the gospel according to philip k. dick by Alex Burns (alex@disinfo.com) - April 19, 2002 Afterlife Out of JointPhilip K. Dick has enjoyed a strange kind of afterlife. The public first discovered him through the films Blade Runner (1982) and Total Recall (1990). Major publishing houses reprinted his books. Cultural theorists invoked his name, during the postmodern 1990s, when discussing truth claims about realities and cyborg consciousness. The Gnostic rebel gradually eclipsed the truth-seeking human.Filmmakers Andy Massagli and Mark Steensland have chronicled why many people consider Dick to be the seminal science fiction author of the late 21st century. Their feature-length documentary The Gospel According to Philip K. Dick (2000) combines animation, interviews and visits to key locales: offering viewers insight into Dicks life and motivations. The core of Massagli and Steenslands film are interviews with collaborators Robert Anton Wilson and Ray Nelson, biographer Paul Williams, critics D. Scott Apel and Jay Kinney, friend Miriam Lloyd, fans Jason Koornick and Duncan Watson, and librarian Sharon Perry. Their anecdotes give firsthand accounts of Dick as a human being (not just as a media celebrity or counterculture hero). Their narratives offer multiple interpretations of Dicks 1974 encounter with a Vast Active Living Intelligent System (VALIS) and its philosophical aftermath.
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