Part 2 Philip K Dick 1971 Interview
The Interview
Philip K. Dick: Taping– I’m gonna stop– I’m gonna stop talking like that. Talk real talk, like real people do. Of course, see, I can’t– Are you taping?
James Holmes: No, I’m not taping. (I was in fact taping while setting the levels for recording.)
Philip K. Dick: I knew it. I talked real talk for nothing.
James Holmes: What’s real talk?
Philip K. Dick: Good evening, ladies and gentleman! We are speaking from Sunny Santa Venetia, the garden spot of the intellectuals of Marin county. That’s real talk.
James Holmes: Test.
Philip K. Dick: Test. Good evening, ladies and gentleman. This is Del Courtney paralyzed from the neck down forever, but still active and friendly, friendly like
James Holmes: There are a few technical problems on my channel, but your channel is perfect.
Philip K. Dick: We’ll just hear the answers then. Oh, like, how about “no.”
James Holmes: Yeah, well. You’ll be happy to know that at the end of the interview, when I go down into my room, I edit the thing and I change all the questions–
Philip K. Dick: Certain questions you edit [laughter].
James Holmes: — so it makes you seem like a complete fool.
[laughter]
Philip K. Dick: Like, do you consider yourself an important writer? I certainly do. Changed to– Was Adolf Hitler a great man? I certainly do.
James Holmes: That is the sound of snuff inhaling by Mr. Philip Dick.
Philip K. Dick: K.
James Holmes: What?
Philip K. Dick: Middle initial K.
James Holmes: Philip–
Philip K. Dick: K. Dick.
James Holmes: K. Dick.
Philip K. Dick: Like Robert K. Heinlein.
James Holmes: Is it Robert–
Philip K. Dick: Isaac K.
James Holmes: Is that the way you prefer to be known to the world?
(Philip K. Dick. The K stands for Kindred. Philip Kindred Dick)
Philip K. Dick: Only legally and professionally.
James Holmes: Oh, only legally. How come you never used a pseudonym?
Philip K. Dick: Because I did once and they ferreted it out. I was Richard Phillipps.
James Holmes: It was Richard Phillipps?
Philip K. Dick: Yes, a brilliant inspiration by somebody else.
James Holmes: [laughter]
Philip K. Dick: Pressed for time, had a deadline– a long work day. [laughter] I thought of the name Ernest Hemingway as a pseudonym, but–
James Holmes: Somebody got it.
Philip K. Dick: No, I figured it wouldn’t sell too well. People would think I had a beard and they wouldn’t buy my books
James Holmes: I’m a little curious about your writing career. For instance, when did you first start writing?
Philip K. Dick: No, but I’m pretty passive in general.
James Holmes: [laughter] What was the first book that you ever published?
Philip K. Dick: Solar Lottery.
James Holmes: Solar Lottery and you never published short stories before that, or you–
Philip K. Dick: Oh, sure, yeah. I’ve published all kinds of short stories; hundreds of them.
James Holmes: Hundreds?
Philip K. Dick: Yes, a hundred and twenty two.
James Holmes: A hundred and twenty two, to be exact?
Philip K. Dick: Well, approximately.
James Holmes: Ah.
Philip K. Dick: That’s approximately a hundred and twenty two.
James Holmes: When was–
Philip K. Dick: Could be 4 years or two hundred and fifty.
James Holmes: When was your first work published?
Philip K. Dick: In– Should I lay it on you? Aunt Flo’s column in the Berkeley Gazette in 1942.
James Holmes: In 1942?
Philip K. Dick: Yes
James Holmes: How old were you then?
Philip K. Dick: Well, I’d have to calculate. Let’s see, 20 to 30 – age 10. I was approximately 11.
James Holmes: Eleven years old?
Philip K. Dick: Yeah. Could have been 10 or 13.
James Holmes: Were you paid for that?
Philip K. Dick: Well, in a sense. We got what were called credits, literary credits. Like four literary credits for–
James Holmes: Is that like master points in bridge.
Philip K. Dick: Well, we could trade these in at the end of the year on a funky dictionary, which I never bothered to do. I just pedaled the credits, the literary credits, to my friends–
James Holmes: Who bought–?
Philip K. Dick: — for more literary credits.
James Holmes: Solar Lottery was published when?
Philip K. Dick: I think it was 1955.
James Holmes: 1955?
Philip K. Dick: Approximately.
James Holmes: Did you feel that was your big break?
Philip K. Dick: As far as publishing a first novel, yes.
James Holmes: Yes.
Philip K. Dick: What do you mean my big break? I was already famous. I was famous in 1953. I published 27 short stories, 27 magazine-like stories in 1953.
James Holmes: In 1953? Is that a record?
Philip K. Dick: Yes, it was at the time, yeah. I had stories in seven magazines in one month in June 1953. I went down to the newsstands, and I couldn’t afford to buy the magazines that had the stories in them.
James Holmes: [laughter] Jesus.
Philip K. Dick: But I got to look at the covers.
James Holmes: (I’ve included a couple of 1953 magazine covers with PKD listed on the front. While tracking them down I looked at what typical covers the artists were making then and who they might be appealing to. I’ll let you be the judge.)
Continued in
Part 3 Philip K Dick 1971 Interview