Tuesday, May 8, 2007

PKD-Related Cover of the Day


A few years ago I started buying anything on amazon.com with 'Philip K. Dick' in the title. At some point I wound up with this zine-quality novella by Richard A. Lupoff. It's the story of one La Vonda Jackson who dies in a knife fight, bleeding to death in an alley, and wakes up as Philip K Dick's digital wristwatch. It's a fun story. I remembered this book after I read this on Thomas Disch's Live Journal Blog:

"The Word of God

That is the title of my new book--forthcoming in summer of '08 from Tachyon Press in San Francisco. Knock on wood, of course, but I did just send off the signed contracts, so if our civi;ization doesn't sink beforehand, there will be a new book in my bibliography. It is at least in part a novel, but also, like me, hard to classify in an exact way. Its subtitle is Holy Writ Rewritten, and as that suggests it is also a Revelation, and the secret it unfold is (hold your breath) . . . that I am God!

Had you known that already? Had you guessed? Or maybe it's not a surprise at all. I've promised Jacob Weissman, the publisher, that I will try to get blurbs from those who are already true believers. I am not a monotheist-type deity, so if you're already a member of another religion, you can still worship me, I won't be jealous.

My secret identity (secret till now) is only one of the astonishing things you'll read about in the book. There is also a remarkable account of Phil Dick's afterlife, including his trip back to AD 1939 in order to murder my true father, Thomas Mann, to prevent my birth and change the course of world history. It's a complicated tale but full of improving lessons in theological, political, and ethical matters. I'll let you know how to place advance orders, but meanwhile any testimonial as to my uncanny powers would be welcome. Just leave a comment."

Name an author who's been a character in more stories than PKD.
Besides Shakespeare...
Initially, I remembered Disch as that crazy Mormon who's writing future fiction about an ideological civil war in America's future but that's Orson Scott Card. Speaking of crazy Mormons, did anyone catch when Mitt Romney said his favorite book was Hubbard's "Battlefield Earth"?

I have now officially lost count of the number of stories in which PKD appears in as a character. Let's see there's:
"Philip K Dick is Dead, alas" by Michael Bishop
"I Am Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey into the mind of Philip K Dick" by Emmanuel Carrere (I don't care what anyone says; this is a novel not a biography)
"The Digital Wristwatch of Philip K Dick" by Richard A Lupoff
"Phil in the Marketplace" by Jonathan Lethem
The two bio-pics in production:
"Your Name Here" and "The Owl in Daylight"

What have I forgotten?

6 comments:

Henri said...

There is a novel by David Bishoff entitled "Philip K. Dick High, the truth is in your head". I don't have the book so I am not sure what it is all about.

http://www.pkdickbooks.com/AboutPKD/FictionalPKD.html

Anonymous said...

I can't think of any other books right now, but I have to say - Thomas Disch. What a bighead.

Anonymous said...

There's a collection of short stories featuring PKD as a character, called Welcome to Reality: the Nightmares of Philip K. Dick. (ed. Uwe Anton) It includes the Digital Wristwatch of Philip K. Dick: http://www.locusmag.com/index/t165.html#A18692

Ragle Gumm said...

Chris that book costs 595$ on amazon...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/
B000OV89C6/ref=dp_olp_2/103-2750176-69022
00?ie=UTF8&qid=1178732733&sr=8-2

Duncan Lawson said...

As far as writers turning up in novels,There is an ungodly amount of novels and films about Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Lord Byron.

More specifically, the famous summer when the story of Frakenstein was born. A good exmaple is Brian Aldiss' Frankenstein Unbound.

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