Science Fiction02 Dec 2005 05:17 am
The speech that Philip K. Dick never gave.
Whilst perusing metafilter I found this speech by Philip K. Dick that was scheduled but never given.
I tend to be equivocal about whether I like Philip K. Dick’s books. Some of them really make me quite uncomfortable, and I can’t say that I really think he is a good writer. Despite this, I think he is the most important science fiction author, and perhaps the most important fiction author of the last half century (whom I’ve read, which is admittedly not very many). If you have read some of his work, you will know what I’m talking about.
In any case the speech is a good read and I encourage you to check it out.
December 2nd, 2005 at 6:26 pm
About halfway through the speech, he mentions weird instances where some fictional things he wrote later went on to happen in real life almost exactly as he had written them. I’ve heard of this phenomenon happening before.
In 1898, a man named Morgan Robertson wrote a novel titled Futility, about a mammoth unsinkable ocean liner hitting an iceberg on its maiden voage in the North Atlantic, killing most all of the passengers due to a shortage of lifeboats. The coincidences and parallels, down to trivial details, are really amazing.
http://www.euronet.nl/users/keesree/intro.htm