Motion and mobility in the realist novels of Philip K Dick

This essay explores the ways that ideas of motion and mobility support readings of Philip K Dick's early novels that take full account of the changing geographical context. They are set during a period of rapid suburban expansion, the building of the interstate and the spread of automobility through car ownership, and their characters frequently exist in a state between continuity through conformity and the potential for change. The open ended forms of the novels reflect a world around Dick that was still under construction, and where alternative realities can be glimpsed between incomplete materialities.