A new issue of PKD Otaku has been published. You can view it here: PKD Otaku Issue 26 or view past issues.
Please be patient after clicking on the link for this issue. The file is large and requires more time to download. An alternative would be to save the file to your computer and read the issue from there.
This is indeed by far the best PKD serconzine, wherein you can find open-minded and non-cliquish information and discussion about Philip K. Dick. And be sure to send along a “letter to the editor” to Patrick Clark, at: pkdotaku@gmail.com.
Patrick Clark’s editorial about the US killer drones used to take out terrorists in other lands and which are about to become autonomous (!), reminded me not only of the leadies in THE PENULTIMATE TRUTH but also of my recent reading of THE UNTELEPORTED MAN. In this novel there are two similar devices to these drones but on a much smaller scale, as if our drones are the primitive prototypes of weapons designed by PKD coming soon to a tyrant near you. In his flapple with Rachmael ben Applebaum, the LIES Inc. pilot, Al Dosker, tries to use a ‘homeostatic, cephalotropic dart’ hidden in a cigarette and tuned to the target’s alpha brainwaves. The second device is used by Theodoric Ferry – the bad guy in the novel – and is a similar homeostatic, cephalotropic dart but one which somehow operates through space transmission.
These types of devices in PKD’s stories have inspired me such that I would like to do a series on ‘The Weapon Shops of Philip K. Dick’ for upcoming PKD OTAKU’s. Here’s a preview of something I’ve already found: in one chapter of THE UNTELEPORTED MAN, a mere ten pages long, there are 19 weapons, counter-weapons and detectors mentioned. from brute force to ‘cholinesterase-destroying gas’. I’m excited to be working on this because I believe one day the aliens *will* arrive and our last resort will be the stories of a mad writer a la THE ZAP GUN! The blue cephalopod man exists and his name is Philip K. Dick!
Well, I was just kidding about that last bit…