I read PKD's "The Man in the High Castle" years ago, but that clearly doesn't fit within article's description.
Can anyone recommend a novel/story that most clearly represents this version of dystopia?
Can anyone recommend a novel/story that most clearly represents this version of dystopia?
Also, "A Scanner Darkly" kind of hints that creating that kind of society is the goal of some nefarious forces.
The books are about how a mad God is the creator of our universe and the real God has tried to force itself into our reality throughout history (Jesus, Buddha, etc), usually within the context of an oppressive government.
This is probably clearest in the second Valis book - The Devine Invasion, though certainly these themes are present in Valis (book 1) and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (book 3).
I would also note that these books are not a traditional 'series' in that beyond Valis being mentioned there is no direct connection between the stories.
My favourite underrated PKD novel is Galactic Pot-Healer, which is a really fun read. This time the false creator is Glimmung, a large whale-like creature that claims to have godlike powers, and which is attempting to remotely contact a number of artisans across the galaxy that it needs to rebuild its physical presence on a far-away planet. The mythos is weirder and a bit less darkly dystopian this time, and the whole thing is crazy from beginning to end. Highly recommended.
It's not clear to me that this form of dystopia is really all that distinct from the Huxleyan one-- the virtuality is just a more effective soma.
It's a great book. It's interesting (in the context of this discussion) that it's a satiric dystopia in which the main character spends most of the book in a drug-induced dream about being in a future utopia that turns out to be a Huxleyian dystopia that's even worse than the present day.