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Philip K. Dick was born in 1928. He began writing at an early age, during the Golden Age, gradually increasing his skills as a writer. His professional writing career began in 1952 and lasted until his death of heart failure in 1982. During this time, he wrote many amazing short stories and novels, establishing himself as one of the greatest science fiction writers ever. In a similar way to John W. Campbell, Jr., Dick uses identity in a lot of his stories. Take for example the story, Impostor. This is the story of a robotic clone whose job it is to kill the original human, continue to live that human’s life, and then set off a bomb implanted inside of him. By the time the government finds out about the plot, the clone has already killed the assigned human, but everybody thinks that the clone is the real human. Then later in the story, he blows himself up. The scheme of the story is playing mind tricks on the reader to believe something that is not even there. Many movies have been made from Dick’s books. The list includes A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Blade Runner, Paycheck, and coming in April, Next. These movies have been very successful and have done a good job of portraying Dick’s work in a visual presentation. He has also won many awards for his writings. Some are the Hugo Award for best novel in 1962 for “The Man in the High Castle.” He also won the John W. Campbell award for “Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.” This is just a small amount of the awards that Dick has won for his literary genius. This is what is expected of only the greatest authors.
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