The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick

About the Editors and Annotators

Simon Critchley is Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York. He is the author of many books, including The Faith of the Faithless, to be published in 2012. He is series moderator for “The Stone,” an online philosophy column with the New York Times.

Erik Davis is the author of four books on alternative religion and popular culture, including Techgnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information and Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica. He is pursuing a PhD in religious studies at Rice University and has been writing and lecturing on Philip K. Dick for over twenty years.

Richard Doyle is Professor of English and Information Sciences and Technology at Pennsylvania State University and the author of a trilogy of books on information and the life sciences. The latest, Darwin’s Pharmacy: Sex, Plants, and the Evolution of the Noösphere, was published by the University of Washington Press in 2011.

Steve Erickson is the author of nine novels—including These Dreams of You, to be published in early 2012—as well as editor of the literary journal Black Clock. In November 1990, he wrote the cover story on Philip K. Dick, “California Time-Slip,” for the L.A. Weekly.

David Gill teaches composition and literature at San Francisco State University and runs the popular Philip K. Dick–centric blog, Total Dick-Head (totaldickhead.blogspot.com). He has written about Dick for Article magazine, boingboing, and io9 and lectured about Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? at Harvard and the National Association of Humanities Educators.

N. Katherine Hayles is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies of Literature at Duke University. Her books include How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics and Writing Machines. Her most recent, How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis, will be published in 2012.

Pamela Jackson holds degrees in rhetoric and library and information studies from the University of California, Berkeley and Los Angeles, respectively. Her 1999 dissertation, “The World Philip K. Dick Made,” initiated a decade’s study of Philip K. Dick’s Exegesis. She is also a graduate of Berkeley High School, Philip K. Dick’s only alma mater.

Jeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University. A historian of religions who specializes in the analysis and interpretation of comparative mystical literature, he is the author or co-editor of twelve volumes, including his most recent, Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal.

Jonathan Lethem is the Roy E. Disney Chair in Creative Writing at Pomona College and the author of eight novels and two collections of stories. His writing on Philip K. Dick appears in his essay collections The Disappointment Artist and The Ecstasy of Influence.

Gabriel Mckee is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and the author of The Gospel According to Science Fiction. A theologian concentrating on the intersection of religion and popular culture, he also works as a librarian and archivist specializing in rare books and counterculture ephemera. His first book was Pink Beams of Light from the God in the Gutter: The Science Fictional Religion of Philip K. Dick.