Philip K Dick on Radio 4

**Bob Lock** · January 14th, 2006, 06:02 PM

Spotted this which is on radio 4 next week:

Philip K Dick
Confessions of a Crap Artist
Monday 16 January 2006 20:30-21:00 (Radio 4 FM)

quote:
Philip K Dick is now world famous, thanks to films like Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report. But in the last years of his life he encountered something so strange and troubling he couldn't stop writing about it. Writer Ken Hollings asks: was it Phil's fault God talked to him or was it God's?

Could be interesting.

Bob

**Hieroglyph** · January 22nd, 2006, 11:39 AM

Cheers. Glad this post was there to remind me and glad I can listen to what Ive missed:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/pip/0xd5l/

**Hobbit** · January 22nd, 2006, 12:06 PM

And I should also point out that it can be heard through the 'Listen Again' facility all over the world with an appropriate Internet connection.

Hobbit

**ArthurFrayn** · January 22nd, 2006, 12:47 PM

Thanks for archive link!
Interesting program-there are a few speculations on life events that were not discussed in the Sutin bio (not that I recall anyway), that make perfect sense, namely, that some of the lowlifes he was hanging out with in '71 were the ones that ransacked his house and blew apart his filing cabinets, and that his epiphany of of '74 was in fact a mild stroke.

Here's some pics of that PKD "android":

http://www.philipkdick.com/media_android-photos.html

Another bio due out in March apparently:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/057...lance&n=283155

**manipulate** · January 23rd, 2006, 03:55 AM

this program is brutally boring and horridly cheesy. a pretty weak effort really, especially since a philip k dick bio done well would actually produce a really interesting show

**nealasher** · January 23rd, 2006, 05:39 AM

"Writer Ken Hollings asks: was it Phil's fault God talked to him or was it God's?"

Definitely PKD's fault -- if you take a sufficient variety and quantity of drugs God will be popping round for coffee every morning.

**ArthurFrayn** · January 23rd, 2006, 10:16 PM

It can be easy to miss the ambiguity that is built into a lot of Dick's myticism.
He asks the question all the time:
Is how a religious epiphany occurs, as important as the fact that it occured at all? He's honest enough to tell you he's not sure of the answer.
A question like that can leads you straight into the heart of mystical thought in general. I think Dick would have come out on the other side of this eventually with some genuine insights .
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer is an good indication of what further work of this nature would have been like.

**Hieroglyph** · January 23rd, 2006, 10:35 PM

You guys catch the point of the show? Yeah, PKD turned to God, but why and how did it happen? THey were trying to say that a SUSPECTED stroke (blood clot) in 1974 was the cause of his subsequent ...... whatevers

I say 'whatevers', because I am not sure, either way, whether he was an avid atheist prior to '74 or not. But his writings took a turn...

Yeah?

**ArthurFrayn** · January 23rd, 2006, 10:54 PM

You guys catch the point of the show? Yeah, PKD turned to God, but why and how did it happen? THey were trying to say that a SUSPECTED stroke (blood clot) in 1974 was the cause of his subsequent ...... whatevers

If you scroll up just a few posts you'll see I mentioned this.

As to Phil's religious background, he had claimed in interview to have been raised as a Quaker as a child and then converted to Episcopalianism early in his life. He also claimed around the time of cowriting Deus Irae with Roger Zelazny, to have not been deeply religious...

Whatever he might say, I think one can see he's a closet mystic even from his early writings.

**Hieroglyph** · January 25th, 2006, 07:54 AM

Sorry yes you did indeed (add a few comma's in this sentence if you like

).

Aye, other posts (bar Arthur's) appeared, without looking too deep and too carefully on my part admittedly, to miss the reference to the possible mild stroke...

No caps ~ gives impression of shouting and I aught not do such a thing!

Closet Mystic, nice inference, Arthur. I think it has a good bit to do with his 'type' of wild talent. A 'type' shared by many a good writer and thinker and talent.

**Phantos** · January 29th, 2006, 09:28 PM

I looked into the 'play it again' area and couldn't find a way to listen to the "Confessions" piece... darn it.

maybe I am just too tired to see it.

**Hieroglyph** · January 30th, 2006, 10:40 AM

Yes, the listen again feature has expired. Maybe some digging around in the archives... Maybe the BBC are in the process of 'moving', archiving, storing. I dont know how they work, but... Its a huge site, so they cant keep everything available. Unfortunately.