Where can I find PKD's "Pessimism in Science Fiction" essay?
In the December 1955 issue of sci-fi zine Oblique there's an essay by Dick where he asserts that optimistic SF writers were dangerously out of touch and burying their head in the sand:
[...] to avoid the topic of war and cultural retrogression, as some schools of science fiction writers and editors have done, is unrealistic and downright irresponsible.
Such polyanna noises are designed to increase circulation. They shouldn’t fool anybody who reads newspapers.
Career-wise, the latter half of the fifties was the period where Dick ditched SF and tried to get a break as a mainstream literary fiction writer (i am trying to read all of it. no wonder barely any of it got published in his lifetime it is horrifically boring. thank you alternate-universe hitler for making him realise he was meant to write freaky paranoid sci-fi)
the thing is, I can't find the essay outside of that blockquote. the ifsdb lists it but I can't seem to access the listed sources where it has been published - half the sources are french translations, one of the english sources is a 1992 newsletter that I do not have. has anyone else been able to find this?
Posted Jul 4, 2025, 1:25 AM UTC