I am a self-professed “Dickhead”, dedicating two full shelves of bookcase space to the work of Philip K. Dick, one of science fiction’s most prolific and insane authors. The ebb and flow of his popularity has been an interesting phenomenon to watch; his status remains that of a cult figure and yet, every few years, an article will pop up in, say, the New York Times expounding on his genius or someone will make a film based on one of his stories and then he will again sink underground, so to speak.

This is all very unsurprising seeing as how, from a purely literary perspective, Dick was not necessarily what one would call an accomplished writer. His characters are generally flat, the women always leeching shrews, the men are wimpy schlubs, usually somewhere in the vicinity of their life’s nadir. His dialogue is generally stilted and overwrought.

Yet despite these shortcomings, Dick embodies everything that I like about sci-fi, for while his characters and their interactions may be lacking, the worlds in which they dwell and the societies that run them are superbly realized. The conflicts which arise in these worlds are fantastic, oftentimes absurd, and yet they mesh flawlessly with the reality that he created. It was these aspects that defined the genre for Dick and, in turn, it was these aspects that he poured most of his efforts.

Which brings us, finally, to the documentary at hand. Philip K. Dick: A Day in the Afterlife was produced for the BBC and focuses on the man himself, in all his crazy, drug-addled, paranoid glory. The mind behind some of my favorite books is fascinated by the constant bombardment of advertising, the effects of giant media conglomerates, and the overwhelming feeling that the world in which we live exists only in the glowing vacuum tubes of countless television sets. It is an ode to one of the most creative minds in science fiction, and another step in the crusade for a wider recognition of his accomplishments.

Philip K. Dick: A Day in the Afterlife [YouTube] : Hugo Strikes Back

Artist Jean Luc Cornec answers the question posed by author Phillip K. Dick and makes a fairly poignant social statement in the process. It appears that androids do, in fact, dream of electric sheep.

Phone Sheep [Dark Roasted Blend]