The Other Side. Alternative Realities, Virtuality and Fiction in the Work of P. K. Dick
Abstract
The comparison between two worlds separated by a clear ontological or ideological gap has been one of the favourite themes of science fiction since the dawn of modernity, re-proposing itself in various forms and modes.
This “differential gap”, as rightly pointed out by D. Suvin, can only be understood in historical and dialectical terms, since it invariably implies a subject, or rather an autoimage with respect to which the Other is perceived as dissimilar or opposite to us. From this point of view, the estrangement technique takes on a critical function of reflecting on the ways of constructing the Self and, more generally, on the episteme within which the individual finds himself acting and with respect to which he defines his own identity.
This contribution aims to investigate this evocative theme starting from two particularly significant texts: “Exhibit Piece” (1954), one of the first stories in which P. K. Dick experiments with the concept of alternative reality, a key element in his original reinterpretation of the canons of sci fi of the Golden Age; and his recent television adaptation “Real Life”, the fifth of ten episodes of the series Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams(2017-2018).
Downloads
References
Agamben, Giorgio - Chitussi, Barbara - Härle, Clemens-Carl (eds.), Charles Baudelaire. Un poeta lirico nell’era del capitalismo avanzato, Vicenza, Neri Pozza, 2012.
Amis, Kingsley, New Maps of Hell. A Survey of Science Fiction, New York, Harcourt - Brace, 1960, trad. it. di Marina Valente, Nuove mappe dell’inferno: panorama della fantascienza, Milano, Bompiani, 1962.
Baroni, Raphaël - Revaz, Françoise (eds.), Narrative Sequence in Contemporary Narratology, Columbus, Ohio State University Press, 2016.
Barthes, Roland, Le Plaisir du texte, Paris, Éditions du Seuil, 1973, trad. it. di Lidia Lonzi, Il piacere del testo, Torino, Einaudi, 1975.
Bernardelli, Andrea, “Eco e le forme della narrazione seriale. Alcuni spunti per una discussione”, Between, VI 11 (2016).
Brunner, John, “The Work of Philip K. Dick”, New Worlds, 166 (September 1966): 142-149.
Cardini, Daniela, Long TV: le serie televisive viste da vicino, Milano, Edizioni Unicopli, 2017.
De Angelis, Valerio Massimo - Rossi, Umberto (eds.), Trasmigrazioni, I mondi di Philip K. Dick, Firenze, Le Monnier, 2006.
Dick, Philip Kindred, “Exhibit Piece”, If, III 6 (August 1954): 63-74.
Dick, Philip Kindred, The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings, Ed. Sutin Lawrence, New York, Vintage, 1995.
Dick, Philip Kindred, I racconti inediti, I, Roma, Fanucci, 1995.
Doležel, Lubomír, ”Extensional and Intensional Narrative Worlds”, Poetics, 8 (1976a): 193–212.
Doležel, Lubomír, “Narrative Modalities”, Journal of Literary Semantics, 5 (1976b): 5–14.
Doležel, Lubomír, Heterocosmica: Fiction and Possible Worlds, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
Doležel, Lubomír, “Possible Worlds and Literary Fiction”, Ed. Allen, Sture, Possible Worlds in Humanities, Arts and Sciences. Proceedings of Nobel Symposium (1989), Berlin, De Gruyter, 2010.
Dunst, Alexander - Schlensag, Stefan (eds.), The World According to Philip K. Dick, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Eco, Umberto, Lector in fabula. La cooperazione interpretativa nei testi narrativi (1979), Milano, Bompiani, 2016.
Eco, Umberto, “L’innovazione del seriale” (1984), in Id., Sugli specchi e altri saggi, Bompiani, Milano, 1985: 125-145.
Eco, Umberto, I limiti dell’interpretazione, Milano, Bompiani, 1990.
Fitting, Peter, “Reality as Ideological Construct: A Reading of Five Novels by Philip K. Dick (De la réalité comme construction idéologique: lecture de cinq romans de Philip K. Dick)”, Science Fiction Studies, 10 2 (July 1983): 219-236.
Frasca, Gabriele, La scimmia di Dio. L’emozione della guerra mediale, Torino, Costa & Nolan, 1996.
George, Susan A., Gendering Science Fiction Films: Invaders from the Suburbs, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Gillespie, Bruce (ed.), Philip K. Dick; Electric Sheperd, Melbourne, Nostrilia Press, 1975.
Giovannetti, Paolo, Il racconto. Letteratura, cinema, televisione, Roma, Carocci, 2012.
Grant, Barry Keith G., Shadows of Doubt: Negotiations of Masculinity in American Genre Films, Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 2011.
Hoffmann, Christian R., Narrative Revisited: Telling a Story in the Age of New Media, Amsterdam - Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing, 2010.
