MARTIN BYRNE /// Introduction to Philip K. Dick

Published

This conversation with Martin Byrne aims at introducing the rich literary work of science fiction author Philip K. Dick (1928-1982). We explore together his recurrent hypotheses of overlapping realities, the idea of entropy of matter and mind as expressed through the neologisms of kipple and gubble, the question of what is a human being thanks to the character of the android, and finally Dick’s mysticism through his exegesis. Dick’s work has been adapted many times in cinema and is recurrently quoted in current events, as his inexhaustible imagination has depicted more or less near futures which base tell us something about our present.

Martin Byrne is an architect who spends an inordinate amount of time reading science fiction comics as an antidote to reality. This seems to stem from his belief that science fiction is capable of being more indicative of our present (as well as our future) than most other mediums are able to achieve. As a matter of fact, he believes that all good architecture is science fiction and all good science fiction is architecture; which is to say, messy, unpredictable and frequently confusing. (biography for The Funambulist Papers: Volume 1)

WEBSITE:

– http://byrmartin.wordpress.com/
– http://www.poweranimal.net/

REFERENCE ARTICLE:

– ”Transcendent Delusion or; the Dangerous Free Spaces of Philip K. Dick” (July 2011) for The Funambulist Papers: Volume 1 (Punctum Books, 2013)
– “The Work of Philip K. Dick: Between Paranoia and Schizophrenia” (March 2012) on The Funambulist

REFERENCES BOOKS:

– Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle (1962).
– Philip K. Dick, Martin Time-Slip (1964).
– Philip K. Dick, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965).
– Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968).
– Philip K. Dick, Ubik (1969).
– Philip K. Dick, Flow my tears, the Policeman Says (1974).
– Philip K. Dick, Deus Irae (1976).
– Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly (1977).
– Emmanuel Carrere, I Am Alive and You are Dead: A Journey Inside the Mind of Philip K. Dick, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2006.
– Pamela Jackson and Jonathan Lethem, The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011.