Un mondo di plastica: p.k. dick e la critica dell’informazione spuria

Abstract

The circumstantial method presents the detective with an exemplary case. Once solved, this case enables him to reinterpret reality by formulating heuristic hypotheses that broaden our knowledge. Peirce, having theorized the so-called hypothetical inference, was very well aware of this phenomenon. As Ginzburg observes, also Freud, in his studies on Michelangelo, suggested that the psychoanalytical method – thanks to its detail-oriented vocation (with details being the forgotten rejects of one’s conscience) – bears a similarity to the abductive phenomena typical of detection stories. These phenomena unveil the subliminal mechanisms of everyday consciousness. It is therefore highly significant that something similar happens in the science-fictional production of P.K. Dick. Dick’s novels can in fact be construed as clever retroductions, which spotlight the faults and inconsistencies of the dominant social logic. In his novels, everyday reality is depicted as a huge phantasmagoria of commodities, while his fictional worlds are found to be dystopic projections of American political reality. These realizations, being the outcome of the surprise effect brought about by the abnormal case, spotlight the author’s take on the plague of fake news. This surprising partnership among criticism of ideology, realism, and SF paints the picture of an author with an agenda, surely far from being politically disengaged and uncommitted.

Keywords

• reality
• science fiction
• guessing