Jost, François, Realtà / finzione. L’impero del falso (2003), Milano, Il Castoro, 2010.
Kac-Vergne, Marianne, Masculinity in Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema: Cyborgs, Troopers and Other men of the Future, London, I. B. Tauris, 2018.
Ketterer, David, New Worlds for Old. The Apocalyptic Imagination, Science Fiction and American Literature, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1974.
Laurence, William L., The Hell Bomb, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1951.
Laurence, William L., “Now Most Dreaded Weapon, Cobalt Bomb, Can Be Built. Chemical Compound That Revolutionized Hydrogen Bomb Makes It Possible”, New York Times, 7 April 1954.
Le Guin, Ursula, The Language of the Night. Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction, New York, Berkely Books, 1982, trad. it. di Anna Sacchi, Il linguaggio della notte, saggi di fantasy e fantascienza, Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1986.
Lethem, Jonathan, Crazy friend: io e Philip K. Dick, Roma, Minimum fax, 2011.
Lewis, David, “Truth in Fiction”, American Philosophical Quarterly, 15 (1978): 37-46.
Link, Eric Carl, Understanding Philip K. Dick, Columbia, University of South Carolina Press, 2010.
Lotman, Jurij Mihajlovič, Struktura hudožestvennogo teksta, Moskva, Iskusstvo, 1970, Ed. Eridano Bazzarelli, La struttura del testo poetico, Milano, Mursia, 1972.
Olander, Joseph D. - Greenberg, Martin Harry (eds.), Philip K. Dick, New York, Taplinger, 1983.
McHale, Brian, Postmodernist Fiction, London, Methuen, 1987.
McLuhan, Marshall, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, New York - Toronto - London, McGraw-Hill, 1964, trad. it. di Ettore Capriolo, Gli strumenti del comunicare, Milano, il Saggiatore, 2008.
Mullen, Richard Dale - Suvin, Darko (eds.), “Philip K. Dick”, Science-Fiction Studies, 14 5 (March 1978).
Mullen, Richard Dale - Evans, Arthur B. - Hollinger, Veronica - Csicsery-Ronay Jr, Istvan (eds.), On Philip K. Dick 40 Articles from Science-Fiction Studies, Terre Haute, SF-TH, 1992.
Pagetti, Carlo - Viviani, Gianfranco (eds.), Philip K. Dick: il sogno dei simulacri: una completa rassegna di contributi critici sull’opera letteraria dello scrittore americano, Milano, Editrice Nord, 1989.
Pavel, Thomas G., Fictional Worlds, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1986.
Poe, Edgar Allan, The Portable Edgar Allan Poe, London, Penguin Books, London, 2006.
Rickman, Gregg, Philip K. Dick, in His Own Words, Long Beach, Fragments West - The Valentine Press, 1984.
Rispoli, Francesca, Universi che cadono a pezzi: la fantascienza di Philip K. Dick, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2001.
Ryan, Marie-Laure - Thon, Jan-Nöel (eds.), Storyworlds Across Media. Towards a Media Conscious Narratology, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2014.
Rossi, Umberto, The Twisted Worlds of Philip K. Dick: A Reading of Twenty Ontologically Uncertain Novels, Jefferson - London, McFarland & Company, 2011.
Sutin, Lawrence, Divine Invasions a Life of Philip K. Dick, London, Paladin, 1991, trad. it. di Andrea Marti, Divine invasioni: la vita di Philip K. Dick, Roma, Fanucci, 2001.
Suvin, Darko, “On the Poetics of the Science Fiction Genre”, College English, 34 3 (December 1972): 372-382.
Suvin, Darko, “P. K. Dick’s Opus: Artifice as Refuge and World View (Introductory Reflections)”, Science Fiction Studies, 2 1 (March 1975): 8-22.
Suvin, Darko, “Locus, Horizon, and Orientation: The Concept of Possible Worlds as a Key to Utopian Studies”, Eds. J.O. Daniel - T. Moylan, Not Yet: Reconsidering Ernst Bloch, London, Verso, 1997: 122-37.
Suvin, Darko, Defined by a Hollow: Essays on Utopia, Science Fiction and Political Epistemology, Oxford - New York, Peter Lang, 2010.
Umland, Samuel J., Philip K. Dick: Contemporary Critical Interpretations, Westport - London, Greenwood Press, 1995.
Vittorini, Fabio, Raccontare oggi: metamodernismo tra narratologia, ermeneutica e intermedialità, Bologna, Pàtron, 2017.
Williams, Paul, Only Apparently Real: the World of Philip K. Dick, New York, Arbor House, 1986.
Copyright Notice
You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work, and to adapt the work. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
