That's a mighty beard hes got there.

He recovered by the end. He died sane... which is ironic.

The amount of influence Philip K Dick has had post mortem is just immense. If I may wax pretentious for a moment, he's one of two sci-fi authors from that era (the other being John Brunner) who really got what the immediate future would feel like pretty well right.

He's also one of a few sci-fi authors who are IMO good enough to be called great writers even outside of the context of their genre.

(Horselover Fat is what he called his friend in VALIS. It's a good fucking book and I won't ruin it by going further.)

"Reality is that which when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away."
http://www.american-buddha.com/dick.VALIS5.htm

Horselover=Philip (Greek)
Dick=fat (German)

pastorofmuppets:

There are actually quite a few good sci fi writers, but people don't often call them sci fi writers because they're ... good writers.
J G Ballard, Ursula Le Guin, Kurt Vonnegut, Margaret Atwood etc.

What's the difference? (ZING!)

also: simulacrum