Berkeley and Philip K Dick

While on a research trip this past week, I was lucky enough to stop in Berkeley and find that our hotel was located near several key locations in the life of one of my all time favorite writers, Philip K Dick.

Rasputin Music on Telegraph was the location of Art Music Company where Dick worked from 1948 to 1952.



He lived at this house on 1126 Francisco Street from 1950-1971.



He left the house shortly after a break in and an explosion that destroyed his safe and many of his files. Like in his stories where there are often many versions or different perceptions of reality there are many different versions of who the perpetrators of the crime were.

Most of his novels were written while he lived in the house on Francisco Street, including some of my favorites: The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Ubik, Flow My Tears The Policeman Said.

The bulk of his short stories were also written in Berkeley including “Second Variety” (which wasn’t credited by the film Terminator but was a clear influence and paragraphs of the short story are practically quoted in the script), “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” (made into a movie as Total Recall), and “Minority Report.”

Admittedly my absolute favorite books of his were written after his move to Orange County. A Scanner Darkly, Radio Free Albemuth, VALIS, The Divine Invasion, and the Transmigration of Timothy Archer were written following his move. I suspect Orange County is better suited than Berkeley for driving a writer to despair and paranoia. Living there, the dystopias write themselves.

His work is a huge influence, not just on my writing, but in the way that I think about and perceive the world around me. Having lived in Orange County and experienced the paranoia there for myself, it was great to have a chance to walk the same streets he walked at an earlier point his life.
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Published on June 29, 2015 12:23
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