\u2018A big idea guy\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Most stories about Philip K. Dick \u2014 or PKD as many fans refer to him \u2014 start out with a list of Hollywood adaptations of his work: Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall, The Man in the High Castle… and the list goes on.<\/p>\n
Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n
If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. <\/p>\n
Dick\u2019s more than 40 novels and some 120 short stories are filled with explorations of what it means to be human, untrustworthy realities and generally mind-bending narratives.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhilip K. Dick\u2019s novels are basically impossible to film. But he\u2019s a big idea guy and the ideas seem to excite a lot of Hollywood producers,\u201d said David Sandner<\/a>, an English professor at Cal State Fullerton.<\/p>\n The Pollak Library at Cal State Fullerton houses a Philip K. Dick archive, which includes original manuscripts, correspondence and recordings of the author talking as a guest speaker in the 1970s<\/a>.<\/p>\n Philip K. Dick with his literary papers.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Courtesy of the Pollak Library <\/p>\n )<\/p>\n \u201cScience fiction is a world where you could be,\u201d Dick can be heard saying on the recording. \u201cYou always feel this thin tenuous line between your world and a good science fiction novel.\u201d<\/p>\n Some fans who read Dick now might feel that tenuous line disappearing more than ever. Take for instance the fictional news device known as a “homeopape” from his novel Ubik, first published in 1969. It prints out articles based on a user\u2019s interests and allows them to dial in the specific, niche news they want to read. Sound familiar?<\/p>\n \u201cHe understood that the technology was going to get inside of our heads… Which is what the algorithms are doing now. Right? They\u2019re being set and then they\u2019re being shifted more and more to bring us under control,\u201d Sandner said from the third floor of the Pollak Library, where the Philip K. Dick papers are stored.<\/p>\n Dick grew up and spent the majority of his days writing in the San Francisco Bay area. Still somewhat obscure and recovering from a self-harm incident in Vancouver, a professor at Cal State Fullerton named Willis E. McNelly invited Dick out to Orange County in the early ’70s, where he continued to write, give guest lectures and eventually donate many of his papers to the library.<\/p>\n Patrice Prestinary, archivist and special collections librarian at the Pollak Library, said Dick\u2019s papers have been moved to their own, more accessible spot because they are so frequently requested.<\/p>\n The collection of PKD-related material includes colorful 1950s and 60s-era paperbacks emblazoned with rocket ships and psychedelic visions.<\/p>\n Patrice Prestinary in the Pollak Library’s PKD archives. <\/p>\n But Prestinary said many researchers who come here are seeking out the more personal ephemera.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, writing to his mother and talking about really ordinary things like paying bills and his cat,\u201d she said. \u201cSometimes they just want to know the man behind these stories that they love.\u201d<\/p>\n The man behind those stories spent the last 10 years of his life in Orange County, including at a two-bedroom apartment in Santa Ana.<\/p>\n Pink beams and O.C. friends\u00a0<\/p>\n During that period, Dick had some of his most trippy, spiritual experiences, including a run-in with a pink beam of light that he believed imparted transcendent wisdom.<\/p>\n \u201cHe himself is a character. And once you start learning about his life and the experiences that he had… It\u2019s interesting because then his own life became like his novels,\u201d author and Dick researcher Keith Giles told LAist. Giles will release a set of PKD-inspired novellas<\/a> from seven authors at this week\u2019s festival.<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t just transcendental experiences \u2014 Dick was making plenty of more terrestrial friends in Orange County, too. Those include author Tim Powers, who will be part of a panel called \u201cPhil\u2019s Orange County Friends\u201d on Aug. 22.<\/p>\n 4th International Philip K. Dick Festival<\/p>\n Where: Cal State Fullerton campus and the Fullerton Marriott \u201cIn a lot of ways, I think he really felt like Orange County saved his life,\u201d said David Agranoff, author and co-host of the Dickheads podcast. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think he felt like he could change his life if he didn\u2019t go somewhere else,\u201d Agranoff said, citing Dick\u2019s struggles with substance use in the San Francisco Bay area.<\/p>\n Dick died in 1982, just a few months before the release of Blade Runner, which was loosely based on his novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The film skyrocketed his name into the mainstream.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s this 20th century writer who\u2019s almost more relevant today than he was then,\u201d Agranoff, an organizer of the festival, said.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786883649_776_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Archivist](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786883650_717_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
When: Aug. 20-23, 2026
Cost: Free
For more info and optional registration, visit the Philip K. Dick Festival website<\/a><\/p>\n