This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Philip K. Dick article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
Archives: 1, 2 |
This level-5 vital article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Philip K. Dick is a former featured article candidate. Please view the links under Article milestones below to see why the nomination was archived. For older candidates, please check the archive. | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Current status: Former featured article candidate |
Text and/or other creative content from A Scanner Darkly was copied or moved into Philip K. Dick with this edit on 15:49, 26 June 2015. The former page's history now serves to provide attribution for that content in the latter page, and it must not be deleted as long as the latter page exists. |
This article links to one or more target anchors that no longer exist.
Please help fix the broken anchors. You can remove this template after fixing the problems. | Reporting errors |
There is a comic book/graphic novel version of "A Scanner Darkly", where the movie has been freeze-framed and word balloons have been added. Does that count as a comic book? I know this volume exists since I ordered the novel and the seller sent me the comic instead by mistake. Yes, yes, original research, but the dingus exists. Maybe some PhilDickian editor could work to verify this. This is the thing on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Scanner-Darkly-Graphic-Novel/dp/0375424024/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483315738&sr=8-1&keywords=scanner+darkly+graphic — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.68.254.133 (talk) 00:13, 2 January 2017 (UTC)
The band Bloc Party just released an album (8/20/12) which outright references VALIS (song title), and "the empire never ended," in "Coliseum" I am not smart enough to edit the page to reflect this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.94.133.212 (talk) 03:48, 26 August 2012 (UTC)
I hope someone may explain this: I have noticed that, unlike other articles about other authors (check J.G. Ballard) there is no Bibliography here. By this I mean a section with a list of the most important critical contributions on Dick; something you do have in printed encyclopedias, btw. I have added one to the article, listing the main book-length essays on Dick, and it was quickly deleted. Why is that? Those who did it do not seem to know much about how an encyclopedia article about a writer (any writer) should be. --93.40.75.96 (talk) 14:07, 14 May 2011 (UTC)
What would an insurance nurse be, and why would one be sent out in the circumstances described in the article? nonky 22:05, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
Project Gutenberg has four of Philip K. Dick's short stories now. http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/d#a33399
Gweeks (talk) 12:34, 7 May 2009 (UTC)
It looks like 5 of the works from Gutenberg are available as audio books from librivox too.
http://librivox.org/newcatalog/search.php?title=&author=dick%2C+philip+k.&status=all&action=Search
Gweeks (talk) 19:38, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
The 2009 release date for the biopic may already be inoperative, but it surely will be if not replaced before 2009 ends. A tag on that sent will then indicate "[dated info]", and start pointing here. If it's changed, whether before or after, a note added to this section would be an efficient bit of collegiality.
--Jerzy•t 21:50, 24 May 2009 (UTC)
Anybody think the hidden links to "xxxx in literature" (((lty|1982))) add anything? I propose removing them per WP:EGG and WP:OVERLINK. --John (talk) 04:38, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
Given all that I see no reason to make changes here. Ed Fitzgerald t / c 04:46, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
An editor has been deleting a ref to this site, saying that it's spam, but when I go to it, I get an essay on Dick. Are we seeing different things, or interpreting the same thing differently? Ed Fitzgerald t / c 20:17, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ is not a valid source according to how I interpret Wikipedia:Reliable sources.
*Articles should rely on reliable, third-party, published sources with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy.
*Self-published sources are largely not acceptable, though may be used only in limited circumstances, with caution, when produced by an established expert on the topic of the article whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable third-party publications.
This webpage doesn't say what the author's qualifications are or even where the material came from. The main purpose of the webpage seems to be links to Amazon.com.-Crunchy Numbers (talk) 20:16, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
Transferred by Ed Fitzgerald t / c 20:20, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
So, not a world-class authority, but also not a pajama-clad blogger either. Ed Fitzgerald t / c 21:05, 10 June 2009 (UTC)abstract:
You may not have realized that the website you visit frequently for concise biographical information on world authors is coming from an obscure Finnish library near the Russian border! Meet Petri Liukkonen, Director of The Kuusankoski Library, Finland.
article:
April 29, 2008 — When doing research for an article on a particular author I discovered a website that you all probably know about and refer to frequently—books and writers at www.kirjasto.sci.fi/
The troubling thing that day was the piece on the author I was researching had several typos and I wanted to notify the webmaster to notify the editor of the site.
