Philip K. Dick
Ubik

"I am UBIK. Before the Universe was, I am. I made the suns. I made the worlds. I created the living creatures and the places they inhabit; and I move them here as I wish. They go where I tell them and do what I say. I am the Word. My name is never spoken, the name which no one knows. I am called UBIK, but that is not my name. I am. I shall always be." (Ch. 17).

Although a long time has passed since reading this novel, the memory of the characters and this disturbing and surprising story has not 'faded' over time as it has happened with many other books. You may not believe it, but Dick managed to change, albeit slightly, my way of interpreting life and the world around me. Perhaps something similar could happen to you after reading this masterpiece... "Ubik" from the Latin ubique: everywhere, ubiquity. I'll briefly describe the plot, but ultimately what matters is the heartfelt advice to read the book.

You will meet a wide range of original characters. Runciter is a man of good intentions and the owner of Runciter Associates with the "Inertials" at his disposal, people endowed with Psi powers, allowing him to fight Hollis' evil "Teeps" (telepaths) and "Precogs" (precognitives). Runciter is advised in the most critical moments by his wife Ella, who is frozen in a sort of "half-life" and contained in a transparent casket within the Moratorium Diletti Fratelli Schoenheit von Vogelsang. The idea of "half-life" was developed from the post-mortem realm in the Bardo Thodol, described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Next to Ella in another container is Jory, a boy inexorably drawing life force from her. Joe Chip is a simple and loyal employee of Runciter tasked with conducting tests on the "Inertials", while the stunning Pat Conley has the new power to alter the past and hinder the "Precogs". The structure of the early chapters might seem to lead the reader towards a science fiction plot, but it will turn unpredictably into...

"The hardest thing, after getting out of bed in the morning, is getting out of bed in the morning. Wake up with Ubik! Ubik, nutritious puffed oat flakes! The tastiest, crunchiest adult cereal, all in one. Ubik at breakfast, and the bowl is empty! Do not exceed the recommended dosage per serving!" (Ubik advertisement in Ch. 16).

Dick was among the rare writers who managed to redefine the concept of reality with absolutely unique clarity. The real becomes unreal and the unreal becomes real through a total inversion of every signifier. Philip loved to create worlds inhabited by his weak and uncertain characters and then let them literally crumble beneath the bewildered eyes of the reader. In life, Dick almost obsessively questioned what is truly real in our world. Is life itself real? When W. Burroughs was asked if he believed in life after death, he answered with a question: "How do you know you are not already dead?"

"Taken as directed, Ubik induces uninterrupted sleep, devoid of the depressive state that often accompanies waking. You'll awaken fresh and rested, ready to tackle all those numerous and absurd problems demanding your attention. Note: do not exceed the recommended dosage" (Ubik advertisement in Ch. 11).

Dick's works abound with symbolic references to religious issues. Joe Chip's initials oddly match those of Jesus Christ, but the connection goes much further. His novels are often interconnected through various meta-analogies, like Runciter-Ubik and Eldritch-Chew-Z. Dick's life was characterized by sufferings, drug dependencies, and curious events that inevitably sublimated into his writings on multiple levels. Among these, the piercing memory of his twin sister, Jane Dick, who died after 40 days due to malnutrition. The strange and inexplicable events between February and March '74, which doctors nevertheless described as a series of micro-epileptic seizures. Philip, however, confusedly explained these episodes as a complex sequence of visions that allowed him to rediscover eternal truths, namely his anamnesis (Plato). It should be noted that the writer was taking certain medications during that period. These events convinced him to create his "Exegesis" (almost 2 million words). In '76, during a rare interview with Daniel DePrez, a can of soda levitated... Strangely, the letter K in both Dick and Ubik inevitably refers to Kafka. Not by chance do many of his works present similarities with the inimitable writer from Prague. His literary genius's strength lies in his ability to transform life's tragedies into unrepeatable masterpieces.

"The best way to ask for a beer is to loudly ask for Ubik. Obtained from selected hops and top-quality water, aged slowly for a perfect aroma, Ubik is the best beer in the nation. It is bottled only in Cleveland" (Ubik advertisement in Ch. 2).

In '74, Dick wrote a screenplay for a film project based on Ubik, which never came to fruition. I still wonder today whether it is a good or bad thing that no director has made a film from this unusual novel so far. It could be good, as we all would have the cinematic transposition of this cult book. Bad because the result would likely cause disappointment. It would be very challenging to express the whole story and its deep meanings through images, music, and words. The effect of this book was so influential that it inspired the creation of the Ubik movement, also present in Italy. People had the opportunity to express their creativity through poems, drawings, and practical and theoretical elaborations of Ubiquity, through now-rare publications like Ikonera and Malpertuis.

"Friends, it's time to clean up, and we're giving away all our silent and electric Ubiks at really competitive prices. We've thrown away the price list. So remember: all Ubiks from our batch have been used following instructions to the letter" (Ubik advertisement in Ch. 1).

Dick was born in 1928 and died in 1982 at only 54 years old. The last two digits of the date of birth and death could lead back to a sort of cyclicity in the life course. His death marked the rapid dissolution of the Ubik movement, also due to the tragic events in Arkansas where two members of the Ubik Foundation died under dramatic circumstances (their names were Kate and Keith Haigler). Dick dedicated the book Ubik to his friend Anthony Boucher, who passed away in April '68, with these moving yet hopeful words: "I see sunny woods, and whole serene green. There we will soon walk, when summer comes".