Page 1 of 1

The highbrow Philip K. Dick

PostPosted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:24 pm
by Kipple
The highbrow Philip K. Dick

NEW YORK (AP) -- One of the world's favorite cult writers, Philip K. Dick, is being canonized.

The Library of America, which releases hardcover editions of Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne and other literary masters, will publish four of Dick's futuristic novels next summer, including "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" -- the basis for the classic film, "Blade Runner."

"He is someone, like Raymond Chandler, who took the conventions of a pulp genre and made very adventurous literary use of them," Max Rudin, publisher of the Library of America, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Jonathan Lethem, whose novels include "Motherless Brooklyn" and "The Fortress of Solitude," is editing the Dick volume. News of the project first surfaced earlier this week when Lethem was interviewed by the literary blog, The Elegant Variation.

Beyond literary merit, Rudin cited a couple of factors in choosing Dick -- the 25th anniversary next summer of "Blade Runner," which will be marked by director Ridley Scott's remastered "final cut," and the positive response to the Library of America's volume of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, published in 2005.

"There were a lot of people who felt their reading tastes were validated by including Lovecraft in the library," Rudin said. "We had been thinking for a long time about Philip K. Dick and other genre writers, and because of the success of the Lovecraft book, and because of `Blade Runner' coming out, it seemed like a good time to go ahead with this."

Additional Dick editions are possible, among them another volume of novels and a collection of short stories, Rudin said. Other science fiction/fantasy projects might include Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. Le Guin and a compilation of novels by assorted writers.

Dick, whose other works include "The Man in the High Castle" and "Ubik," died in 1982.


Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

PostPosted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 8:48 pm
by Nexus Frog
This is awesome news!!! I'm really glad to see PKD get the respect he deserves! I'm sure his digital ghost is quite pleased with this news in spite of the insane number of McDonalds franchises tearing across the globe like some vagabond tsunami issuing from the infinite abyss of Corporate Hell!

Please purchase this book! I have been told that they may publish as many as two or three more hardcover volumes if the response is good.

8)

http://www.libraryofamerica.org/volume. ... uestID=252

Image

PostPosted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 2:38 am
by Centauro
That'd be a nice volume to have! I like that beardless Phil photo.

philip k dick on universe building

PostPosted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 11:40 am
by mike81859
In a 1978 essay, PKD asked the question of how do we know what is real. We are bombarded with fake realities and Dick distrusted the power of those that manufactured these fake realites.

PDK felt it was his job to create universes, one novel after another.

http://www.douglemoine.com/2006/09/lit-philip-k-dick-on-building-universes/