How Much Does Chaos Scare You?: Politics, Religion, and Philosophy in the Fiction of Philip K. Dick PDF Download

Author: Aaron Barlow
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1411633490
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
A series of essays on the writing and ideas of Philip K. Dick presented in eight chapters. This in-depth look at the philosophies behind Dick's SF and mainstream novels is based on Barlow's 1988 doctoral dissertation at the University of Iowa.

Author: James Edward Burton
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474227686
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
The Philosophy of Science Fiction: Henri Bergson and the Fabulations of Philip K. Dick explores the deep affinity between two seemingly quite different thinkers, in their attempts to address the need for salvation in (and from) an era of accelerated mechanization, in which humans' capacity for destroying or subjugating the living has attained a planetary scale. The philosopher and the science fiction writer come together to meet the contradictory imperatives of a realist outlook-a task which, arguably, philosophy and science fiction could only ever adequately undertake in collaboration. Their respective approaches meet in a focus on the ambiguous status of fictionalizing, or fabulation, as simultaneously one of mechanization's most devastating tools, and the possibility of its undoing. When they are read together, the complexities and paradoxes thrown up by this ambiguity, with which both Bergson and Dick struggle on their own, open up new ways to navigate ideas of mechanism and mysticism, immanence and transcendence, and the possibility and meaning of salvation. The result is at once an original reading of both thinkers, a new critical theory of the socio–cultural, political and ethical function of fictionalizing, and a case study in the strange affinity, at times the uncanny similarity, between philosophy and science fiction.

Author: Jörg Matthias Determann
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0755650905
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Over the last thirty years, humanity has discovered thousands of planets outside of our solar system. The discovery of extraterrestrial life could be imminent. This book explains how such a discovery might impact Islamic theology. It is the foundational reference on the subject, comprising a variety of different insights from both Sunni and Shi'i positions, from different Muslim contexts, and with chapters that compare and contrast Islamic perspectives with Christianity. Together, they address some of our biggest questions through an Islamic lens: What makes humans unique in the cosmos? What are the ethics of dealing with other sentient beings? And how universal is salvation? Given the accelerating advances in exoplanet research and astrobiology, the book is at the frontier of science and Islamic thought. Contributors include a range of leading experts from Muslim theologians, scholars of comparative religion and philosophers, to historians, social scientists and natural scientists.

Author: Sascha Pöhlmann
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1640141138
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
Introduction: Individual and Society -- Henry James, The Princess Casamassima (1886) -- Jack London, The Assassination Bureau, Ltd. (1910/63) -- Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men (1946) -- Philip K. Dick, Solar Lottery (1955) -- Richard Condon, The Manchurian Candidate (1959) -- Loren Singer, The Parallax View (1970) -- Don DeLillo, Libra (1988) -- Stephen King, The Dead Zone (1979) -- Stephen King, 11/22/63 (2011) -- Mark Costello, Big If (2002) -- Nicholson Baker, Checkpoint (2004) -- Noah Hawley, The Good Father (2012) -- Conclusion.

Author: Umberto Rossi
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786486295
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
Philip K. Dick was one of the most popular science fiction novelists of the 20th century, but the contradictory and wily writer has troubled critics who attempt encompassing explanations of his work. This book examines Dick's writing through the lens of ontological uncertainty, providing a comparative map of his oeuvre, tracing both the interior connections between books and his allusive intertextuality. Topics covered include time travel, alternate worlds, androids and simulacra, finite subjective realities and schizophrenia. Twenty novels are explored in detail, including titles that have received scant critical attention. Some of his most important short stories and two of his realist novels are also examined, providing a general introduction to Dick's body of work.

Author: Iren Boyarkina
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527579409
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
This book focuses on the analysis of various passages across enclosures and the spacetime continuum in science fiction literature. It provides a rich arsenal of analytical instruments for the study of these very popular concepts in the genre of science fiction, and synthesizes current practical and theoretical approaches in science fiction written by active researchers and practitioners in this field. Taking this into consideration, this book will serve as a bedrock to help educators, researchers and students to conduct their research in the field of literature in general and in science fiction in particular. The volume brings together cutting-edge research in the fields of narrative analysis, literary and linguistic analysis, quantum physics, and astrophysics, among others, while the complexity and novelty of the eight essays gathered here offer fresh views on the topic and will stimulate the intellectual curiosity of various readers across different fields of research.

Author: Tessa B. Dick
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781461142690
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
By the author of Philip K. Dick: Remembering Firebright, this personal memoir tells the life story of a survivor of abuse who also experienced strange and bizarre events that seem to coalesce around a secret government-sponsored experiment in mind control. "The man told me that they were dropping me from the program because I was neither physically nor mentally fit for long-term space travel. I begged him to give me a chance, promising that I would work very hard, but he only looked sad while telling me that it was impossible. He added that I was remembering too much, and that I might tell the secrets to people who shouldn't know about the program. So now I'm telling the secrets." This second edition has an added Epilogue and cover art by Nick Buchanan.

Author: Philip K. Dick
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0547572549
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
A wry look at how different people see the world, told in the caustically fun style of award-winning science fiction novelist Philip K. Dick.

Author: Philip K. Dick
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 9781400030088
Category : Interplanetary voyages
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A masterwork by Philip K. Dick, this is the final, expanded version of the novellla The Unteleported Man, which Dick worked on shortly before his death. In Lies, Inc., fans of the science fiction legend will immediately recognize his hallmark themes of life in a security state, conspiracy, and the blurring of reality and illusion. This publication marks its first complete appearance in the United States. In this wry, paranoid vision of the future, overpopulation has turned cities into cramed industrial anthills. For those sick of this dystopian reality, one corporation, Trails of Hoffman, Inc., promises an alternative: Take a teleport to Whale's Mouth, a colonized planet billed as the supreme paradise. The only catch is that you can never comeback. When a neurotic man named Rachmael ben Applebaum discovers that the promotional films of happy crowds cheering their newfound existence on Whale's Mouth are faked, he decides to pilot a scapeship on the eighteen-year journey there to see if anyone wants to return.

Author: Philip K. Dick
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
ISBN: 9780140171730
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
"Marvelous, terrifying fun, especially if you've ever suspected that the world is an unreal construct built solely to keep you from knowing who you really are. Which it is, of course."--"Rolling Stone" Ragle Gumm has a unique job: every day he wins a newspaper contest. And when he isn't consulting his charts and tables, he enjoys his life in a small town in 1959. At least, that's what he thinks. But then strange things start happening. He finds a phone book where all the numbers have been disconnected, and a magazine article about a famous starlet he's never heard of named Marilyn Monroe. Plus, everyday objects are beginning to disappear and are replaced by strips of paper with words written on them like "bowl of flowers" and "soft drink stand." When Ragle skips town to try to find the cause of these bizarre occurrences, his discovery could make him question everything he has ever known.