Interview with RU Sirius at Mindplex

One of the cool things that happened during the recent Philip K Dick Bay Area Tour Weekend was that RU Sirius, the publisher of Mondo 2000 and a legend in the cyberpunk community, came to a party at my house (thanks to long time friend and reader Ted Hand for the introduction).

Art by Tesfu Assefa

In the aftermath of this great meeting of the minds, RU conducted an email interview with me regarding all things Dick. I cover Dick-Heads, the value of touring PKD's landmarks, his take on movies, some common myths and misinformation, even Dick and "The Singularity." 

Check out the whole article (see if you can beat the 17 minute estimate) over at Mindplex! 

I like this bit, a response to the question "What are Dick-Heads like?":

"I think the single defining characteristic of the really serious Philip K. Dick fan is that they have felt some kind of alienation in their life. That is to say, that they have been made to feel fundamentally different from those around them— whether in their home, or at school, or in the wider world.

Dick talked about how when he worked at a record store as a teen, the blue collar guys he worked with couldn't believe he was living with a couple of gay, beatnik poets—and the gay beatnik poets couldn't believe he was reading pulp sci-fi, and that his mother disapproved of all of it. No port in the storm. When I was a grad student at San Francisco State University and looking for an advisor twenty years ago, I had a professor ask incredulously [of my intention to write my thesis on Dick]: "Isn't he just a science fiction writer?" 

So, Dick's life and work are like this little treasure for us, and it's absolutely imperative that not everybody get it, and that he's kinda looked down upon. Everywhere you look in Dick's life, you can see this profound alienation. He not only endured financial, emotional, romantic, and artistic struggles, but he transformed that suffering into the centerpiece of his fiction, the abyss about which his characters and plots revolve. So DickHeads, as a clan, have this special bond—fellow fish, swimming against the stream. It's also mostly guys."