To my surprise a lovely, apologetic e-mail came back from Mr. Liukkonen thanking me for the corrections and describing—actually showing me—the Eastern Bloc-styled library where he has spent the past seven years working on an alphabetical calendar of author biographies, as he says, "to escape the boring duties and responsibilities." But anyone can see this is a labor of love.
The site gets 69.44 million hits per year and 9.74 million unique visitors per year. Authors Calendar was awarded the Finnish Writers Association Prize in April on "Book and Rose Day."
Since English is not Petri's native tongue he has managed to get some texts corrected by a native speaker who looks at the spelling and grammar. When I communicated with him today he said he was in the office on his day off, writing about the Korean poet Ko Un [you heard it here first]. Stay tuned for my barrage of questions on this life work of Petri's. ...
KSMO is now a radio station in Missouri. Was it when PKD supposedly DJ'd there? Or were the call letters reassigned? brain (talk) 16:14, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
There are 2 current PKD-related cfds here and here. Occuli (talk) 14:52, 12 July 2009 (UTC)
I am changing the Films section to be in chronological order, using the dates given.
76.68.73.110 (talk) 03:45, 7 September 2009 (UTC)
"Although he never used it himself, Dick's fans and critics often refer to him familiarly as "PKD" (cf. Jorge Luis Borges' "JLB"), and use the comparative literary adjectives "Dickian" and "Phildickian" in describing his style and themes (cf. Kafkaesque, Orwellian)."
Actually this is not true. He referred to himself as PKD in a 1978 Exegesis entry:
"My God, my life- which is to say my 2-74/3-74 experience-is exactly like the plot of any one of ten of my novels or stories. Even down to the fake memories & identity. I'm a protagonist from one of PKD's books." -- Philip K. Dick, 1978 Exegesis entry, quoted p.234 "Divine Invasions: A life of Philip K. Dick" by Lawrence Sutin.
I would edit the main page myself but I don't have the confidence to do it.
Graspee (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 14:15, 17 November 2009 (UTC).
"In time Dick became paranoid" is an unreferenced, unverified, dubious and rather vague statement. Such a claim should indicate reference(s), whether diagnosed or other basis for claim, time period covered and other relevant information.
The whole section on Mental Health should have better and more comprehensive references IMO. His mental health is a controversial subject and references of varying degrees of credibility for various times in his life, unclear periods of his life or all of his life can be found. It's certainly a notable subject and the many conflicting claims plus the nontechnical and inconsistent use of terms increase the difficulty of addressing the subject well but if it's going to be addressed I believe we should aim for accuracy and quality with acknowledgement that a wide range of opinions exist based on a large amount of information, misinformation, incomplete knowledge and esentially baseless speculation. Refrigerator Heaven (talk) 13:37, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
Crazy and stupid are two different things. Looking through his Exegesis and interviews, he was far from stupid, but certainly crazy (though a fairly manageable kind despite it involving a lot of drugs). Ian.thomson (talk) 02:14, 20 August 2012 (UTC)
PKD had only one story published under a psuedonym. "Some Kinds Of Life" in Fantastic Universe, October, 1953 was published as by Richard Phillipps apparently because "Planet For Transients" was published in the same issue under his own name.
