Free Thinking

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Free Thinking: Valis and Philip K Dick

Valis and Philip K Dick

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Valis and Philip K Dick

A weirdly autobiographical science fiction novel from 1981, inspired by hallucinations.

Vast Active Living Intelligence System was the first book in a trilogy left uncompleted when the author Philip K Dick died in 1982. Matthew Sweet and guests discuss his work.

A series of revelatory hallucinations that Philip K Dick experienced in 1974, radically altering his view of belief, time and history, were the inspiration for his quasi-autobiographical novel Valis which was published in 1981.  Roger Luckhurst, Sarah Dillon, Beth Singler and Adam Scovell join Matthew Sweet to unravel this deeply strange book and to discuss how Dick's experience of mental illness and his tireless attempts at self-diagnosis thread their way through his novels and short stories, despite being largely absent from the many film and TV adaptations of his work, including Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

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