Dick, Philip K--Criticism and interpretation

Although critics have observed Philip K. Dick's references to empathy throughout his novels, short stories, and essays, no analysis has attempted to examine the role of empathy in his writings. In contrast to the element of ratiocination (or logical extrapolation) widely considered to be the hallmark of science fiction, Dick's fictions are held together by the value they primarily place not on reason, but on an empathic understanding of our actions and their effects upon the lives of other entities. Using two early short stories ("Beyond Lies the Wub" and "Roog"), two non-Earth ecologies (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Dr. Bloodmoney). I will demonstrate that Dick's works are united by an ethical imperative to understand the thoughts and emotions of others, human and nonhuman alike.

My scientifically informed readings of Philip K. Dick's Ubik (1969) and Pamela Zoline's "The Heat Death of the Universe" (1967) consider entropy's multifarious meanings from both thermodynamics and information theory. Additionally, rather than relying upon overarching assumptions about the texts' cultural moment, I explore each fiction's presentation of entropy as negative or positive. For Dick, the loss of female mothering accelerates the heat death of late-capitalistic society, with entropy a negative, destructive force. Zoline, however, recognizes the injurious ramifications of entrapping women within the gender role of self-sacrificing wife/mother; her protagonist purposefully accelerates entropy production to destroy such a closed system.