Today is Philip K. Dick’s birthday.
He was one of my favorite Science Fiction authors toward the end of my Science Fiction reading time.
I freely, gratefully and frequently acknowledge how much Science Fiction counted for opening me to the wide world. But gradually my tastebuds changed.
For one thing the bad writing that dominated the field just became too annoying.
One of the reasons Dick remained a favorite even as I was losing interest in the genre was that he was a quite good writer.
Another reason I liked him was how his interests really focused on the mind.
On the other hand he was completely whacked. And the degree of his romance with paranoia eventually just stopped being entertaining.
While I can still enjoy a film adaptation of a Science Fiction novel, and Dick has proven to be particularly adaptable to the screen, on the whole the genre requires levels of suspension of disbelief I could no longer enjoy, and so I moved on for my reading time.
Still, I have a fond spot for Dick and the other mindbenders of his close association.
If a guilty pleasure of my youth…
I went to youtube to see what I might find and shouldn’t have been surprised to discover lots. Here’s a taste…
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