The Fiction of Philip K. Dick Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb

Philip Kindred Dick (1928-1982) is buried next to his twin sister, Jane Charlotte Dick in Fort Morgan, Colorado. Philip and his sister were found to be malnourished by a health worker and were sent to hospital. Jane died soon after. Dick blamed his parents, particularly his mother, for this neglect.

His mother, Dorothy, claimed she was an inexperienced mother and simply didn't know how to adequately care for her newborn twins. Dick was married five times. He had three children, Laura, Isa and Christopher, who together maintain the 'Estate of Philip K. Dick'.

His papers are held in collection at California State University, Fullerton. Incidentally, the title, "Dr. Bloodmoney, or How we Got Along After the Bomb" was suggested by Dick's publisher to cash in on the success of the Stanley Kubrick film, "Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb".

Answer: Ubik

One of Dick's greatest and most inventive novels, "Ubik" features the titular substance, 'Ubik' (available in aerosol form) which staves off entropy. Each chapter is preceded by a brief blurb for various products named 'Ubik'--cereal, toothpaste, TV dinners etc. Each blurb comes with a warning that becomes increasingly alarming as the novel progresses.

Answer: Chew-Z

One of Dick's main themes was the alteration or shifting of reality; nothing is ever quite as it seems. One of the ways he explored this was through featuring drugs. Of course, drugs were also very much a part of Dick's milieu, and of 60s culture in general, particularly in California. 'Can-D' and 'Chew-Z' appear in "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch".

The drug, 'JJ-180' is featured in "Now Wait for Last Year". "A Scanner Darkly" uses the mind-splitting drug, 'Substance D' (D for Death). This last-mentioned novel also includes a poignant post-script in which Dick remembers those of his friends that died due to (or exacerbated by) substance use.

Answer: Gattaca

Several of Dick's many stories and novels have been made into movies: "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" was filmed as "Blade Runner" (Ridley Scott, 1982); "The Golden Man" was filmed as "Next" (Lee Tamahori, 2007); and "We Can Remember it For You Wholesale" was filmed as "Total Recall" (Paul Verhoeven, 1990); "Minority Report" (Steven Spielberg, 2002); "Second Variety" filmed as "Screamers" (Christian Duguay, 1995); "Paycheck" (John Woo, 2003); "A Scanner Darkly" (Richard Linklater, 2006); and "Confessions of a Crap Artist" filmed in French as "Confessions d'un Barjo" (Jerome Boivin, 1992). "Gattaca" (1997) was written and directed by Andrew Niccol.

Answer: Roger Zelazny and Ray Nelson

While Dick was greatly respected by his peers, sales of his work never approached those of contemporaries such as Frank Herbert or Isaac Asimov. He was often forced to write at break-neck speed, churning out novels and stories for pulp publication. (Original 'Ace' paperbacks are highly prized by fans and collectors.) One negative aspect of this is that most of his works received scant editorial attention and were printed replete with errors.

Answer: Clans of the Alphane Moon

In this 1964 novel (based on a 1954 short story, "Shell Game") a moon of Alpha Centauri is one big psychiatric hospital. Much as the British sent their 'criminals' to Australia, Earth sent its mentally ill to this Alphane moon. There, they all split off into clans according to their particular form of illness: Pares (paranoiacs), Heebs (hebephrenics; now hebephrenia is usually referred to as Disorganized Schizophrenia), Manses (manics), Skitzes (schizophrenics), Deps (depressives), Ob-Coms (obsessive-compulsives), and Polys (polymorphic schizophrenics).

Despite their differences, and in some cases, resentment toward each other, they are forced to unite to combat an invasion by their former home planet, Earth.

Answer: The Man in the High Castle

Several of his novels were nominated for 'Hugo' or 'Nebula' Awards, but "The Man in the High Castle" was his only work to receive either. It is concerned with an alternative reality in which the Axis won WWII and America is ruled by Japan. The 'man in the high castle' of the title is an author who writes an 'alternative history' in which the Allies won the war. "Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said" won a John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1975.

Answer: The Unteleported Man / Lies, Inc.

Dick published "The Unteleported Man" in 1966, after a short story of the same name written in 1964. He was never happy with the final form, however, and was preparing an expanded version of the novel before he died. This final version was published as "Lies, Inc." in 1984. This expanded version has been favored ever since and recent editions (eg. Vintage) are published as "Lies, Inc.".

Answer: Radio Free Albemuth

"VALIS" is an acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System. Dick himself features in the novel, as 'Horselover Fat' (Philip = lover of horses, from Greek; Dick, in German = fat). Dick believed he was being beamed information from an alien race. He was even informed of a serious condition that was undiagnosed in his son.

He also had several religious experiences akin to epiphanies. He believed (perhaps correctly, at least to some extent) that he was under surveillance by government agencies. All these obsessions (chronicled in his "Exegesis", a collection of quasi-philosophical writings) are featured in "VALIS" and the accompanying works.

While a trilogy was intended, Dick never completed the final installment, "The Owl in Daylight" and so "...Timothy Archer" is often appended to the others. "Radio Free Albemuth" was actually an earlier (1976), discarded draft of what became "VALIS" and was eventually published in 1985.

Its original title was "VALISystem A".

Answer: Confessions of Milton Lumpky

Dick wrote several non-science fiction, or 'mainstream', novels, mostly in the 50s. These include: "Confessions of a Crap Artist" (probably the most well known); "In Milton Lumpky Territory"; "Humpty Dumpty in Oakland"; "Puttering About in a Small Land"; "The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike"; "The Broken Bubble"; "Gather Yourselves Together"; and "Mary and the Giant". All of the above have been published at some time. Several of his 'science fiction' novels, also, aren't entirely science fiction either; notably, "A Scanner Darkly" and "Valis".

Another very early mainstream novel, "Voices from the Street" was published in 2007.