Philip K. Dick, electric shepherd

by Bruce Gillespie (Editor), Roger Zelazny (Introduction)

Subtitled: The Best of SF Commentary, Number 1

Genres: Nonfiction

106 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Bruce Gillespie is the editor of the essay collection "A Family By Any Other Name: Exploring Queer Relationships." He is the co-editor of two other anthologies: "Somebody's Child: Stories About Adoption" and "Nobody's Father: Life Without Kids," all published by TouchWood Editions. He lives in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada.

Reviews

[Ian Mathers]

This was just a random find in a used book store I was very enthused to find, and as expected... it's mostly worth reading right now for historical value. Similar to the way I enjoy the contemporaneous reviews in my critical edition of The Waste Land, it feels illuminating . But weirdly enough the gap here feels bigger than there; several of the pieces feel concerned with 'explaining' the settings of Dick's books (as in, their value is going to rest at least partly on us being able to do so) in a way that feels pretty beside the point. The Lem essay is probably the most interesting, although again mostly historically. And the actual Dick speech is, like his work, fond of grandiose statements and people and reality that aren't really backed up. Not a complaint, but it's been a while since I revisited his work, and while it's still a fun ride to take, I'm wondering how the novels will hold up for me when I do get around to a re-read (the way Dick describes the genesis of the as-yet unwritten A Scanner Darkly here is pretty interesting...).