I intend to correct the misinformation in this section but don't want to just delete the other information which seems appropriate and interesting but misplaced and a bit inaccurate. What should be done to preserve it properly? Refrigerator Heaven (talk) 15:59, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
Why did they pull the plug after just 5 days? Don't they usually give patients a few years before doing so?--Kevin1gamer 03:00, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
His "official" fansite is reported as an attack site by Firefox. See: [5]--Kevin1gamer 03:00, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
I just made some dates more specific, corrected an error (typo?) and added a child's middle name. My source was Williams, Paul, (1986), Only Apparently Real: The World of Philip K. Dick New York: Arbor House Publishing Company, pp. 5-11, ISBN 0-87795-800-9. None of the existing data is cited and includes a couple more specific dates than my source. All looks correct but I'm not sure sure how/where to cite. I could probably use this ref at beginning or end of marriage and children section but don't know if that's appropriate since there are a couple bits my source is consistent with but doesn't state. I'm also reluctant to do that type of citation in case another editor doesn't leave the section intact and inserts other information... Oh, I can make it a subsection of "Marriages and children" so other info doesn't get inserted chronologically in it. But the citation question remains. Advice? Refrigerator Heaven (talk) 07:52, 23 January 2010 (UTC)
I don't know how variant versions were considered to arrive at that exact number and am relying on Williams' judgement but the novels currently shown below his statement by the website aren't in chronological order of publication. Lies, Inc. was 1980s or early 90s at latest and a very expanded version of The Unteleported Man (which Lies, Inc. is a variant of) was published around the same time and I didn't see it on the website at all. The bibliography section here at Wikipedia has that all sorted out, I hope. Refrigerator Heaven (talk) 04:33, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
I wonder if you know as little about this subject matter as I do about country music. :) The "trivia" you deleted included a novel by a major SF author which featured Dick as the protagonist in an alternate world. A short story by another major SF author which featured Dick as main character (it's also in a collection of such stories which wasn't mentioned in the article), a performance (later published) by another major SF author who is additionally the author of a pioneering non-fiction work about the history of SF and I forget what else.
Please give more thought before you pull the trigger. If you don't recognize what you're aiming at, it's probably better to hold your fire. In the process of restoring most of what you deleted I think I missed restoring some footnotes and probably still have that ((web site ... template messed up as I don't use it and don't know how it ought to be. If I'd forseen the hassle this would be I'd have just reverted your edit but I thought I saw why you got rid of some things and didn't want to restore them if they didn't belong there. Refrigerator Heaven (talk) 15:08, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
Dick's father's job is tagged for needing citation. Here are some resources for those who are interested in addressing the tag:
Hope that helps. -Miskaton (talk) 15:46, 3 June 2010 (UTC)
The section "Contemporary philosophy" indicates that citations are needed. Some book links that might help (linking to pages with specific quotations of use):
Hope that helps. -Miskaton (talk) 15:55, 3 June 2010 (UTC)
"Mysticism" promises that the section will discuss his theology, but it stays out of it; "Mental health" promises medical history, but only talks about stuff he thinks might have happened to him. Are those beliefs unusual? Yes. But he was released as sane from a mental institution when they figured he wasn't gonna try to kill himself again, the head doctor knowing full well he had unusual beliefs about the world because he figured if those beliefs allowed Dick to deal with the world and weren't gonna interfere with his life, it's not crazy. I've gone with "Unusual experiances," and also suggested "2-3-74." A friend has suggested "Later life." If I actually owned this article, I'd just put "Weird shit, man." Does anyone have any other ideas? Ian.thomson (talk) 01:50, 24 July 2010 (UTC)
There is a long section under "Themes" about Carl Jung and how PKD was heavily influenced by him. It's obvious that that section is written by a total Jung-head ... but is it true? I can't recall ever reading about a major Jungian influence. Sprinkling a few more fact checks there. JöG (talk) 22:02, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
A little in-joke: his Estate has a media production arm called "Electric Shepherd Productions". On the credits of The Adjustment Bureau, for instance. JFW | T@lk 10:55, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
Under the Personal section, "Dick studied Philosophy at the University of California, Berkley, where he came to several realizations that became key in his future works..." The UC transcript shows that Dick was enrolled from September, 1949, until November, 1949, and Ann Dick states that Dick only attended for "part of a month" because his claustrophobia prevented him from staying in class (Ann Dick, "The Search for Phillip K. Dick, p. 244). Could Dick have been exaggerating? The apparently real theme in his works, while in itself a literary novelty, is not actually beyond what Dick could've read himself or heard in Berkeley. Despite Dick's short stay at the UC, he still liked to associate with students (Dick's anxieties never prevented him from dating attractive graduate and coed students). Anne Dick also wrote that her ex-husband was capable of creating personal fictional narratives when it suited him (p. 244). So, is there any third party verification from a classmate or instructor that Dick attended philosophy class and achieved his own epiphany?Ericleiston (talk) 19:01, 2 November 2011 (UTC)E.L. Nov. 2, 2011
"After his death, Dick's father Joseph took his son's ashes to Fort Morgan, Colorado where they were buried next to his twin sister Jane, whose tombstone had been inscribed with both their names when she died 53 years earlier."
