Resisting "The World": Philip K. Dick, Cultural Studies, and Metaphysical Realism

The manipulation of reality and appearance that figures so prominently in Philip K. Dick's fiction remain a subject of persistent interest. This interest extends from Dick's work through to some important themes in recent cultural studies. In both cases, purely philosophical speculation on the nature of 'reality' extends into theoretical and political reflection. In both Dick's work and cultural studies, faith in the existence of a single, present, 'given' world is shown to be theoretically questionable and politically compromised. Dick's Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch offers a particularly apt example of the interplay between metaphysics and politics in Dick's work, and a good example of the way recent cultural studies construes that interaction as well.