Don't Know Dick?

Philip K. Dick is one of the few science-fiction writers I can stand to read these days. His stories, which never seem dated, revolve around a few basic subjects I find endlessly engaging: false realities, humans vs. machines, entropy, the nature of God and social control. I'm not the only one, of course--aren't these the obsessions of our time?--and Hollywood has made some blockbusters from Dick's novels and stories. The most successful so far has been Minority Report, which grossed $132 million in the US alone. It was based on a short story published in 1956, for which Dick was paid . . . $130. He died shortly before the release of Blade Runner (based on his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) in 1982, essentially penniless. The latest Dick-based film, Paycheck, with Ben Affleck, opens on Christmas day, and the trailer looks intriguing.

The story of Dick's sad, ironic life is detailed in a Wired article: The Second Coming of Philip K. Dick.