Republibot article featured on the Total Dick Head website.

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 a book about the final heretofore unpublished interview with Phlip K. Dick.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
http://totaldickhead.blogspot.com/2009/05/in-defense-of-sanity.html

This is our site's first major mention from any of the other big SF websites that I actually like, so that's a red letter day for us. Unfortunately, it's a primarily critical review of my review, so that tempers my glee a litle bit, but here's the deal: They're right.

I enganged in a bit too much gonzo journalism* and reckless, if romantic, speculation, and I kind of did it without even realizing it. The TDH site totally nails me on it, and having re-read my review, I think Ragle Gumm and his crew are on the money: I screwed up. There's not really any excuse for it - I mean, our site is on friendly terms with PKD's widow for gosh sakes! - I could have just asked her for her opinions before I published it, but it never occured to me to do so. So, to Tessa and anyone else I may possibly have offended with my glib, slightly-manic off-the-cuff comments, I apologize.

There are a couple points that TDH chooses to accentuate that I don't think are entirely germane, but ultimately that's my fault too, because I should have done a better job expressing myself when I wrote the damn thing. If I didn't give the right emphasis in a clear fashion, it's certainly not the fault of the reader if they don't get what I was trying to convey.

So here's what I'm gonna' do:

Firstly, I'd ask all of you who read the book review below to please go check out the blog entry about it over at TDH. They give a very strong explanation of where and why I'm wrong. Secondly, I'm going to give some thought to the error of my ways, and then write up an article in which I address my factual errors and post that on here to give a better impression of PKD.

The amazing thing is that despite taking some severe exceptions with my sloppy-assed journalism, Ragle *still* gives us a guardedly positive review, saying that the article *is* worth reading. The man's a class act all around, and his site really is one of the best PKD websites on line.

So: Thank you again, and I'm sorry.

Republibot 3.0

*- Gonzo Journalism: When the reporter spends more time talking about himself and his feelings/experiences than the actual subject at hand