16 week (32 session) Class Taught on Zoom, with Special Guests

Dates: Tuesdays & Thursdays, January 30 - May 16, 2024
Hours: 8 pm - 10 pm ET
Admission: $185 Patreon Members / $195 general admission

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will be recorded for those who cannot attend live

Welcome to punk rock literary criticism! This ain’t your parents’ Milton seminar. In tribute to its subject, this homespun class will be an irreverent, funny, authentic, flawed, heartfelt, and hopefully deeply affecting 16-week deep dive into the life and work of Philip K. Dick.

Wanna know what made science fiction’s most enigmatic genius tick? Wanna find the hidden autobiography and obscure literary references in his writing? Take a deep dive into the luminous brilliance of Dick’s fiction and the uncanny weirdness of his life with David Gill, a scholar who has studied PKD for more than two decades, and is currently at work on a full-length biography. The class features an all-star roster of Dick-Head guests including novelist Jonathan Lethem, counter culture thinker Erik Davis, PKD biographer Gregg Rickman, PKD friends (novelist) Tim Powers and ("dark-haired girl") Linda Levy, PKD scholars, Sam Umland, Umberto Rossi, DH Wilson, DE Wittkower (editor of Philip K. Dick and Philosophy), and Gabriel Mckee. 

The sixteen-week zoom, 32 session course will look at the author’s biography, including his traumatic infancy, drug use, and mystical experiences. It will also offer close readings of over a dozen novels, multiple biographies, academic articles, and secondary sources. We will take a deep dive into early short stories like “Roog” and “Progeny,” and novels including Eye in the Sky, The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Martian Time-Slip, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Ubik, A Scanner Darkly and Valis.

David Gill has studied the life and work of Philip K. Dick for more than twenty years. He started his Dick-centric blog, The Total Dick-Head (totaldickhead.blogspot.com) in 2007 and the site has garnered more than a million views since. He teaches writing and literature at San Francisco State University. Gill write footnotes for Dick’s Exegesis (the notes the science fiction author made regarding his ‘mystical experiences’ in the 1970s) published in 2011. In 2012 Gill organized a "Dick-Fest" at San Francisco State University which was attended by more than 130 fans and scholars from all over the world. 

Teacher Writings on Dick: 

• “Philip K. Dick predicted ChatGPT and its grim ramifications.” Salon.com, June 10, 2023.

• "Within You, Without You: Philip and Jane Dick." tor.com, September 21, 2022. 

Teacher Media Appearances on Dick: 

• To the Best of Our Knowledge, NPR radio show, March 4, 2012. Interviewed for segment. “Capturing Philip K. Dick’s Mindbending Fiction on Film.”

• "Philip K. Dick's Masterpiece Years" New York Times, November 22, 2010. Interviewed for article.

• "How Philip K. Dick Can Change Your Life." TheVerge.com, October 1, 2012. Video documentary and article about Dick-fest.

• "They basically stole Phil Dick's pitch: Why Amazon's Man in the High Castle may not please die-hard Dick fans." Salon.com, November 11, 2015. Interviewed for article.