Huh? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.19.136.12 (talk) 00:18, 27 November 2011 (UTC)
I understand now. How sad! ♥ --76.19.136.12 (talk) 15:53, 30 November 2011 (UTC)
*************************************
This article states that Philip K. Dick's twin sister died six weeks after they were born. The article on twinless twins states that she died five weeks after they were born. Both articles use the same reference (although this article also refers to another reference). Could someone who has access to those references figure out which is correct?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinless_twin
"Philip K. Dick, American science fiction author whose twin sister, Jane, died when the twins were five weeks old. The loss of his twin is said to have profoundly affected his writing." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.14.15.215 (talk) 20:38, 20 August 2017 (UTC)
According to the BBC's "Great Lives" episode about Dick, he didn't leave his house for years at one point in his life. This is probably worth including. Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017wyyc 75.70.204.208 (talk) 01:37, 10 December 2011 (UTC)
I have added some links to content that appears on the official fan site for Philip K. Dick (that has be recognized by the Philip K. Dick Estate and is linked to from philipkdick.com). There is a complicated history for this site and I realize at one point it has been taken over by malware. The site has changed hands two times and the malware no longer exists on the site. The site was rebuilt from scratch, is stable and will be around for a long time.
The site now contains all the articles that the original site had with some exceptions and can be safely linked to. In addition the site has a vast section that is a reference for all the works that Philip K. Dick wrote called PKDweb or The Encyclopedia Dickiana and contains VALBS which is a reference for secondary materials published about Philip K. Dick. VALBS exist elsewhere on the Internet but this is the official copy of the information.
I would like to add links to each of Philip K. Dick's works with appropriate links from philipkdickfans.com including novel and short story pages. When I have recently made these changes, they were removed. This issue may have been that it appeared I was spamming the site because I was making several edits to several pages in one evening. I believe that the edits I would like to make fall within the External Linking Guidelines that I have read.
Horselover Fat (talk) 06:52, 26 March 2012 (UTC)
I would like to add these links on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick to the site as External links:
http ://www.philipkdickfans.com/
http ://www.philipkdickfans.com/pkdweb/ An encyclopedia of all of Philip K. Dick's writing
http ://www.philipkdickfans.com/pkdicktionary/ A listing of all of the words that Philip K. Dick created in his writing
The discussion has been going on here
but it seems like from the comments there that the discussion should be moved to this page. Horselover Fat (talk) 01:14, 1 April 2012 (UTC)
I have removed it again. It was inserted by a an editor whose only edits appear to be spamming that link. Very troubling. -- The Red Pen of Doom 17:52, 13 April 2012 (UTC)
I just noticed that the Bibliography was moved to another page but the External links section called Bibliography and works didn't move with it. Should that have moved also? I think it should but I can't imagine if it would cause an uproar or not. Horselover Fat (talk) 02:56, 3 April 2012 (UTC)
An image used in this article, File:Philip K Dick android head2.jpg, has been nominated for deletion at Wikimedia Commons in the following category: Deletion requests April 2012
Don't panic; a discussion will now take place over on Commons about whether to remove the file. This gives you an opportunity to contest the deletion, although please review Commons guidelines before doing so.
