I would like to give some updates on the progress on building out philipdick.com. First, I have been working on pulling all available Philip K. Dick books from Amazon.com for the Works In Print section. I have the Novels and Non Fiction completed, I believe (Please let me know if you see an error.) The Short Story Collections should be done soon and then Secondary Resources section will be tackled. I’m not sure that that section will ever be finished. Oh, and if you have a suggestion for the Fiction Inspired By Philip K. Dick section, please send me them. I put all the ones I knew about in the section.
I have spent some time roughing in the next set of changes that you will see on the site including the sidebar. I have added some items including a PayPal donation box and a site only Google search box I am experimenting with. I expect there may be more changes with the side bar as the site develops and things are moved around. On the site pages, you may find a page with only the section headers on it which is a page that I have laid out what I think should be there but haven’t finished adding it. I hope to have content in all areas soon but the timeline may change. If I don’t feel that I will be able to get content in there soon, I will hide the areas I haven’t gotten to yet. Nothing makes me madder than to follow a link and find nothing there and I don’t want to give that experience to someone else.
Which brings me to my question for the post? I would like to steal/inherit/borrow and otherwise incorporate content from the old site into the new one, the new structure, not just the design but also the menu system. Jason did an excellent job on the old site but I have always felt that the information architecture could have been improved. I thank Jason for sending me a copy of the old site greatly. How do you feel about me taking content from the old site and putting it into the new one? Do you feel it should be left as it is or that the content should be repurposed?
yes, Yes, YES to incorporating the original pkdfans website, started by
Jason Koornick, whom I was lucky enough to meet when he was living in
Burlington, Vermont. Repurposed and reformatted and redesigned and layoutted (!!)….definitely, including the one I had…
Great work with the site. I have to say that every single time. Thanks.
There is a lot of “Fiction Inspired By Philip K. Dick” to be found here: http://www.nesfa.org/Recursion/
Most of that is stories in publications that are not any more in print; seems you are looking for “novels in print” only? Here’s one: Daryl Gregory: “Pandemonium” (ISBN 978-0345501165), available at your local a-shop. And how about “Cardboard Universe, The: A Guide to the World of Phoebus K. Dank” by Christopher Miller (006168636-0). I have to admit that I don’t have either one, but they clearly refer to our Phil.
I do have a little bibliography, including “recursive” stuff. If you let me know what you are looking for above and beyond “novels in print” – there is a number of plays (2?), poems (2-3) and films (3-4) plus the stories (6?) I have – I can provide that in any reasonable format.
As you guessed, the Works In Print section is only for in print items and is more directed at the newer fan to guide them to what’s available to purchase (not used books). Thank you for the two editions to the in print recursive books. I’ve never heard of this genre in literature but I also have an information science background and know recursion from object oriented programming. Thank you for pointing this out to me.
The question of an entire catalog of PKD works plus works studying him plus works about him, where he stars or the themes refer to his ideas has been on my mind. But for right now, the work would be too huge for me to undertake. I do link to two sites http://pkdickbooks.com/ and http://nobosuketagomi.tripod.com/ have a lot of that covered and have been doing it for some time. I’ll keep your offer in mind about your bibliography.
J. Christoph Nolte, you are quite correct about there being Philip K. Dick “fan-fiction” available. I have the book “Cardboard Universe” and intend to eventually write a critical review of it for Patrick Clark’s PKD Otaku…In the meantime, I’m aware of these two places for checking out PKD fan-fiction:
http://www.fanfiction.net
kipplezone.tripod.net/id10.html
I’m proud to have contributed.
There’s a lot to say about this: Firstly, I’m also working on a “comprehensive” bibliography and I know pkdbooks and Umberto Rossi’s site, of course. They are the primary resources on the web. I am focusing on the German stuff, which is MUCH easiert, because there is MUCH less… and it’s easier (and cheaper) to get for me (being based in minimum-15$-shipping+handling-from-the-US-land).
Most of the recursive stuff refered to I would not consider – at least primarily – “fan-fiction”; it is by “proper”, well known authors (Sladek, Zelazny, G. Martin, Le Guin etc.), and is properly published, not by “mere” fans. But that may be question of definition (and trail of to a separate discussion… ).
“The American Book of the Dead” for me seems something on the border worth mentioning; from the a-shop it appears to be “influenced” by Dick (and there’s probably a lot of that… somehow), but not directly refering to him. It may be hard to find the right line here.
And: Great work! Thanks!