Science Fiction in the Real World is a 1990 critical volume by Norman Spinrad, published by Southern Illinois University Press as part of the Alternatives series under the general editorship of Eric S. Rabkin, Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph D. Olander. The series was established to serve the growing critical audience of science fiction and fantastic fiction.
Spinrad, a prominent science fiction author and critic, was a close personal friend of Philip K. Dick. The text excerpt reveals the book's placement within a distinguished series that includes Mind in Motion: The Fiction of Philip K. Dick (edited by Patricia S. Warrick and Martin H. Greenberg), along with critical studies of other SF authors and themes.
The book collects Spinrad's essays on science fiction as both a literary genre and cultural phenomenon. Given Spinrad's decades-long engagement with Dick's work and their personal friendship (they appeared together in the Disneyland interview referenced in Dick's "How to Build a Universe" essay), the volume likely contains significant critical discussion of Dick's fiction. Spinrad was known for politically engaged criticism that situated science fiction within real-world social and cultural contexts.