Justice for Tessa Dick
"The true measure of a man is not his intelligence or how high he rises in this freak establishment. No, the true measure of a man is this: how quickly can he respond to the needs of others and how much of himself he can give."
—Philip K. Dick, "Our Friends from Frolix 8”
Not all is well in the Dick-verse. As you know, we are a family of total Dick Heads. Yasha introduced Evgenia to Philip K. Dick years ago, and she’s become an even bigger Dick Head than him. She’s read the Gospels of Dick multiple times and opens up the book in times of distress.
So we’ve been very disturbed to learn PKD’s last wife, Tessa Dick, is living in poverty, begging strangers on the internet — through YouTube, Facebook, and GoFundMe — to make ends meet. On top of that, Tessa’s son Christopher — PKD’s youngest and last child — seems to also be having serious financial difficulties in connection to his health. Tessa posted about it on Facebook a year ago, hoping to get the word out about Christopher’s situation. But her post got only two replies — one thumbs up and one crying emoji.
The whole thing is disturbing because PKD’s family should be swimming in money.
In the last several decades, PKD’s work has fully entered mainstream culture, and major Hollywood studios have been cranking out big-budget films and TV series based on his stories and novels — and that’s on top of the book royalties that the family should be getting.
So what is going on?
A reminder that Tessa isn’t just some random woman whom he briefly dated. She was his last wife, he devoted books to her, and they have a son together — a son who was at the center of a major religious experience that PKD had. He received a message from outside power telling him that Christopher had a hernia, and that if he didn’t get to the hospital right away, he would die. The advice turned out to be correct, and it saved Christopher’s life. This mystical experience was responsible for a major religious and artistic pivot in PKD’s life — and was the inspiration for his late works like Valis, Radio Free Albemuth, The Divine Invasion, and of course, Exegesis.
Tessa and Dick and Chris and Dick
So what is going on? Why is Tessa Dick begging for money?
While the exact details about how much money his family estate has made from various Hollywood adaptations of his work are not public, it’s not far-fetched to imagine that it is not a small sum — and should easily be in the tens of millions of dollars.
I mean, look at a few of the big adaptations of PKD’s work:
Blade Runner 2049 — It was based on his Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, was directed by Denis Villeneuve and made by Warner Brothers. It had a budget of $150,000,000, and brought in close to $300,000,000.
The Man in the High Castle — It was based on the novel with the same name. The series was produced by Amazon and cost about a $100,000,000 per season — and it ran for four seasons. At the time it was the most expensive Amazon studios production.
Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams — A series produced by UK’s Channel 4 and Amazon and based on various PKD stories. It had a budget of about $50 million.
Minority Report — It was based on the based on PKD’s 1956 novella. It was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred Tom Cruise. It had a (in 2002 dollars) a budget of $100,000,000 and brought in $300,000,000 worldwide.
So PKD’s estate should be doing well, right? And on the surface it is…
PKD has three children from three different women. Two daughters and one son. The middle daughter — Isa Dick Hackett — owns and runs a company that manages PKD’s library. She seems to be doing very well. She is not begging for money on the internet — and her mother isn’t asking people to spread the word about her problems with medical insurance. She’s on red carpets with celebrities, hanging out with studio heads, getting producer credits on films with hundred-million-dollar budgets…
Isa Dick Hackett
…so what is really going on?
To recap: Tessa Dick, PKD’s third wife, is begging for money. She says she broke her back twice and is doing very poorly. She looks homeless. She’s appealing to strangers on the internet for help. Meanwhile, PKD’s trust and library — which is being managed by his middle daughter — is bragging about yet another film in development based on PKD’s life…with Charleze Theron and director Alfonso Cuaron attached: Jane.
Something’s not right. We’re putting this out there to bring awareness to a possible grave injustice being done Tessa and Christopher Dick. We’re sure PKD would be furious about this, and we think anyone who has felt enriched by his world and his gift should be up in arms about it, too.
This is not about which family member owns what percentage of the trust. It’s not necessarily about legality. It’s about basic morality.
—Evgenia and Yasha
PS: Meanwhile donate to Tessa’s GoFundMe.
PPS: We recorded an episode about this some months ago…check it out: Black Iron Prison.
We donated.
Fuckin hell. People are just cunts.