Book Review: The Zap Gun by Philip K. Dick
I have been reevaluating a lot of my old favorites of late - William S. Burroughs, William Gibson, J.G. Ballard, and now Philip K. Dick, and I find that all four have stood the test of time. In fact, if anything, I find that they have grown with me such that I find them perhaps even more relevant for me today as when I first became infatuated with their writing and ideas three decades ago. Back in the day, I was quite a Dickhead, as fans of the late Philip K. Dick call themselves. I plowed through a good chunk of his 44 published novels, and got quite a bit out of them. Unlike many of his contemporaries, his books were not about science, they were about the future, and the frustrations and challenges that ordinary people might face. The characters lived in drab, rundown tower flats (conapts) with annoying, overly-cheerful neighbors. The talking machines were always making unwanted comments, and the vending machines didn’t work, and the government was te...