While I'm Away

In Anne Dick's memoir, The Search for Philip K Dick, she writes, "As [PKD and Anne] drove north [following their wedding in Mexico] towards the California border Phil said he had to tell me something terrible about himself. He was embarrassed about this matter and felt it would make me stop loving him. He was sure it showed how inadequate and defective he was. It turned out he had a hernia."

Well gentle readers, it is time for this intrepid blogger to go under the knife, a minor procedure performed December 26th to repair a hernia I acquired somewhere along the way, no doubt a result of all the heavy lifting I do here at the Total Dick-Head day in and day out - or perhaps karmic retribution for all the nasty invective I've hurled this year on the blog. Either way, I'll be away from the Internets for a bit. But fear not - I haven't forgotten you faithful readers. I have set up the blog so that several posts will go up automatically over the next week or so. Some outstanding student papers on PKD books, some Internet links to PKD readings, some reviews, all kinds of good stuff. For your part I need you to stay tuned and use the comments section to provide even more content for us Dick-heads while I recuperate.

During my recuperation, I will be rereading Eye in the Sky in preparation for my talk at Harvard, and because I think that's the next PKD text I need to study seriously (other novels that I have tackled with a fine-tooth comb include Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, We Can Build You, Time Out of Joint, and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch).

If I don't get back to the computer before the new year let me say thanks to all my readers for making this blog such a success in 2007 (I just received my 60,000th hit!). Expect much more in 2008 including The Total Dick-Head's one year anniversary, full coverage of Your Name Here, the unauthorized biopic due out in 08, more Blade Runner stuff (my briefcase/5 dvd set should arrive here tomorrow!), and of course all the PKD news and info kipple that's fit to print!

Update: Well the surgery didn't happen after all. I have a head cold and the surgeon said we should postpone the surgery. So here I am with a head cold and a hernia (which really doesn't bother me very often) and once I get this stack of papers (I imagine somewhere there is an English teacher blog where they post pictures of the stacks of papers they have to grade with tape measures next to them) I will be posting some more stuff. For now I'll stick to the automatic posting system I devised before the surgery, more human than human, right?