Pink Beams of Light from the God in the Gutter: The Science-Fictional Religion of Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick, whose science fiction stories inspired such movies as Bladerunner, Total Recall, Minority Report and Paycheck, is less well-known as a literary mystic. But from the early 1950s on, Dick’s stories trace a thread of ontological speculation that has been the topic of countless academic treatises, doctoral theses and online discussions. In this concentrated volume, scholar Gabriel McKee concentrates on the religious aspects of Dick’s non-fiction writing, particularly the mostly unpublished Exegesis, on which Dick obsessively worked for the last eight years of his life, trying to explain to his own satisfaction a mystical experience that occurred to him in February 1974. Dick’s speculations never reached an ultimate conclusion, but as McKee concludes, “Dick’s search itself is still full of an exciting vitality, and his religious thought is certain to become an invaluable part of the future world of the spirit.”