C.S. Lewis and Philip K. Dick

Utopia Vs. Dystopia

C.S. Lewis (1898 – 1963)

• Mother died when he was ten

• Married American writer Joy Gresham

• Friendship with J.R.R. Tolkien

• Influences: Irish heritage, Christianity

• Best known for: “The Chronicles of Narnia”

Philip K. Dick (1928 – 1982)

• Parents divorced when he was five

• Dropped out of college

• Married five times, divorced five times

• Influences: questionable sanity (schizophrenic?), drug abuse, spirituality

Utopia

• “Place, state, or condition ideally perfect in respect of political views, laws, customs, and conditions” – Oxford English dictionary

• Example: the land of Narnia in C.S. Lewis’s “The Chronicles of Narnia”

• “Narnia,” answered the Horse.  “The happy land of Narnia – Narnia of the heathery mountains and the thymy downs, Narnia of the many rivers, the plashing glens, the mossy caverns and the deep forests ringing with the hammers of the Dwarfs.  Oh, the sweet air of Narnia!  An hour’s life there is better than a thousand years in Calormen.” – “The Horse and his Boy” (page 208-209)

Dystopia

• Common causes: evil, ignorance, and stupidity (ex: nuclear fallout from some war)

• Society usually ruled by a very strict totalitarian government

Intersection

• C.S. Lewis and Philip K. Dick compliment each other in both their lives and their work

• By examining both authors we get to see life from both sides of the spectrum through their work and the lives they lived