechanical man modeled on Dick at Wired NextFest . The project was the brainchild of David Hanson and was as true to the unfeigned article as a mid-2000s android could be . It wore clothes donated by Dick ’s kid , had a synthetic font that was hauntingly vivid , and spoke in the author ’s actual vocalism . To get the speech constituent right , grand of pages of Dick ’s journal entering , interview , and playscript were upload into the robot ’s computer software . This set aside people to inquire the mechanical man a interrogative and get a response in Dick ’s voice in restoration . If you had call for a question that was n’t upload into the android , there wasa work up - in language - deciphering systemthat would attempt to reply it .
In a unusual twist , Dick ’s robot head was lost after Hanson forgot it in a duffel bag while alter planes bind forSan Francisco . A raw one was constructed in 2011 for $ 50,000 and ticket tout ameliorate facial expression and vision technology .
This article was publish in June 2022 and was updated in November 2022 .