To take part in any discussion, or to review a more detailed deletion rationale please visit the relevant image page (File:Philip K Dick android head2.jpg) This is Bot placed notification, another user has nominated/tagged the image --CommonsNotificationBot (talk) 02:15, 27 April 2012 (UTC) |
This site: http://www.adherents.com/people/pd/Philip_K_Dick.html cites PKD as saying "I am an Episcopalian". Does anyone have more information? --Richardson mcphillips (talk) 02:20, 14 February 2014 (UTC)
The section titled mental health issues doesn't really delve into his actual mental health issues. Nothing about his extreme anxiety and paranoia, his attempted suicide, etc. It also treats his delusional episodes with a tinge of credulity. Capeo (talk) 19:55, 9 April 2014 (UTC)
((Infobox writer)) no longer supports the fields influences and influenced. Its template documentation now instructs (twice): "No longer supported. Please move cited/citable instances into prose." In this biography the two lists were unusually long and several items were supported by references (none used elsewhere on the page).
Here are the current parameter values (cut and paste except bullet points):
See Talk: Ray Bradbury#Influences/influenced for some more explanation with cross-references.
--P64 (talk) 21:14, 15 August 2014 (UTC)
I removed the speculative "influences" that are based on article without any evidence or proof. Using the same reasoning, one could connect anything to have been influenced. Suggest to stick to the facts - just what theauthor said himself, or the other authors explicetly stated that they were influenced by him. Andru nl (talk) 18:47, 11 November 2017 (UTC)
In the dropdown panel for "Works of Philip K. Dick" Wasn't sure if there is an actual name for these sections of the part.
Vulcan's Hammer is listed as 1953. This surely is a mistake.
see: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?9606 for the novel
and for the earlier novella, which was 1956. http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?80306
not sure where the 1953 is coming from.
Thanks. DeepFreezing (talk) 04:52, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
How is it "non-notable" that entire fiction novels about PKD exist and can be sourced to be in direct reference to Dick and his works? Even though I don't know whether any English translation exists, I'd call the German novel just as notable as Bishop's that's already on the list. The protagonist may have a different name to avoid lawsuits by Dick's estate, but the case is very similar to the film Velvet Goldmine (1998) that's really about David Bowie and what part he played within the glam rock movement, even if David Bowie's name is never mentioned in the film. --2003:71:4E07:BB44:5DB9:6E6A:B4D1:170 (talk) 17:09, 6 December 2017 (UTC)
c:Commons:Deletion requests/File:Philip k dick drawing.jpg. 2A02:2168:A00:44CB:0:0:0:1 (talk) 14:08, 20 October 2019 (UTC)
The Carrère book mentions I Ching and classical music several times along his life. Are they relevant for the article? --Error (talk) 08:33, 27 May 2020 (UTC)
Dick was born at the end of 1928. So how could he begin publishing science fiction stories in 1951, at the age of 21, as the article claims? :-// 89.204.137.5 (talk) 15:09, 16 August 2020 (UTC)
the ending of Ubik is spoiled, very casually, in the "Themes" section of this article. Thanks a lot. 2600:1700:F92:1470:907C:AB70:3672:4D6A (talk) 05:22, 6 January 2022 (UTC)
As it currently stands, the article states that Dick did not declare a major while in college. The following article, from Commonweal states that Dick majored in German:
"He lived with his mother until he matriculated at UC Berkeley for a short time, majoring in German. He was fascinated by German culture."[1]
Can anyone confirm which claim is true? Ageofultron (talk) 23:46, 11 January 2023 (UTC)
References
Heldon - Third "It's Always Rock'n'Roll" 1975 LP has a track called Dr Bloodmoney which is dedicated to PKD
Bunnydrums - Feather's Web 1983 12" EP is dedicated to the memory of PKD 51.6.240.143 (talk) 13:38, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
"Dick's politics were generally socially conservative, while his economic views varied with time" is completely unsourced. I can't seem to find a source proving Dick was consistently socially conservative.
Would the entire "Politics" section be better off without this unproven opening sentence and better left as just the remaining paragraphs explaining his specific political beliefs and actions? 2A00:23C4:FB1B:6401:D0C5:5027:20A8:3AA5 (talk) 16:34, 11 August 2023 (UTC)