I originally picked up a copy of "I am Alive and you are Dead" - Emmanuel Carrere's biography of Sci-Fi guru Phillip K. Dick simply for the shock value. I read about how his empathy and paranoia were connected, how he popped pills, and made the scene in Berkeley during the sixties. I also liked the bits in the book about how he used his therapy to mess with his friend's psyches.
On closer examination I didn't find a lot in this biography that would make me want to read his fiction. Call me a dilettante, but I wanted to read the life story of the man whose novels compelled filmmakers to create "Bladerunner" and "Minority Report." Carrere's bio basically gives away the entire plot of half his novels anyway.
I did give one of his novels the fifty-page try back in the nineties, but it didn't pass the test. But this was during my pill-popping heyday. But I really want to read him now that I'm clear-headed enough to do so and maybe I can grow the same kind of respect for Phillip K. Dick that Carrere illustrates in "I am Alive and You are Dead." Just one more little chance to understand why it's significant that Dick crafted one of his stories around a light-pull cord in his bathroom that didn't exist. Or how he created a novel owing a debt to the Barbie doll after his stepdaughters received them as gifts one year.
Yes, as silly as it sounds, I want to give Dick another chance.
The consensus seems to be that lack of footnotes and references seems a tad suspicious; however, if you want to read about Dick's paranoid pathology and get numerous plot summations of his novel, this bio is for you.
What the real issue here is what Carrere is up to in this book. Is he inventing parts of Phillip K. Dick's story to pay homage to a neurotic, psychotropic-druggie, near-schizophrenic, semi-genius who lived on the borderline of reality? Am I even typing this? Maybe a clone of me that I've taken a drug to create in my head is supplying the words. Words that are inspired by the imagination of Phillip K. Dick.
Article comments
1 - SFC SKI
Well, I amy not read the biography, but I would encourage you to read Dik's works again, mind bending as they can be. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" is actually one of his better works, and most coherent.
"THe Man in the High Castle (Tower?)"
is also really good, though very strange.
While we are on the subject of dystopia and otherwhens, you might wantto read, if you haven't already, John Brunner's works; he is truly a visionary, and it is uncanny that much of what he writes in the way of future pop culture and sociology strongly mirrors society today. Norman Spinrad is also very good.
2 - bhw
Well, that wasn't the sexy read I was expecting.
But the bhw hubby is quite fond of the dick. Er, make that the Dick.
3 - jane ripley
Thanks for the suggestions SFC.
I do want to read "Do Androids..." because I loved Bladerunner so much. If anything, reviewing this book has made me want to re-delve into the strange world of PKD after a long hiatus.