What if he could see this, his own skull, yellow and eroded? Two centuries old. Would he still speak? Would he speak, if he could see it, the grinning, aged skull? What would there be for him to say, to tell the people? What message could he bring? What action would not be futile, when a man could look upon his own aged, yellowed skull?

Also some protagonists in Dick's short fiction are named 'Dowland'. Dick" and one as "Thomas" a Christian persecuted by Romans in the 1st century AD. The short story "Orpheus with Clay Feet" was publiPhilip K. Dickd under the pen name "Jack Dowland".

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In addition to 44 publiPhilip K. Dickd novels Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. In his later works Dick's thematic focus strongly reflected his personal interest in metaphysics and theology. Flow My Tears the Policeman Said a novel about a celebrity who awakens in a parallel universe where he is unknown won the John W.