Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Domestic PKD

Anne R. Dick, one of PKD's wives, has written a memoir about him that sounds really interesting as it was during his marriage to her that he wrote some of his most memorable books, and, after their divorce, his eccentric traits began to take over. Among many good observations in this NYTimes interview are these:
“I think he’s what you might call a psychomorph,” Ms. Dick said... “He was quite different with each person. He had this enormous gift of empathy, and he used it to woo and please and control. I’m not saying he wasn’t a very nice person too; he was. He just had a very dark shadow.”
...
Ms. Dick says that while Dick was both agoraphobic and shy, he was a man of enormous personal magnetism. “He knew how to talk to people, to move their emotions and thoughts,” she said. “But he was too shy to go out into public. He could have been a great F.B.I. agent and a great actor.”
...
“He gave a lot. Maybe too much. He tied himself in knots, and then exploded, like a balloon.”

No comments: