Philip K. Dick: the Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

Philip K. Dick's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is a deeply symbolic work. Centered largely on concepts of soft science fiction, Dick presents to the reader a work which is based essentially on themes of philosophy and theology; he leads the reader to ponder such concepts as the true nature of reality and the direction in which our current society is headed based on then-current social and cultural phenomena - specifically, the growing use of hallucinogenic drugs in the 1960s. These themes are presented by way of a dystopian future set in the year 2016. Due to the nature of the thematic material and the complexity of the work itself, the book is clearly intended to be read and understood by an adult audience.

The book opens with a description of a bleak future. The Earth has been rendered uninhabitable outdoors due to extreme temperatures upwards of 180 degrees Fahrenheit. This would be presumably due to global warming, although Dick does not specify the cause in the novel. Indeed, throughout the work, the hard science behind the nature of the conditions and the technology used is not explained at all. Elements such as "E Therapy" - evolution therapy which causes a person to artificially evolve - are not explained at all from a scientific perspective. In this case, the hard science is not relevant to the development of the plot, characters, or themes of the novel.

The dystopian elements continue throughout the novel. There are colonies on Mars and elsewhere in the solar system; however, these colonies are even more undesirable than an Earth in which no one can go outside in direct sunlight. Unlike many science fiction authors who paint colonization of other planets as an exciting picture, for Dick, these co...

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...ime limitations when under the drug's effects, then how is one to know if the drug's effects have worn off or if one is simply experiencing the illusion of the drug's effects having worn off? Thus, after a single Chew-Z experience, one never truly knows if he or she has, in fact, returned to the real world, or whether or not there is even such a thing as the real world.

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, while open to interpretation in many different ways, unquestionably has major themes of religion and of the true nature of reality. Using a soft science fiction setting, Dick presents these elements and leaves the reader with many thought-provoking questions. While the specific intentions of the work are left to the reader to decide, the overall themes are quite evident and Dick presents them amidst the backdrop of the growing drug culture of his time.