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Spring 2009
English 98/198
2 Unit(s)

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About the Course:

    Philip K. Dick has been described as "not only a visionary creator of speculative fiction but also an illuminating and original thinker on issues ranging from the merging or quantum physics and metaphysics; to the potential scope of virtual reality and its unforseen personal and political consquences; to the discomforting relation between schizophrenia (and other psychiatric diagnoses) and societal "joint hallucinations"; to, not least, the challenge to primary human values posed in an age of technological distance and spiritual despair" (Lawrence Sutin). Dick is also know for being a UC Berkeley pseudo-alum (he dropped out rather than take ROTC training), an obsessive cat and sheep enthusiast, a Hugo award winner, an LSD addict, an incorrigible phobic, and a self-proclaimed doomsday pessimist.

    This class will focus on four of Philip K. Dick's most famous texts--"We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" (and the movie adaptation "Total Recal" starring our governor), the Hugo award winning Man in the High Castle, the John W. Campbell Award winning Flow My Tears the Policeman Said, and the short story-turned-novel Lies, Inc..  All four texts explore major themes of identity, reality, paranoia, and drug-induced perception.

How to Enroll:

CCNs will be given out on the first day of class.

CLASS BEGINS JANUARY 27 (Second week of class).

If you have any questions about the class, please feel free to email me.