History of the Future

1
History of the Future

• 7 Philip K. Dick and the New Wave

2
The New Wave in SF

• Originates in Britain, mid-1960s
• More literary experimental approach
• Darker and more pessimistic
• Sex, drugs, pop-culture
• New Worlds magazine
• JG Ballard, Brian Aldiss, Michael Moorcock
• Thomas M. Disch, Samuel R. Delaney from US
• Leaves SF with more attitude style

3
Dangerous Visions

• US Anthology
• Published 1967
• Edited by Harlan Ellison
• Launch of New Wave in US
• Hipper style, more sex, more religion
• Revolutionary claims just hype
• Writers like Ellison, Roger Zelazny start
  scooping up SF awards

4
SF Meets Literature

• New established authors resent limits of genre
• Is it really the literature of ideas?
• Typical New Wave author
• Read science fiction in their youth
• Went to university and studied literature
• Want to write SF that is real literature
• Produces some excellent work
• Most languishes between SF and literary
  communities
• Push peaks in the 1970s
• Science fiction first appears on college curricula

5
SF The Future

• SF authors shift away from technological
  extrapolation
• Many work more with myth and fable
• Recycle genre elements to different end
• More interested in character, style
• Explore science technology through allegory
• Connection is weakening
• Futuristic imagery and ideas spreading
• Space program futurology usurp SF territory
• Vonnegut, etc. achieving fame in mainstream

6
J. G. Ballard

• Figurehead of New Wave in Britain
• Writer of Inner Space
• Grew up in WWII concentration camp
• Fascinated by medical pathology
• Disliked plot, characterization
• Stories feature
• The end of the world, everyone dazed obsessed
• Breakdown of civilization
• American dreamscapes
• Ruins of the space program
• Very weird alienated sex

7
Ursula K. LeGuin

• Came to prominence in late 1960s
• Fixture of SF college curricula
• Strong moral feminist element
• The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)
• Cold war allegory hermaphrodite society
• The Dispossessed (1974)
• An ambiguous anarchist utopia
• Thoughtful, serious

8
Other New Wave Authors

• Roger Zelazny
• Stylish writing sex, slang, drugs
• Mythology, fable, interior of minds
• Samuel R. Delaney
• Dazzling, allegorical space quests in 60s
• Gay, black, bohemian, fan of science fiction
• Becomes post-modern academic in 70s
• Thomas M. Disch
• Elegant, bleak novels in 60s and 70s
• 334 (1972) deals with near future urban life
• Achieves broader renown as poet, critic

9
Impact of the New Wave

• As a result of this literary drive
• Sex obscenity appears in the future
• Entropy gets fashionable
• People start name-dropping William Burroughs
• Popular culture makes its way into SF
• Loosens restraints on SF writers in general
• Including Dick, Pohl whose books you read

10
Philip K. Dick

• Not primarily identified as New Wave
• Writing long before that
• But did have a story in Dangerous Visions
• Very influential on New Wave (and on later
  cyberpunk)
• Writing from mid-50s to early-80s
• About 50 novels written (not all published)
• Best SF novels from 1960-1970
• Never famous or best selling

11
His Life

• Troubled life. Influenced his work
• Trouble with authority.
• Drops out of college
• Only jobs in record store and as DJ
• Many wives. Liked unstable, dark haired young
  women.
• Drug problems, speed (amphetamine addict)
• Investigated by FBI
• Constant financial problems
• Mentally unstable
• Fascinated by madness
• Had revelatory experience in 1972

12
Unique Reading Experience

• Mixture of ordinary and fantastical
• Troubled, sympathetic people
• All heroes are struggling small-timers
• Weird events
• Apocalyptic, existential crises
• Philosophical yet trashy
• Funny
• Dark humor, human sympathy

13
The Future

• Dicks work clearly reflects time place
• Many unpublished mainsteam 50s novels
• SF brings freedom from censorship?
• Very little realistic science/technology
• Creates twisted versions of existing world
• Uses SF clichés in new ways

14
Recurring Themes

• Real or Fake?
• often ambiguous
• wisdom, authenticity in strange places
• Collapsing realities
• Hidden battle of good and evil
• Mental Illness
• Human or Android?
• Nuclear war
• Drugs
• Sometimes expose reality

15
The Man in the High Castle

• Alternate history Nazis win war
• Only Hugo award
• More carefully written than most
• Commercial failure
• Spurs redoubled output

16
Periods (I)

• Early novels (1950s)
• Including Time Out of Joint (1959)
• Mainstream novels (late 1950s), unpublished
• Flood of SF novels in 1960s
• Uneven quality, highlights are
• Martian-Time Slip (1964)
• The Man in the High Castle (1961)
• Dr Bloodmoney (1965)
• The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965)
• Now Wait for Last Year (1966)
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Blade
  Runner) (1968)
• Ubik (written 1969)

17
Periods (II)

• 1960s novels marked by
• Drugs
• Nuclear war
• Increasingly ambiguous realities
• 1970s
• Fewer novels
• Increasingly theological tone
• Several based on own revelations

18
Periods (III)

• Dick dies (1982), becomes famous
• Blade Runner film appears
• Academic reputation grows
• Unpublished books appear
• Viewed as key SF author
• Attractive to Marxists, cultural studies
• Cult following
• Postmodern blend of high and low culture

19
Summary late 60s, early 70s

• Deepening splintering of SF
• Beginnings of sub-genre of literary SF
• Much commercial work goes on as before
• though much altered.
• Academic favorites are not popular favorites
• Role of future becomes more problematic
• Used more consciously as mirror of present
• Idea of progress is challenged
• Symbols of future spread beyond SF