I Think I Am: Philip K. Dick

by Laurence A. Rickels

For years, noted writer Laurence A. Rickels often found himself compared to novelist Philip K. Dick—though in fact Rickels had never read any of the science fiction writer’s work. When he finally read his first Philip K. Dick novel, while researching for his recent book The Devil Notebooks , it prompted a prolonged immersion in Dick’s writing as well as a recognition of Rickels’s own long-documented intellectual pursuits. The result of this engagement is I Think I Philip K. Dick , a profound thought experiment that charts the wide relevance of the pulp sci-fi author and paranoid visionary.  I Think I Philip K. Dick explores the science fiction author’s meditations on psychic reality and psychosis, Christian mysticism, Eastern religion, and modern spiritualism. Covering all of Dick’s science fiction, Rickels corrects the lack of scholarly interest in the legendary Californian author and, ultimately, makes a compelling case for the philosophical and psychoanalytic significance of Philip K. Dick’s popular and influential science fiction.

Genres: Nonfiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[David Agranoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't write super long reviews for stuff that is non-fiction or used for research but I want to highlight this book a little.

Laurence A. Rickels serves as the Sigmund Freud Professor of Media and Philosophy at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, after a couple of decades teaching German and Comparative literature at UC Santa Barbara. This is the second book of his I've read coming after Germany A Science Fiction which I thought was a novel when I started reading it. Like Germany this book is a piece of literary criticism and it is very academic.

There are moments when things are going over my head. I needed parts of this book desperately for the chapter I am working on for my (title not public yet) PKD non-fiction book. Rickels and this book will be quoted in the book because I am interviewing him in two as of the writing of this review so you see I read this book very quickly. Too quickly, I think If I had not read most of PKD's books and studied them deeply I would have been able to dig through them as quickly as I did.

My copy of this book is dog-eared and marked with Yellow-highlighter. Rickels is a unique kind of genius to me in exploring the work of PKD. A media critic and a psychoanalyst, this book and Kyle Arnold's The Divine Madness of Philip K. Dick are extremely useful in understanding him. Arnold's book is better about looking into Phil's life, but Rickels goes deep into his work.

Not counting the notes this book has 400 pages of deep dives into almost all of Phil's novels and a few of his short stories. Me, I was very interested in the influence of Heidegger and Binswanger but the last section goes deep into Robot ethics. All the major themes get explored deeply.

Rickels is often writing over my head but I know a serious Dickhead or researcher interested in the weight of this man's work needs to have this one on the shelf. I will reference it constantly in the years to come.