Shattered Realities: A Baudrillardian Reading of Philip K. Dick’s Ubik

Abstract

Ubik by Philip K. Dick shows a hyperreal society in which everything is simulated and virtual and even the demarcation between life and death is indistinct. Therefore, the world of Ubik depicts the violation of the ontological boundary. Characters in this novel live in a simulated and virtual life of the half-life which is the symbol of the ordinary situation of people in the actual life since media and proliferation of signs and information construct a new media reality which is even more real than real or “hyperreal”. Although characters are in search of reality and a transcendental signified in order to maintain their identity, they are unable to achieve what they are searching for and they do not know whether they are undergoing the real or a simulation. Thus, they crave to fix the reality and their identities through the marketplace. Consequently, they purchase a product named Ubik which is a reality support, but the effect of this product is very transient; therefore, they have to keep buying it. The philosophical guide for the purpose of looking into Dick‟s novel is Jean Baudrillard‟s concepts of simulation, simulacra and hyperreality. The objective of this paper is to examine the commodified and simulated world of Ubik based on Baudrillard‟s theories to show that in the techno-capitalist world there is no objective truth since everything is reduced to signs and images and subject is dominated by the object; therefore, subjectivity is disappearing. Hence, in Ubik, it would be demonstrated that technology, proliferation of information and capitalism lead to disruption of all boundaries and generate the society of simulated realities.

Keywords

• simulation
• hyperreality
• consumerism
• technology
• transcendental signified