The Eyes Have It

As detailed in several of Philip K. Dick’s interviews, his personal life was tumultuous and varied. His struggles, which included mental health conditions, deep-seated paranoia, and drug use, affected his writing style. While these challenges and his own experiences with altered states of consciousness trickled into his work, Dick’s reading habits and history also had lasting impacts on his formation as a writer. In a 1974 interview, Dick related how he came to read science fiction: He simply bought a magazine from a drug store. He fell in love with science fiction stories, noting particularly the advantage science fiction has over fantasy to explore the possibilities of what one day might become real.

As a science fiction writer, Dick found the social and political atmosphere of the 1950s and 1960s particularly conducive to exploring paranoia, government surveillance, and fears of nuclear war. Though themes such as totalitarianism and the abuse of power are constant in Dick’s work, the religious and spiritual concerns he presents also make his writing unique and influential. Existentialist in nature, Dick’s writings are deeply influenced by the writings of Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Equally present in his writings is the influence of Eastern religions, particularly Taoism and Buddhism. This adds layers of complexity to his metaphysical and spiritual explorations. Gnosticism, which posits a concealed knowledge regarding the nature of reality, is likewise vital to understanding Dick’s writing.

Along with the above themes, Dick’s work explores the uses and effects of drugs, with which he experimented throughout his life. Aware of conflicting reports and perceptions on drug use, Dick describes the horrors of competing notions of reality, such as LSD-induced hallucinations and flashbacks after a person ceases prolonged LSD use. While he does not advocate for drug use as a creative outlet, Dick’s sympathy for drug users speaks to an overlooked aspect of his writing: the emphatic and sympathetic affirmation of human struggles to exist and flourish in the modern world.

As though summarizing the psychological predicament of many of his characters, Dick categorized “[w]riting [a]s a solitary occupation. When you start your novel you seal yourself off from your family and friends.” (Cover, Arthur Bryan. “Vertex Interview with Philip K. Dick.” Vertex, vol. 1, no. 6, 1974). However, he goes on to claim that “writing a book is showing some small person, some ordinary person doing something in a moment of great valor, for which he would get nothing and which would be unsung in the real world” (“Interview,” Paragraph 29). These paradoxical themes of isolation and companionship, heroism and failure, and grandeur and smallness are hallmarks of Dick’s writing.