My pal David Gill, a longtime Philip K. Dick fanatic who recently completed his graduate thesis on the author, has launched his own PKD blog. (For years, David has contributed great PKD bits to Boing Boing.) The title of his new PKD blog? Total Dick-Head! Yesterday, David posted about Italian critic Frasca Gabriele's strange and provocative assertion that Dick's alternate realities were inspired by Frank Capra's 1946 film It's A Wonderful Life. From David's post:
In an email to the pkd litserv Umberto Rossi (another Italian Dickhead and critic) writes, "Well, I saw [the film] yesterday and I have to admit it's so true it's almost ludicrous. The Cosmic Puppets comes from that. But also other things (the scene in CASTLE where Tagomi visits our world, plus some aspects of UBIK)." The movie was based on a short SF story by Philip Van Doren Stern called "The Greatest Gift." From what I gather Gabriele points to the film's anti-capitalist subtext — I wonder if the comparison could be taken further: do Dick's alternate worlds illustrate the importance of the character in his or her "real world"?
• David Gill reviews Philip K. Dick's new old novel Link
• Jonathan Lethem on Philip K. Dick Link
• BBC Radio 4 program about Philip K. Dick Link
• Which PK Dick story are we living in today? Link
