I don't think it would be possible to overstate the influence Philip K. Dick had on my religious outlook. We've made a lot of references to this, and his own odd religious experiences on the site, but here's a comic strip (By R. Crumb!) which tells the story in PKD's own words: http://www.philipkdickfans.com/weirdo/weirdo1.htm Please note that the "Tess" featured in the comic is our own Tessa Dick, longtime friend of our site, and an occasional contributor.

I saw Blade Runner in '83, like everyone else, so I'd heard the name and stumbled across one or two of his short stories, but I didn't really *discover*

We all know the drill: You wake up one morning to discover that one of your favorite short stories by one of your favorite authors is being made in to a movie. You get excited. You deftly try to follow news of the production while dodging actual spoilers. You do the dance of checking up on the director’s track record while questioning the casting. You spend months or years looking forward to it, and you arrange your schedule so you can pick it up during the opening weekend.

And it sucks.

A few days ago, I published my review of "What if Our World is Their Heaven?" a book about the final heretofore unpublished interview with Phlip K. Dick. You can read my review here if you haven't already. http://www.republibot.com/content/not-quite-science-fiction-book-review-... Suffice to say that I gave it a very good review.

Today the charmingly-offensively-named "Total Dick Head" website did a blog entry on it that is well worth checking out, and I'd advise you all to read it here

It is somewhat sad that the New Agers have claimed Phil as their own, because I don’t think he’d like them. Though frequently a slave of his own loins, Phil was no fan of easy morality, nor easy spiritual answers, and he loathed fakers as servants of the lie, the black iron prison (to use his term) that enslaves us to the only-apparently real. Though he didn’t believe the truth was the same for every person, he did believe there was an objective truth. He was messianic, believing that the second coming was here, and the new Messiah was already on earth.

Tessa Dick is a science fiction writer, and the widow of the late great author Philip K. Dick. We interviewed her a few months back (Interview: http://www.republibot.com/content/interview-tessa-dick ) , and she's been a great friend to the site. Lately, it has become apparent that she's fallen on really hard times, and is in a fairly desperate state, and our hearts really go out to her, as well as our prayers. She's a really nice person, or at least that's the impression I've developed in the few months I've known her online.