Only slightly off topic, but anyone who hasn't should read Philip K Dick. Reading an anthology of his short stories is like reading the plot summary of almost every major Sci-Fi film in the last 30 years.
If you're reading novels, "Martian Time-Slip" is a good first Philip K Dick book. Although I really enjoy many of his books there are several that may put you off reading more if you read them before you have an appreciation for his work. Martian Time-Slip will give you the flavor of Philip K Dick and show you how innovative and interesting he was as a writer. If you don't enjoy that one I think you will probably not enjoy most of his other novels. If you started with "Confessions of a Crap artist" or even the acclaimed "The man in the high castle" for example you might not have the best first experience with his work. "Ubik" (also mentioned in this thread) is another good choice to start with.
He is a very interesting character and a lot of enigma?/controversy surrounds him. This was an interesting conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXeVgEs4sOo
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scanner_Darkly_%28film%29#Ca...
[1] Literal in the classic sense, not the contranymical nonsense that has been thrust upon it thanks to teenagers who "can't even"...read a dictionary.
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_adaptations_of_works_by...
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3007
Looks like you literally can't even read a dictionary:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally
> 2 : in effect : virtually <will literally turn the world upside down to combat cruelty or injustice — Norman Cousins>
It's fun to take illiterate pedants down a peg. Everyone should try it for themselves.
Yes, there is ample evidence that it was used to mean "with emphasis, but not in reality" for some time. I was wrong. I was attempting to make a glib remark without much consideration for facts...next time I'll endeavor to either keep my snide commentary to myself, or at least do a bit of fact checking.
...but in the mean time/back to the parent topic, people really should read Phillip K. Dick. He's a fantastic writer and visionary, and uses language far better than I can.
And yeah, I'm completely in agreement: PKD is amazing.
Spoilers...
In Minority Report (film), the protagonist does everything to save one innocent abused by the state. In the book, well, let's just say if you want a perfect society you've got to break a few eggs.
In Paycheck (film), he sides with government regulators to stop a corrupt corporation. In Paycheck (book) he sides with a corrupt corporation to take down the government.
In The Golden Man, the government hunts a powerful and dangerous mutant. In Next, the powerful mutant sides with the government to stop terrorists.
I know Dick wasn't in favor of killing cops or corrupt corporations or hunting down people who are different, but the best thing about all of those stories is that they put the protagonists in these sort of awful lifeboat ethics dilemmas, dilemmas that are apparently far too interesting to waste on film audiences.